Pre Game

[icallfouls]

Originally Posted by zebraman

I agree that "never" is too restrictive. There are times when an official's primary or secondary coverage area might be in front of a partner. That being said, I think Dave Dow's evaluator probably meant that you should not call a travel that is right in front of your partner when it is not in your primary or secondary coverage area. And I agree (with the exception of an occasional sub-varsity game when I am helping train a brand new official who needs my help in his/her area).

The assignors I work for expect an official to be able to call an obvious travel in their own area. In the end-of-game situation that you bring up, they would want to know why the responsible official missed the obvious travel. They would not want the other two officials ball watching out of their areas.

My assignors expect the other two officials to trust their partners and watch their own areas. What's the point of having 3 officials on the floor if we are all watching the same thing? Who is watching the other 8 players?

Calling a travel that is out of your primary or secondary coverage area is a great way to expose yourself as a ball watcher.

Z

Agreed, just merely pointing out that there are exceptions and we must train our brain to recognize them.

Alot of newer officials get told "stay out of my area" and then, when they are on a crew where they are the "veteran," they don't make the adjustment. This is the type of call/no call that can hurt an officials career/confidence (or adversely affects the game), but the intent to respect the primary of another official was coming from a good place because it is so ingrained on them.