Two women in stripes - newspaper article

[Old School]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

They were good enough to overcome the main deficiency of the system (lack of votes from boys coaches).

The only thing that held Melodee back in the past was the lack of coaches votes. Since she only worked girls game, she was never going to get the vote from boys' coaches and is not likely pull enough votes from girls coaches to overcome that obstacle. She did get the 11th most votes (out of over 200 officials) from fellow officials and has consistently done so. Lea Ann was only a few spots behind that. Those two have been strongly recognized by their peers as quality officials in the vote on a regular basis. If we had only eliminated the coaches vote from our old system, these two would have gone to the tourney anyway...by the vote of a lot of men (including myself).

I keep trying to tell everybody that coaches have a lot to do with your career as an official but nobody wants to hear it from me, mainly because of the propaganda that JR and some of the others are allowed to do to me on this forum after I post. You go T'ing up a coach, especially a undeserved T, it could have a huge effect on how fast you move up. I hear a lot of people say that you don't call a game based on what the coach thinks, and we really shouldn't have to. However, true be told, you better listen to what they have to say.