Dissappointed official

[ronny mulkey]

Originally Posted by REFVA

I have had the best season of my short seven season career. This is my third year doing Varsity games. Post season games start on Monday 2/12. we have a voting among the association. I'm not sure why becuase we don't follow the results. I was voted in many catagories with 8 and 9's with 10 being the best and my assignor only chooses to assign me one post season game. I even recieved great votes from the coaches. I am dissapointed tremedously. I never turned down any assignments not matter where or what they were. I was jerked around from location to location last minute many times. I was always praising and giving confidence to all my partner for trying their hardest and giving all they had. I went to 3 camps this year to learn as much as I could. I felt more confidence in myself. All he had to say was you earned it, but you didn't prove yourself. Yet he was never out there evaluating me, not once in seven years. I am ready to shelf this association. This association is true good ole boy network. One of my partner two weeks ago never did a game till this year and he had a Varsity level boys game he was one of my partners. I had to wait my way and work hard for my opportunity. This is a downer. I am ready to hang my sneakers... Do all association work the same way??

If you can referee, then no amount of politics or "good old boy" networks will keep you down forever. Keep working whatever system is in place in your area. Post season games only comprise a very small % of the games that anyone is going to do over the years, anyway. Enjoy the ones that come your way and don't let the lean year(s) affect your next game or season. There is a lot of good basketball to be officiated in the regular season. Those games are important, too.

[btaylor64]

Originally Posted by ronny mulkey

If you can referee, then no amount of politics or "good old boy" networks will keep you down forever. Keep working whatever system is in place in your area. Post season games only comprise a very small % of the games that anyone is going to do over the years, anyway. Enjoy the ones that come your way and don't let the lean year(s) affect your next game or season. There is a lot of good basketball to be officiated in the regular season. Those games are important, too.

I believe this whole heartedly. If you can referee, you will get yours, it just depends on what level you get it. For me I might see my first college playoff game before I see my first HS one. I do believe there is a little bit of politics involved, but I also believe that if there is a man there older than me and just as good and maybe not even as good, that he deserves to stay there, because like someone stated earlier he has probably pulled the assigner out of some tough spots before and has always been there to help and I totally understand that. I believe that I am fighting more against guys who are just coming up compared to trying to knock the old veterean out. It's like Dick Bavetta in the NBA. He can stay there as long as he wants with almost no worries of getting kicked out for an up and comer. The people who have to be worried about the up and comer are the guys that are in there rookie to 5th or 6th year.

Sometimes people get the shaft and that in itself is upsetting, but 9 times out of 10 the good referees get there games. Good luck and keep working hard.

[aepitaz]

I can only share my personal experiences. In my area, it takes between 4-7 years to get a full varsity schedule. I know folks who have done it faster, but that is the average.

One of the things that I have come to understand is that you can only go out and call the games that you are assigned. Take the games, do the best job you can for any game and let your work speak for itself.

Assigning is hard, because you want to have the best officials out there for the game you are assigning. You want to have officials that you trust to do a good job. In order for me to get a full schedule, someone else has to give up those games.

Continue to work hard and the tournament games will come. As you become the part of the "trusted" set of officials, bigger and better games will come your way.

[archer]

Well, all I can say is it must be something about Virginia. The association I work in is run by the principles. We the officals have no say so in anything. Our commissioner is picked by the principles. So, well you all know about that...... Our commissioner says he evaluates officals, but works a full schedule. From what I understand he has worked more than any offical in our association, except for the crew he has which they work every game with each other. Last year there was some rumblings about how the officals were picked for the regions. A lot of top officals sat at home b/c the coaches picked who they wanted in the regions. So the top tier officals that wacked coaches for rule infractions sat at home while the gamer officals worked. Funny thing about this is that several of the officals that didnt get region games worked the state final games.
So this year the rumblings have come to a head. About 30 percent of the officals are quitting this year. Our by-laws were changed to state that any offical that is caught talking about the association or to any principle or AD will be suspended.
So all I can say is good luck.... At least you have an association that is run by the officals and not by the principles that has the commissioner in their back pocket

[Bad Zebra]

Have you considered starting another assn.? If there are as many disgruntled officials as you state, then get together and give it a shot. Chances are you won't get assignments from those schools, but what about other private/non-conference schools or even rec leagues? If the current regime is acting as you say they are, chances are there might be a few coaches who would welcome a switch and encourage their AD's/Principals to try a different Assn.

It may take a few years, but you could end up with your own assn. with legit assignments.

[JRutledge]

Since you brought this up, here is some perspective as it relates to where I live.

There is probably between 5000-6000 officials state wide where I live.

For Class AA Boy's Basketball there are 64 Regional sites. Each site has at least 3 officials for all 3 to 4 games. There are some nights where two games are being played at the same time and the IHSA uses another crew for those nights. So that might add only about 10-12 extra officials overall based on availability. So at the very least there are 192 officials (possibly a little over 200 might be realistically needed). The State Finals has 12 officials working when it is all said and done. The Class AA side is the last of all tournaments and this means that more than 95% of all officials are sitting at home during this time. You can only give so many assignments to so many people. Someone is going to stay home even if you rotated completely different people every single year. Then someone would not be upset they did not get a shot then. Then when someone is working that is not very experienced screws up a situation, then there will be many more problems.

Peace

[archer]

Actually that is being discussed as we speak. That was one of the reasons they changed the by-laws. Some of the officals have been talking to some of the Coaches, AD's and principles about what is going on and the commissioner was told about it and recommended that any offical caught saying anything bad about the association be suspended. Two of the districts are pondering a change and has said that they would switch to an association that is run by the officals. One district even contacted the VHSL when they got wind of the problems with our association and was told that the principles need to get away from being the governing body because of the liability. The person told them that they could be held liable if an official was to be injured during a game or as long as they were on school property because of how our by-laws are written up. But it seems that a certain group of principles are not wanting to relenquish control and recommended that the officials sign a waiver next year.
What it all boils down to is that with the current situation we are in. We are employees instead of independent contractors. Some of the officals are considering hiring a labor attorney. But finding one in this area that is familiar with labor laws is another thing.
As for the region & state picks. Been there done that and could care less about if I get one anymore. I would rather see a young offical that has worked his or hers rear off to the be the best get it. Its priceless the see the look on their face when they make the big show. But the cloud remains. The commissioner and his crew work all the Region finals, nominates himself and his crew so they get to go every three years to the state and as time goes on the average age for our association get older and older each year.

[socalreff]

Originally Posted by archer

Well, all I can say is it must be something about Virginia. The association I work in is run by the principles. We the officals have no say so in anything. Our commissioner is picked by the principles. So, well you all know about that...... Our commissioner says he evaluates officals, but works a full schedule. From what I understand he has worked more than any offical in our association, except for the crew he has which they work every game with each other. Last year there was some rumblings about how the officals were picked for the regions. A lot of top officals sat at home b/c the coaches picked who they wanted in the regions. So the top tier officals that wacked coaches for rule infractions sat at home while the gamer officals worked. Funny thing about this is that several of the officals that didnt get region games worked the state final games.
So this year the rumblings have come to a head. About 30 percent of the officals are quitting this year. Our by-laws were changed to state that any offical that is caught talking about the association or to any principle or AD will be suspended.
So all I can say is good luck.... At least you have an association that is run by the officals and not by the principles that has the commissioner in their back pocket

Wow! I can't imagine working for an association that is not run by officials. The schools have zero say as to who works their games. I guess we're lucky.

[Adam]

Is there a reason you're resurrecting a thread that's been dead for nearly two months?

[Old School]

Originally Posted by ronny mulkey

If you can referee, then no amount of politics or "good old boy" networks will keep you down forever. Keep working whatever system is in place in your area. Post season games only comprise a very small % of the games that anyone is going to do over the years, anyway. Enjoy the ones that come your way and don't let the lean year(s) affect your next game or season. There is a lot of good basketball to be officiated in the regular season. Those games are important, too.

This statement is true. To chine in, I think that if your objective to officiating is to work the playoff's in HS. You might be in it for the wrong reasons, and I think that some of these assigners might be able to see that desperation in you, a bad quality. If you're looking at quiting officiating because you didn't get a playoff game, then you where desperate.

To answer the question does all associations act this this. Hell yes! They are all the same. The assigners son at age 20 something will work playoff games before you, you can bet that. Just like I wonder how much of John Thompson III ability got him the head coaching job as opposed to dear old Dad influence. I'm sure there was a lot of other good candidates.

In any event, if officiating to you is all about working the big games. I feel sorry for you, because that is a long and lonesome road to go down and you will spend a lot of nights unhappy. Maybe you should just hang em up. However, on the other hand, I enjoy officiating and I no longer do it for the biggest games. I do it to stay in shape and see how good I can get and how far I can go with the understanding that it's good if I do and it's good if I don't. Thing about it, and take this as advise. If you're trying to move up into better games, you're going to have to quit working a lot of these lower level games or develop a style that you work hard each time out. IOW's, don't let these AAU assigners set you up with too many games and you are dirt tired towards the end and likewise look stupid or lazy working these games. There could be one of these HS decision makers there and they see you in this state, and that's bad news for your career, believe me. I'm sure it has happen to a lot of us and continues to happen because a lot of officials don't get this. It might be your 6th game but it's the state supervisors brothers first game on that court. So from this point on, you can take no more days off when you officiate because you never know who's watching. You want to work the big games, you got to bring it everytime out the gate. Or you can let the lower level games go so that you can only be seen when it's to your advantage, like at the camps. Notice how the guys that are working the finals, you don't see out working any ole games. There is a reason for that.

All in all, like the one poster said. If you are good, keep getting better and someone will take notice. A wise man once, you can't keep a good man down.

[deecee]

A wise man once also said (and I think it was JR) -- ok so maybe not so wise but wiser than ^^

anyways -- he said dont listen to anything by ^^ and if you take advice from ^^ then that's not very good. (I paraphrased -- JR had a few adult words in there that I am not allowed to use because of my dainty little ears).