Multi-sports officials!

[AK ref SE]

Just curious! What is the overall opinion on Multi-sport officials! Officiating more than one sport make you a better official or not?

I will give opinion after a couple responses!!!!

AK ref SE

[JugglingReferee]

I'm in my 6th year as a basketball official.

I'm starting my 4th as a football official. I only got into football because "they needed people - bad". Of course, having gone to camps after my first year of basketball, I quickly learned about game management, etc... and was able to take that to football.

Last season (June - November) was a stellar year for me in terms on football. Because of what I had learned in basketball, I've been given some very high regards in my football officiating. The most noticeable - my slow and clear preliminary signals, then the "real" signal after the choice has been given.

My decision making on fouls is getting better, but I'm also a person that had never even seen a football game before I started to officiate. My decision making is not bad by any means, I just tend to call a little more than the average official.

So, I think being a quality basketball official has helped my tremedously in football. The question now is, has it hindered my basketball officiating development?

I'd say no, but others say yes. If I have a bad game in football, I don't let that carry over to basketball. And vice versa. I don't do sooo many games in a week, say, that I get all referee'd out - my mental awareness is still there.

I'm sure I could write more - but Star Trek is on. I might be back.

[mick]

Originally posted by AK ref SE
Just curious! What is the overall opinion on Multi-sport officials! Officiating more than one sport make you a better official or not?

I will give opinion after a couple responses!!!!

AK ref SE

AK ref SE,
I primarily work Diamonds and Hoops.
Tools learned in one place are used in the other game.
I know each of my sports is better, because I work the other.
Besides all those books are such fun reads!
mick

[Kelvin green]

I agree... each sport helps each other. I have been in games with football (3rd year) that if I hadnot done basketball for so long I could not have handled it. I laso have done rec softball, but gave that up. I am thinking about Lacrosse...

Besides football has taught me about clipping, pass interference, and chop blocking so now if we go to those rules in basketball I can call them with ease.

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by Kelvin green
Besides football has taught me about clipping, pass interference, and chop blocking so now if we go to those rules in basketball I can call them with ease.

When they need a clipping rule for basketball, I"m done!

[AK ref SE]

I started out officiating basketball only. I have picked up a few other sports. In the two areas I have lived we have a shortage of officials in all sports. I have been told doing several sports hurts your primary sport. I do not agree with this. It helps me with game management skills. Each sport has its different tolerance levels with coaches. As long as you do not burn yourself out, I think it is healthy.

AK ref SE

[BktBallRef]

Originally posted by rainmaker
When they need a clipping rule for basketball, I"m done!

It's called an intentional foul in baksetball! Had one Saturday morning!

[BktBallRef]

I work football and basketball. I think they complement each other well. Football is much more difficult as far as mastering the rules but it's easier to officiate than basketball. You work one position for the entire game and repeatedly do the exact same things over and over again.

Certain things carry over from FB to BB. 3 examples:

1- You have a specific area of the field to work, even moreso than basketball. When the play goes to the opposite side of the field, my whistle drops out of my mouth. No reason for me to blow if the balls 30 yards away. Of course, I have to keep an eye on any players still on my side of the field. Obviously, that carries over to BB.

2- In football, the whistle doesn't go into your mouth until the ball is snapped. As I said, if the play goes the other way, you let it drop. I think that's help me learn to wait an extra second before blowing the whistle in BB. But it's tough, in November, to remember to keep that whistle in your mouth when you've been holding it in your hand or just letting it drop for the previous 3 months!

3- I work the sideline as a line judge. The home coach is usually in my ear, but in a different way than a BB coach is. They're usually asking questions or asking for an rule interpretation. I think working the sideline has helped me learn to deal with BB coaches and be more approachable.

I'll be starting my third season with the same crew this fall. The comraderie that you develop with the same 5 guys working together every Friday night is unique. You're a crew. There isn't a better crew. What happens in the crew stays in the crew. You don't speak badly of anyone on your crew. You don't tolerate anyone else talking badly about someone on your crew. But more than anything else, it's a lotta fun!

WHEW! That was long!

[JRutledge]

I will take an official that does several sports over someone that does one any day. Not because I think officials that do more than one sport are automatically better, but they tend to have better people skills and better game management skills. If you did 10 years of one sport, how are you going to tell me that the officials that did 5 years of 3 different sports or more did not get a heavy dose of game management.

Maybe I am bias, but I feel that I am a much better basketball official because I have to deal with coaches in other sports. I have been a Head Linesman or Side Judge in Football. A baseball umpire for the same amount of time practically, and because the situations are much different than basketball, by the time I do a basketball game nothing phases me.

In Football you have to answer for the crew. You will not even have made a call or know what was called, but if you are on the sidelines, you have to come up with some kind of answer. You will hear it for things you did not even do or call.

In Baseball it is acceptable to argue and hold up the game for close judgement calls. Not balls and strikes, but they will argue out and safe situations. And the good umpires know how to difuse a problem before it gets even hotter.

And in basketball which I feel by far is the hardest sport to officiate of all because the game can go on and on without a major break in it. You are getting yelled at for calls and no calls. You have contact but you think it is not a foul, but the crowd, the coach, the players think differently. Even the minor contact someone thinks something should be called.

Because I have those different perspectives and different views of handling coaches, I feel it makes me a better all around official. And after learning to take so much crap all year round, it makes your skin thicker and more aware of situations before they get out of hand.

But that is my opinion.

Peace

[Brian Watson]

I have worked basketball, volleyball, and track for years. I firmly feel that they helped me mature as an official faster, and that I learned how to handle game sitchs much better.

One of the big knocks I have on some rooks is their game management. I see many throwing gas on the fire, than trying to cool the coach off. A subtle skill they need to learn, but cannot be taught in a classroom.

I think the exposure you get to different coaches helps how or how fast you move up. If you can show you can handle intense situation uin one sport, AD's might give you a shot in another. At least that was my experience.

I also have some experience to back this up. I took up lacrosse this year because they are really, really, squeezed for officials, and it looked like a good way to stay in shape and avoid summer ball. I had never seen the game, but I was ahead of the curve. I needed to learn rules and mechanics (Which are a hybrid of basketball and football IMO), but most coaches complimented me on my game management and professionalism. If I was not an official in other sports I doubt that would have happened. And it fosters good will when they think you can manage a game well.

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by Brian Watson
I have worked basketball, volleyball, and track for years. I firmly feel that they helped me mature as an official faster, and that I learned how to handle game sitchs much better.

One of the big knocks I have on some rooks is their game management. I see many throwing gas on the fire, than trying to cool the coach off. A subtle skill they need to learn, but cannot be taught in a classroom.

I think the exposure you get to different coaches helps how or how fast you move up. If you can show you can handle intense situation uin one sport, AD's might give you a shot in another. At least that was my experience.

I also have some experience to back this up. I took up lacrosse this year because they are really, really, squeezed for officials, and it looked like a good way to stay in shape and avoid summer ball. I had never seen the game, but I was ahead of the curve. I needed to learn rules and mechanics (Which are a hybrid of basketball and football IMO), but most coaches complimented me on my game management and professionalism. If I was not an official in other sports I doubt that would have happened. And it fosters good will when they think you can manage a game well.

I totally agree. I did a full season of football before my first season of basketball. Even thought I did not know everything much about the mechanics in basketball, but being a Line Judge on my football crew and having to deal with coaches complain about everything I did and what my partners did, I was very seasoned for the basketball season. And when I did my first baseball and softball season at the end of that school year, I looked like the best baseball umpire around. My first baseball game ever was a varsity game. I had no clue what I was doing. But because of my demeanor and game management skills I had recieved from the previous football and basketball seasons, many coaches and AD's tell me how good they felt I was. Now was I that good, not really but I was able to carry myself in such a way and had experience with other rules and studying those rules, that I was better at carrying over some of the same principles.

And when you do varsity in one sport, well they AD's usually assume you are prepared to do varsity in another. So I did get varsity games in basketball and baseball because I did varsity in football my first year.