Rinky Dink Officials Locker Rooms
 

:eek: We earlier had the Rinky Dink Gym thread. Let's take this a little further and discuss some of the rinky dink official's locker rooms. My partners and I worked at a small town Iowa town on Monday night. Our locker room had to have been the janitor's supply closet. We had shelves of cleaning supplies and mops and buckets and hoses and light bulbs and....Well you get the idea. We also had one of those 1970's stainless stell hot tubs right inthe middle of the floor as well as a toilet that gurgled and snorted everytime water was turned on inside the building. Plus it had to have been like 90 degrees in there. We nicknamed the room Dr. Kevorkian's closet. Anybody else have any lockerrooms that come close to this???:eek:

I have been to schools that have either done some renovation or are fairly new and they official's locker room is the size of a match book. Now it is one thing when you are dealing with 3 officials in one space, imagine the same room for 5 football officials who in some cases are all not the same size. Many schools that do not have a good "locker room" might put officials in a classroom or coach's office. Most places are never ideal and most are small. The main problem is officials are never thought of when these issues come up. It is that simple.

Peace

I went to a game from work and had a meeting to attend later in the evening. Met the game administrator and was taken to the Band Office. 10 x 14 office between two classrooms, a door on each side with glass windows. I asked where I could shower after the game and was told there were no showers in the entire building. School is only about 6 years old but even the locker rooms only have sinks and toilets. :mad:

i once had a very nice changing room -- with its own built in urinal and very po-mo wall art...everytime i had to lean over though the urinal flushed but it was very trendy

I went to a Jr. High to work a girls game, and asked where we were to dress. The coaches huddled, then decided to put us in the girls PE locker room, "since school is out and nobody will go in there." It just so happened to be parent teacher conference day, and just as I was about to begin stripping down, in walks some 12 yo girl and her mother.

I went and changed in the restroom.

After the game, they moved us into the coaches office in the boys locker room so we could have a shower to use. I'm just about to start stripping down to take a shower, when somebody walks into the boys locker room and hollers for everybody to leave because the visiting team will be changing in there.

The good news is that the shower at home was completely unoccupied and there was plenty of hot water. :D

Husker, where were you that you had to dress in a Janitor's closet? I hope they're not on my schedule:D . The closest I've ever had was a place where we dressed in the kitchen and then there was a shower in the office off the kitchen. Kind of goofy.

I was in a very similar room, except without the toilet and hot tub. So that made it an actual closet. And this was for a post-season HS assignment. Usually when I've worked at that school, they put us in one of the unused lockerooms, but since there were 4 teams there that night, all the lockerooms were being used, and that was the closest place they could find.

I've been in laundry rooms, while the uni's are being washed and dried. I've been in classrooms where there are no blinds on the windows. I've dressed in restrooms. I've been in all sorts of coaches' offices and teachers' lounges. I've come to appreciate the simple pleasures of our own locker room with a separate shower.

Sh!t. JuCo facility in a very affluent county in Maryland. They shoved a couple of lockers and 3 chairs inside the athletic staff's private shower/bathroom. No privacy at all to lighten your load.

Coach's office in the boys locker room during an all-day girls tourney. The girls were using the locker room for team meetings. Luckily, there was a small bathroom attached to the office so I could go in and change there. After the game, I walked in and heard the showers running. Made me a bit nervous.

Junker,

It was in George, Iowa. Way up here in the extreme NW part of the state. The good news is that they have a brand new facility opening up after the first of the year, and with that a new officials locker room. Sure going to miss all the AJAX and light bulbs the next time we go there.

My first game as an official was in Orange City. Not too far. :)

I can't say I've every heard of George. I will add that to my list of towns I tell announcers our crew is from. :D

Hey if you were working up here in the past it just could have been! After all he started his profession in my city.

Just had a boys' JV game (my first) this evening. We changed in one of the janitors' bathrooms (which did have a shower and toilet, but not much room for anything else). Got a bit tight when the varsity guys were in there with us after the JV game (4 in one room) - only afterwards did one of the coaches tell us that they usually put the varsity refs in a different small room so we can have some comfort.

Also must have been over 80 degrees F in there. I actually felt refreshed when going out onto the court.

Rinky Dink Officials Locker Rooms?

Is there another kind? :(

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M&M, Sounds like you and I have been in some very similar places. RR

I was at a Jr. High School the other night and thankfully I didnt live but a block away. When I got to the gym, I asked where could I get dressed. The home coach informed me that he had lost his keys and that all of the doors were lock and I would have to go in the corner and get dressed. Needless to say I told him I would be right back and went to my house and got dressed!

Another brandan sighting. How's it going, Dude? If I were doing a game a block away I'd have gone dressed and carrying my shoes! I always go to games in town already dressed in my uniform.

My first varsity game we changed in the band room. While we are doing our pregame, one of my partners starts playing the drums. Later that year I had my second varsity game at a different school...we changed in the band room.

So far this year...
Jr. High games at a brand new school. They had us change in the PE equipment room right off the gym floor. The room was full of balls, nets, poles, Frisbees, plastic bowling pins, etc (you get the picture). It was also someone's office (desk, phone and computer). Anyway, we finish our games and as my partner is standing with just his underwear on, a cheerleader opens the door and asks if she can have a basketball to shoot with. My partner says, "Excuse me?". She looks at him and repeats the question. He again says, "Excuse me?". Finally, she realizes he's in his underwear and walks out (but doesn't shut the door).

High school. Had to change in the weight room. Used the Smith machine as a closet rod to hang up my pants and jacket. While sitting on a bench (used for bench press), I turned and banged my shin on a bar that's used when you do leg exercises (I did that at least four times that night).

A little hot water goes a long ways in my book, that's all I really ask for. Well, that and a place to access my POD. :D

Refnrev, Thanks for asking. I have been doing great. I am out of school for Christmas, thank God! Even when I do have in town games, for some reason, I dont like to go dressed, I rather get dressed at game site.

:) Brandan

Junker,

George-Little Rock won the Iowa Boys' Class 1A state basketball championship last year. They defeated Bellevue-Marquette. Central Lyon/George-Little Rock won the Class 2A football championship this season, defeating Solon.

That's nothing!

A few years ago I moved 1 hour away and joined the local association. I was doing something like my 10th V game for this association at a gym in a small town outside of the main town. It was around Hallowe'en, so there were decorations everywhere. I walk into the gym very early and a student tells me where the changeroom is. So I'm in there by myself and I'm changing - almost in my birthday suit, when in comes a female student! She sees me, I have the deer look, and she acts as if nothing is going on. Turns out I was in the female changeroom. Decorations were covering the doors and I took the word of the first student which room was which.

There's one small private school here in Portland where you actually have to duck down to get through one very short door, to walk into a sort of crawl space under the stairs, and stay ducking down as you then walk into the ref's changing room. It's not at all easy for anyone with claustrophobia. Once you get in there, you see a couple of sort of okay rooms with a shower.... and a door into the main dressing room!! They leave that door locked so that the players don't wander in on the refs.

Here's a holiday joke on that subject. What did the other reindeer say to Rudolph after he landed on top of Santa?

You look like a deer caught in head lice. :p

You sure that you weren't in RockyRoad's office?

It's hit and miss here. I was at a school the other day that while I was in the brand-new shower (the shower head was literally at my chest) two girls walked in and went to the bathroom. Another school last night that was only about 7 yrs old and had a nice dressing room with lockers and a shower but was built for 2 officials. Now we have 3 varsity officials dressing in there and the 3 from the JV game came in while we were getting finished - they waited in the hall. We have another school that actually put some forethought into the officials locker room. It actually has nice furnature and looks like a country club locker room with several bathroom stalls and 2 showers, it has a clock inside that is sync'd to the floor clock and even has a sign on the door that says OFFICIALS and underneath has it written in braille!

Not only the size of the officials room, but, we have a local
one and the difficulity is getting to it....
Down stairs, thru the boys locker room, thru the shower, and
into the small officials room.
After the j.v. game is completed and the guys are in the shower,
the varsity officials have the players shut the showers down so
they can pass..
One of my fellow officials rates the schools by the shower room itself.

I worked a Christmas tournament last year -- 2 varsity games played back to back with 2 crews hired. We were given the room traditionally given to the JV officials -- a crawl space under a flight of stairs. Nice folks at the school, but the worst changing area I've had in 20 years. No shower nearby, either.

Must have been an official on the committee that designed it; nice.
And braille? Now that's funny, even if it was meant to appease the ADA requirements.

We have found that schools with great traditions often (but not always) have classy systems in place when working with officials. One such school gives us our own locker room for our FB crew, a cooler full of pop and water, assorted snacks, a meat/cheese tray, etc. We also have a personal escort (not a cheerleader, you sick-os) who leads us to and from the field and makes sure we have what is needed. We sign that contract every time, in spite of the distance involved because that school makes the whole experience a lot of fun. We also have plenty of schools where we have to walk from the building to the field, and at the end of the game, the key holder is nowhere in sight.

Can't Complain
 

After reading this thread I really can't complain. Most of the schools have nice ref facilities at the varsity level. 10 of the schools have a ref room, 5 uses the AD's office, 2 use another room for the officials. All have showers for the officials. The biggest complaint is space when you have 5 refs in there (2 JV) 3 Varsity.

Sounds nice PIAA where do you officiate?

I don't think it's fair to call an official "rinky dink". But why does he have his own locker room?
:rolleyes: