How much do you talk?

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by btaylor64

Why is it that anytime someone who says they work college, or anything other than that you have to know what they do?

Well, I was just kind of wondering. After all, as of about 2 months ago, you had never worked a high school game of any kind. And I gotta say that a lot of your posts seem to lack a basic knowledge of some very fundamental rules and mechanics. That's jmo though, which really doesn't mean anything anyway either.

Btw, I'm no longer wondering though.

[Dan_ref]

Originally Posted by btaylor64

Now don't be bringing in any of your college stuff to the HS game, people around here don't like that. Naughty, Naughty

Where's 'around here'?

[zebraman]

Originally Posted by M&M Guy

One of the most important parts of our game, as officials, should be communication. Working NCAA-W, they have constantly reminded us that we need to signal and verbalize between partners, and I've tried to incorporate a lot of these ideas into my HS game as well. For example, the proper procedure on a violation is, stop clock, signal, direction, throw-in spot. We are told to verbalize things with our partners, such as, "Throw-in spot is right here, Tom", as we leave to go to our new spot. If there's a TO, we should all know as a crew where the ball is to be put in play even before the TO is reported to the table. If my partner has a shooting foul, I will try to tell them, "I've got your shooter, Tom" before they go report to the table. Before we shoot FT's, all three members of the crew will signal whether it's 1, 2, or 3 shots, so there are no mis-understandings and corectable error situations. When I call a foul, I usually verbalize as well, "White, 23, 2 shots". This way my partners will know what's going on rather than looking at each other wondering while I wander to the table.

I tend to verbalize quite a bit during a game, mostly to communicate to my partners and the table. Of course, there's the occasional communication with a player, coach, cheerleader, etc....

All good stuff, but this isn't "college stuff.'' Our good HS officials around here do all of the above.

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by zebraman

All good stuff, but this isn't "college stuff.'' Our good HS officials around here do all of the above.

I realize that, but maybe I needed to be a little more clear. This is stuff I have learned through college-level camps; some of the mechanics are specific to NCAA-W, but they can also be used at the HS level. I wish some of this would be taught at more HS camps. Going back to tomegun's original post, I can understand some of his frustration, because I have also worked with officials that blow their whistle, move to the next spot, and "assume" the rest of know what's going on. Communication before, during, and after a game is critical, and it doesn't seem like it's emphasized as much at the HS level.

[blindzebra]

For me, and I tell this to every inexperienced official, you need a good whistle and voice.

Our job is all about 3 things:

1. Judgment

2. Communication

3. Game management

Number two greatly impacts both one and three.