I met a jewel of an official last night.

[LarryS]

My son started officiating last year to pick up a little extra cash (he is now in his last year of grad school). Becasue of a change in his class schedule, he only worked about 12 games last year...basically a rookie. I went and watched him work two games last night at an area tournament (JV Girls). I am sitting at the top of the bleachers, as far away from the parents as I can get and trying my best to honestly evaluate his performance…just in case he ask for feedback.

As he and his partner are heading off the floor between games, he waves for me to join them. He introduces me to his partner and tells him I am also an official and have been in the chapter 5 years. His partner then asks for comments on what I observed. I hesitated, but when my son also asked, adding “I’ll have something to work on next game” and his partner adds “I’ve been doing this for 14 years and still get mostly JV, I could probably us the feedback as well”

OK…what the heck. I start talking about mechanics, mostly about the new team control mechanic, the “Texas exception” on a sideline throw in below FT line extended and start to mention a few specifics to my son. His partner interrupts and ask what I thought of their foul calling. I said I was sitting in the top row of the bleacher…much different angle, not really applicable. Then he ask me to rate their performances on 1-10 scale…I give my son a 6 and tell him why and his partner a 7 “because from what I could see from up there your foul calling was better”. He gets a little angry and asks why…I tell him he never raised his hand at T on free-throws…never had a visible 10 or 5 second count…bounced the ball across the lane on a throw in while at L…and walked a lot. He started trying to justify his conduct and said “these are just JV coaches.”

That was it, I said “You have 14 years experience. You should be setting the example for the newer officials and you asked for an evaluation of your performance. That attitude is probably why you are working a JV schedule after 14 years. Oh, by the way, those two men sitting over there…they are the varsity basketball coaches at this school. You just blew a chance to make a good impression.” He mumbles something about letting the assignment secretary know I was bad mouthing officials as he walked away. I called the secretary on the drive home to make a pre-emptive strike. He just laughed and said I “rated him better than anyone in the chapter” and told me to sleep well.

Why do people ask for an evaluation if they do not want to hear the truth?

[Adam]

Because he likes his jv schedule.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by LarryS

I said “You have 14 years experience.

You were wrong. He's got one year of experience fourteen times.

Btw, hopefully your son will stick with the officiating. Every association needs good, young officials.

[mick]

LarryS,
Good post.
Good lesson.
Brutal honesty just doesn't work for everyone.

[Adam]

LarryS,
I would add not to second guess yourself for giving him the feedback. He asked for it, and it's on him to take it like a man. I, for one, would hate to have someone not give me feedback because some yutz before me had responded like an a$$ to his feedback before.

[refnrev]

LarryS,
Let's be honest here. He didn't want your feedback, he wanted you to tell him that he did a great job and did better than your son so he could go home happy. A few of the things you mentioned are just lazy habits that drive me crazy, but in lower games you see it all of the time. Bouncing the ball across the lane is the biggest one. How hard is it to take a few steps and switch... but we've all worked with partners who are set up down court and don't want to switch sides or properly keep them boxed in. I'm not clear as to why anyone wouldn't do something as simple as the T on free throws. As for not giving a visible five or ten count, did he know what he was supposed to be doing and what was he doing instead? And walking.... unless you have a very slow girls game he's slowing things down and not getting to proper areas on time. You know what you have... either a lazy official who has gotten real complacent or an uninformed official who just doesn't know better... like guys who show up in Byron collar shirts and dont know the rules. Making calls is one thing. But bad mechanics are just bad mechanics and anyone who knows the game can see them.

[zebraman]

As others have said, he either didn't really want your honest feedback or he just wanted you to tell him he was doing a perfect job.

I can pick up on a person like that real quick. I just stop at that point rather than letting it get to a negative situation like it sounds like happened. I will gladly help those who want to improve but I'm not going to waste my time on somebody like him.

When he started justifying everything you pointed out, (IMO) you should have just said, "you're doing fine" and not said another word to him at that point.

He isn't going to use anything you say anyway and it isn't worth your time.

[Corndog89]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

You were wrong. He's got one year of experience fourteen times.

Btw, hopefully your son will stick with the officiating. Every association needs good, young officials.

What a great line! I hope you don't mind if I use it.