Have you ever worked a high school varsity game in your life, refTN? How many? How many different states have you worked varsity high school games in?

How much experience do you actually have to make such a blanket statement condemning <b>all</b> high school officials?

I await your reply before commenting further.

On second thought, I'll edit this and comment further. On July 20th, you finally admitted after being questioned that you're 19 years old and you've never done a high school varsity game in your <b>life</b>. Don't you think that maybe before you start telling everybody how bad high school officials are that it maybe might be a good idea to actually officiate a varsity high school game? Or maybe even a <b>few</b> varsity high school games?

I realize that you plan on skipping high school ball completely and go direct to the NBA or even the ......wait for it....SEC, but I really don't think that you have the experience or knowledge to tell all the fine high school officials around the <b>whole</b> country what a bad job thay are currently doing at calling traveling.



[Edited by Jurassic Referee on Sep 10th, 2005 at 03:22 PM]

I do apologize. I didn't mean to act like I was condeming all the basketball officials in the high school ranks. I saw what I wrote when I submitted it, but i was just hoping, and I don't know why, that everyone would think I was talking about my area. I should have realized that alot of the officials on here ref in different states in a high school season.

Yes if I could choose I would really love to ref college and skip high school, but I can't officiate college until I graduate, but I have been thinking about dropping out of school so I can do it.

I apologize again about the comment.

Well, I suppose pigs may fly...

Apology noted, refTN. However I just can't believe either that the majority of Tennessee officials doing high school ball are really doing such a poor job identifying and calling traveling. I feel that your remarks may be doing them a dis-service also. That's just my opinion though and I'm not in or from Tennessee. I also have to place on the record my feelings that someone whose total officiating experience basically consists of a few middle school games isn't really qualifed to be making such judgements about their fellow officials anyway. Again, that's just my opinion though. Don't mind me. Just put me down as another grumpy old guy and ignore me.

I think you think that all I have done, is middle school games and regular season ones at that. I have done finals games of 16 and under aau boys and girls. I have reffed NBA players. Although I have never officiated a high school regular season game, I have reffed better and more athletic players than the ones I will ref in the regular season. I understand where your coming from though. I have watched in the last year alone where late in the game a high school official miscalled a walk when it never was.

Ex. I was at my alma mater, and we are horrible but had a chance to win. There is about 2 seconds left when a player on our team gets the ball, takes a power dribble to the hole. the defender keeps following the ball in the offenseive players hands instead of staying in between the man and the goal. So our player pivots a 180 degrees comes off his pivot by taking a big step to go underneath the basket, but never puts the pivot foot back down until it is out of his hand, and they call a walk and then the horn sounds. That is never a walk in grammar school, high school, college, NBA. We (i mean my area) rarely get that call right.

I can see someone saying I'm bad though, because if I see something that, to me, is inconclusive and I could not discern whether it was or was not a walk, I let it go,and I can see where someone would say that what I am doing is wrong by not calling it. Once again I guess it just the philosophy that your assosciation has, and I don't fully know my assosciation's philosophies yet, but I will hopefully understand them by the start of the season this year.

Yup, I see. All of the high school officials in your area in Tennessee just plain suck. They screwed your old alma mater, eh? Well, hopefully sometime in the future you'll be able to straighten out all of those incompetent clowns.

Use your knowledge wisely, refTN. It's a gift not to be wasted on the unworthy.

Overall I am just saying I wish we would put more emphasis on what is and what is not a walk.

I guess I will have to respectfully "agree to disagree" with those that maintain that the NBA and NFHS Traveling Rule is identical.

When I learned the difference, I had to draw little "stick men" to get it to register. That said, some NBA players are so quick (Iverson) that when I run some of his moves back on SloMo......I can't tell wether it is a travel or not?

I'm from the Boston Area, Tommy Heinsohn who I respected greatly as a Coach announces the Celts. He use to allude to McHale traveling. Tommy would say,

"Kevin got away with a walk on that one."

I thought McHale had the best footwork of any pivot player ever. I never saw him travel. He'd pivot...fake...pivot...fake and then pick up his pivot and release the ball for a shot before the pivot foot returned to the floor. (It could have been a pass or a shot but with Kevin it was ALWAYS a shot:)) I was always a little disappointed that Heinshon didn't know the specifics of the rule.

But few Coaches do....my son attended a Camp once by a very Senior Mass HS Coach. The fellow was teaching the Drop Step Move. Meet the ball...catch it in the air...land on two feet....big step with non-pivot foot....lift pivot foot and shoot or pass before it returns to the floor. The Coach was teaching the kids to "RETURN IT TO THE FLOOR" and jump off two feet! Everyone that coaches owes it to his kids to go to Ref School once.