Camps for dummies?

[JRutledge]

Be prepared for anything off the court. If you think for just a second that you will have to be in a suit, bring the suit.

Bring the resume if you have it. Just do not bring it out until someone asks for it.

When an evaluator is talking and you are watching, listen to what they have to say. Do not just sit back as if you are not interested in the conversation or the point that is being made. You can learn more about what to do by what evaluators say to other officials than.

Do not have a lot of side conversations which might be misinterpreted. For example, do not talk a lot about what is going on during other official's games. Focus on what is taking place and do not say a word. No one cares what your opinion is about a missed call or mechanic that is used. That can be perceived as if you are bad mouthing your fellow campers or that you are disagreeing with what the evaluators are teaching.

Just get used to the fact that you will be told different things from one evaluator and then something totally different from another evaluator. Nod your head and agree and do not make this a big deal. Not everyone comes from the exact same background and experience. If you are told something from an individual, they are sharing what works for them. It very well might not work for you or the other evaluators. Also do not go around telling everyone that two evaluators told you something different. If you have learned nothing from this site you can see how different many of us feel about officiating and what our role is.

This might not sound like a big deal, but if the camp director wants you to pay them a specific way, pay them a specific way. I was at a camp last year and I had worked some games before attending this camp and I was given a solid $50 bill. I was attending a one day camp that was run by a D1 assignor. I was the first one at the camp and when the assignor/camp director started taking money I gave him this $50. He made it clear that he did not want to make change and wanted people to give him in cash the exact amount. He made a comment in front of everyone at the camp, "You might just get hired yet." In talking later to a mentor of mine (who happens to work for this D1 assignor in his conference and worked his first NCAA Tournament game this year) he told me that I was #1 in that camp at the very beginning. The only reason I would have fell below number one is if I did something wrong during the camp. Now I did not think I had any realistic chance to get hired, but the point my mentor was trying to make is that I followed instructions. Amazingly a lot of other campers gave the camp director/assignor three $20 bills or other money that did not equal an exact $50. You could tell he was not happy with that either.

The best way to put it these camps are job interviews. Even if the camp is an "instructional" camp, you do not want to take yourself off the radar because you screwed something up during the camp or give the wrong impression of what you are about.

I hope some of this helps.

Peace

[refTN]

Don't get me wrong you have to be able to referee with a crap to get hired, but I think throughout camp you are off the floor in front of the evaluators more than you are on it in front of the evaluators. I always tell my boys "come clean", meaning look better than presentable. At the entry level SEC camp I went to we were in the Military. We had shorts that came half way up our thighs and it had the SEC logo on it. They gave us two SEC logoed T-shirts and we had to wear this everywhere we went with the shirt tucked in. At the other camps I would wear athletic wear with it tucked in. For example I might wear khaki shorts with some kind of nice nike T-shirt or polo. I might wear my nike shorts with a nike T or polo.

All in all just look better than presentable and have a great meet and greet personality. I always say evaluators are like coaches looking for that one bench player, the one that doesn't hurt you when you play him, doesn't hurt you in the locker room, or hurt and badly reflect what kind of team character he or she is trying to build and obtain.

[ChuckElias]

Originally Posted by refTN

you have to be able to referee with a crap to get hired.

I don't even know what to say about this. . .

As to the original question, tho, I will agree with Dan. Be professional, but be yourself. As Dan will tell you, I'm not smart enough to copy someone else's style and pull it off. So I kind of have to be myself. But if you try to sound better than you are or if you try to be something you're not, it won't work, IMHO. Your work on the court will tell the evaluators what they need to know, so just go and do your best and try to have a little fun (very hard to do when you're trying to get hired, I know).