That is exactly what I meant by that statement. Some men's officials look down at women's officials as second rate and being a women's official I take offense to that. I have worked very hard and attended numerous camps to climb up the college officiating ladder. The women's side can also be quite competitive to get hired, the camps I attend have anywhere from 150-175 officials in attendance. If you choose men’s or women’s basketball just be proud that you are a college basketball official, some officials never get work a varsity game let alone a NCAA D3, D2, or D1 game.

Hitting on me?:confused:

Musta missed that one.....which was probably good.:D

The moderators didn't. I searched for it but it was deleted. No evidence means it never happened. :)

Current thought seems to think this is not a choice, but that it's pre-determined. "Not that there's anything wrong with it."

Thanks, Chuck.
But, I was talking about camaraderie.

Yeah, yeah. It's so cold here that my numb fingers couldn't find the extra "a". :p

He's just a hair shorter than me!! :p

And Junker, I was in the same position about 12 years ago...I chose Women's ball mainly for the camaraderie issue...at that time, the Men's side of things out here was kind of a mess. None of the officials would travel together, none went out to dinner after games...everything was a big pi$$ing match...that's not true anymore, but at the time I wanted no part of that.

One thing I will disagree with is that Women's ball is not as physical...that may be true in some cases, but some of the most brutal ball I have reffed has been lower level college women's ball!

Which, btw, makes lower level college women's ball not the best training grounds for most other refs, imo. I wen't to quite a few games at a local college here near where I live, and I always left more confused than I was when I went in (which is really saying something!) In my first few years, I didn't understand the variations in philosophy between the different levels and how to apply advantage/disadvantage to the different styles of game. I finally quit watching college women's ball (anything not on TV), because it was so different from what I was doing that I couldn't learn much. I'm not saying not to watch it, just to realize that the styles of reffing are much, much different.

Yeah, this one....

http://www.vegalleries.com/wbopc/51bugs.jpg

If you are that concerned with what people think about you, then that is a problem all by itself. You are never going to change how people view one side or the other. I worked a tournament that happened to be associated with a Women's D1 camp. I was working games for pay next to games that were apart of the camp. I heard officials get so defensive when you I told them I did not work Women's basketball. I heard comments like, "Women's basketball is the real basketball the way Naismith wanted the game to be called." Or comments like, "We use the NBA mechanics and you are still living in the past." No matter what you say officials are very territorial about which side they work. I will say this, most the Women's officials that I know as a whole tend to be less experienced then their Men's official’s counterparts. I know female officials that worked college within their 2 and 3 years of overall officiating that have D3 experience. I have been working 10 years and I have yet to get a shot at the D3 level along with many other officials I have worked with. And the JUCO conference I work, I am by far one of the least experienced officials around. You have to be confident in your own ability and your own choice. This is why this is completely a personal choice and you cannot officiate one side or the other based on what others are thinking.

Peace

JRut,

So you were at the ABOC Camp in Elgin, IL?

Now playing first base, Bugs Bunny. Second base, Bugs Bunny. Third base, Bugs Bunny. . .Wham! A homah! WHAM! Anothah homah! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!!!

Sorry, wrong thread. :) But it is one of my all-time favorite cartoons.

I was at the Nike Cup for two days (in July) in Schaumburg at the Sport Center. I have no idea what camp it was, I was not a camper. I did talk to campers and I also knew some of them personally and there were sites at Elgin and one other place I do not remember. I just know it was run by Patty Broderick from all accounts.

Peace

Rut,
I know a girl who might have been at that camp. She moved to Vegas 4 seasons ago and had to work at getting varsity games. She recently moved to Indianapolis because she is now in several conferences and had 70 D1 games this season the last time I talked to her.

I did not work with any campers. Everyone I worked with was getting paid and we worked 2 man for all of our games. There were officials there that were all over the country. Patty assigns officials from all over the country in several conferences.

Another reason Women's basketball is very different from Men's basketball, is the fact that the people that assign Division 1 Conferences in Women's basketball can impress basically one person and they are in. In Men's Basketball you have to impress one person per conference. The one person that I am aware of that has multiple conferences similar to the system in Women's basketball is Dale Kelley. This affects greatly who moves up and who does not.

Peace