New Official

[APG]

Well not quite yet, but I'm hoping to be one soon. My question to everyone is how should one go about this? Would it be a good idea to go ahead and join the local association this summer and start getting summer games in, or should I just wait till basketball season is near?

Apperciate the help and look forward to posting here more often.

[JRutledge]

It would help if you listed what state you live in and probably an area in the state that you live as well. The requirements to start officiating are going to vary greatly based on where you will be getting your license.

Peace

[APG]

Ah yes you're right, that might be helpful. For the summer I plan to be in Houston, but for the fall and winter, I'll be in Austin (college student).

[JRutledge]

Well we have several Texas officials here. So you should have many answers from those individuals telling you the exact process.

Peace

[Junker]

I'd say get registered with the state and get to work as soon as possible. When you get to school in the fall check out your college intramural department. At most schools they do a good job of training officials.

[ChrisSportsFan]

There's some Texas guys who will be along soon and can probably help get you connected. I recommend you find a Houston association or 2 that can get you some games for the summer so you can get some experience. Once you connect there, they might have some phone numbers for you in Austin and you can call ahead so they know you are coming. If you wait til school starts, they might have everything pretty well booked already. Also, get yourself registered with the state so that's out of the way.

[APG]

Originally Posted by Junker

I'd say get registered with the state and get to work as soon as possible. When you get to school in the fall check out your college intramural department. At most schools they do a good job of training officials.

Yea I got involved with the intramural department this year, and I guess you could say I've gotten hooked.

[mick]

Originally Posted by Junker

I'd say get registered with the state and get to work as soon as possible. When you get to school in the fall check out your college intramural department. At most schools they do a good job of training officials.

Junker,
U.P. here (with few games), there are 6-10 college students working various levels of NFHS ball.

[Splute]

Hey APG,
I am also new to officiating in the Houston area and this is what I have found so far. You need to join the local chapter (11-01-21 Harris County) and the state org www.TASO.org . You can join both thru the local chapter. You need to go to camp in the off season. This chapter recommends the following: www.westsideref.com ; www.camptexas.us/ ; texas officiating basketball clinic. There are classes from now thru June that I know of. I will send you a contact number offline. Good luck!

[jmkbball]

Good luck on starting out….have fun and enjoy it.

In Houston, you can register with the chapter at Houstonref.com. That may be the best way to find either AAU or summer league games over the summer. Each chapter is somewhat different but the Houston chapter may want you to register -- call them and find out. The Austin chapter regularly sends out requests to its base for the various summer programs and I think most, always need officials.

If you are a sure about moving to Austin prior to September, you might wait until then to formally join the chapter and the association – there may be a redundancy in fees that won’t transfer. In fact, the state association, it seems that TASO is being recreated into a new version to oversee basketball in Texas and I’m not sure all the questions have been ironed out. In Austin, I believe that as a first year, some of your initial fees are either discounted or waived (Houston may offer the same benefit).

Access the Austin chapter online at www.basketball officials.com. Go there and you can search thru a directory of information, camps and such. You might want to consider a camp but do a little research before going. A number of those may not necessarily be best for brand new officials or have enough clinicians to really help you.

In Austin, the assignment secretary is a good guy…contact him at [email protected]. Tell him of your plans and he may have some additional ideas to help.

One other thing...for the past several years, Austin has had an arrangement with an August/September league in nearby Pflugerville. The chapter runs training sessions at those games and you really should make every one of those you can. There will be senior officials nearby and they'll work with you before, during and after each 4, 8 or 10 minute ref session. It will really help you and you'll begin meeting other folks in the chapter.