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?