Yes. And, that's a good point. If an official is going to be "bribed" by a bottle of water, what's going to happen with the $50 check?

I remember an AAU or BCI game where all the girls on one team were white and the other team was all black. Parent's of one team said we made bad calls against the white team because we didn't think white kids could play basketball ! The other parents said we were racist cheating the black team because we were white ! .....I hate those summer leagues where the parents are just too close to the court !

All the kids and coaches were well-behaved though and we all laughed about the over-zealous parents.....

Some schools provide water. Some schools don't. Some schools pay at the game site. Some schools don't. Some schools do both. Some schools do neither. Some schools have showers that take 3 days to get warm. Some schools have hot water right away. Some schools have no showers. I've got better things to do than to take out a spread sheet to see which schools do the most.

So now the game fee is $x plus a hot shower?

Last night was a game that was fun.

Somehow the assigner for high school, NAIA and JUCO were all on the same page and I'm working with a particular partner (the one who was called a racist) a lot during the second half of the season. Last night was our third game together in a row and we had a good game in New Orleans. The coaches were good to work for, the players played hard and the game was up and down. It probably helps tha
t this is a rivalry game, the two teams practice/play in the same gym because of the hurricane and there has been some trash talk that the coaches didn't want to escalate.

Oh, it was also nice to get paid twice as much too! :D

It was good to leave the gym with a better feeling than I did the other night.

One more thing. The coach from our game on Friday night was complaining about the fouls and he made the statement, "I will fix that on Monday." Of course my partner gave him a T. What the coach was referring to was his ability to scratch officials and/or rip and official in the ratings. Whoever thought of this was smoking something and this system sucks. It has been my experience that many high school coaches are neither knowledgeable enough or remain unbiased enough to give officials fair and realistic ratings. It becomes a weapon and a threat to control officials. Add the fact that they can complain without sending tape and you have a bad situation all the way around. I might ref my way out of high school basketball here, but I will do it with integrity and by doing the right thing for the game.

Coaches like that will soon run out of officials. I agree with you about keeping your integrity. There have been nights that I've been tempted to walk out before the game was over and tell them to keep the freakin' check because it just wasn't worth it.

They might run out of <b>good</b> officials, but they won't run out of officials. They will be left with the people that are afraid to make a tough but correct call. Unfortunately.

IMO, 20% would be fair and honest in their rating, 60% would rate you higher if they won and lower if they lost, and 20% would nail you even if they won if there was a call that stuck in their head that they didn't like.

We all have heard the horror stories of coaches putting in names of officials they want for the playoffs that have retired or were even dead.

No system should allow coaches more than 10-15% of the overall rating system for officials...maybe we should have input for their job evaluations with their schools?

The 2A christian schools were the best, one always had a goody basket in the dressing room with cookies, chips and fruit.

Holiday tournaments are really good too, all schools hosting have a hospitality room.

Hands down the best school I've been to was in Paola, Kansas...they assigned a student to the officials. The kid escourted you to and from the dressing room, ran you out water on timeouts, and their hospitality room for tournaments...Wow!

LOL........