Did my one very young grade school game of the season this week. I always do one every year for a school that gave me a lot of games when I was just getting started years ago. Had a partner I'd never seen before. I didn't know it could get this bad. I knew I might be in trouble when I saw the white shoes. Turns out that they were the highlight of the night. When the game was finished I shook his hand and said, "Enjoyed it," then went out to my truck and sat there for a moment in disbelief. Every time I looked up all night long -- live ball or dead -- I never knew where he was going. All mechanics were wrong. Goofy calls. Out of position all night. I even granted a time out, went to the center line to report it to the table and while I was waiting for the teams to get to their respective bench areas the guy walks in from the other side of the court, steps in front of me, and reports the TO. I never knew what was going to happen next. I started to try to offer some pointers at the half but I realized this guy was as "happy as a clam" the way he was doing it. Made me appreciate the people who work hard on doing a good job. Also, without trying to sound cocky and arrogant I realized just how much I have learned from good officials over the years and how hard I work at officiating a good game and being professional every time I step on the floor.

Yeah I'm guessing this guy was new. I always thank the older guys for putting up with me. I am getting to be a decent ref and am getting better games, but man.
Story
Last week in the rec league I work in I was working with a first time ref only his 4 or 5th game. It was so bad at halftime of the game I told him that he should put his whistle in his mouth, and well by the end of the game i think he blew the whistle. I don't remeber being that bad. but I'm sure I wasn't and am not great. Thanks to all you vetren guys who put up with me

Nope, he's not new.

I guess their comes a time when an assignor just has to sit a crappy ref down and say hey, this just isant for you. Its not fair to who ever he is working with. If he has been around for a while it seems like maybe his time has come.

acctually, I have an even worse example.

We had a tournament for small players (boys-94/95) and we were 3 "old" refs and 3 new educated once. And one of these, poor guy
All game, he ran looking at the ball (ok, lots of people do I suppose, but there's more), the problem was, he never ever blew the whistle, not once! A guy came running past him, and he was a good 2 meters (almost 7 feet) outside the lane! And he didn't blow, a defender stopped the dribbler using a grab in his jersey, throwing him to the floor, a meter from were the official stood, he didn't blow it.

He listens when you tell him, but he doesn't change, and with this extreme referee shortage (we only have 20 refs for the senior series, and nobody to ref the other 20 divisions of youth in diffrent ages (clubs come up with anybody they can get, if there is one, coaches might have to ref there own game)!

And the worst is, this guy hasn't changed yet, and he's done another 5 games now, if he blows the whistle twice (on throw ins) it's a great game for him (he doesn't blow on throw ins either, he just points, usually the wrong way *sighs*)

anybbody got tips on how to speed up the learning a bit, I uually tell the new officials to blew 3 minutes left to game and such, just to get them to blow the whistle once, that usually helps (and it also shows them before the game that they will be in the center evry time somebody hears that whistle, evrybody will be looking at them, they have to get used to it sooner or later)

Refnrev, I feel for you. Those nights can be long & it seems that the clock doesn't move fast enough for you. I have been there & done that with some partners. Its no fun!