I just got back from officiating a girls JV game and I had a blast. There was no stellar play. The crowd was sparse, but I had a great time. To give you an idea of the caliber of game it was, the score was 5 to 4 at halftime. The players all had good attitudes. The coaches were cordial and my partner did not wear jeans. My partner and I talked at half time about avoiding overtime at all costs. I said I would do everything in my power to prevent it. He said that he would do everything in his power to see that it happened. He said that he would keep calling lane violations until the girl made a FT to tie the score. I said if he did that, I would call a double lane violation and go with the arrow. I can honestly admit that I had more fun doing this game than I did doing the boys championship game in a Christmas tournament last weekend. If you have a bunch of people with bad attitudes and don't care about anything, that's their business. If you add another person(an official) that doesn't care, How is that helping anything?

I better not see any of it from you.
 

Well, I guess I am just arrogant. And if it is arrogant of me to question the motives of my ability or experience to be questioned, and to see an official on the court with BLACK JEANS officiating on of the games before you, then I am just going to be arrogant.

And first you are never going to know anything about my character, you have never met me and you have never worked with me. And considering that you and others like to spend your time judging people that you have never even seen, that shows me a lot about your character. Last time I checked, this is what this board was for. And if you CAN READ you would see most of the post are about beefs or complaints dealing with things that officials deal with on a regular basis. And I love reading them because it lets you know and realize that you are not alone when those things happen to you.

You can be high and mighty all day, but don't you not dare come hear and complain or ask questions about assignors, coaches, players or any number of things that my happen to you or that you might actually experience on the court. Because if you do, that would make you arrogant according to your definition.


Have a blessed holiday.

God Bless.

You have a right to your opinion, but......
 

If you go back and read the ENTIRE ORIGNAL POST, you would see the WHOLE POINT. I do not care what you enjoy or do not care how important the game is to you. If I did not care, I would have stopped birddoging, I would have walked up the floor, and I would have just let things go because the situation was so bad. Did you read anything that suggested that I did that? Did you read anything that I said that suggested that?

I did everything in the game that I would normally do, and I did not have a great time. If no one else wants to be there, it makes it really hard for me to get up for it myself. Sorry, I would rather save the gas money, the time fumbling through the Chicago area traffic, and rush from work so that I can go do a game that no one wants to be there, including the participants.

If you would read some of my following posts, you would see that as an official and umpire, I stopped doing Pop Warner Football, Men's Fast-Pitch Softball, and Summer Baseball and I am considering heavily in quiting Girls Basketball. All for different reasons but the same result. I do not enjoy doing them anymore. And even thought I might make more money doing all of them, it is not the draw to keep me doing them.

I stopped doing Pop Warner Football because the parents and coaches were so stupid, even when they would come up to you and ask a question, it would end up into a debate over how the TV (eg: 5 yard contact rule on reciever). And we would be using NF rules.

I stopped doing Men's Fast-Pitch Softball, because the arguments that would happen would be so stupid, I actually had debate with a team in the field over, and I quote: "the ground cannot cause a fumble," as it related to a Right Fielder bobbling a fly ball and finally not catching the ball. They would argue every little thing that happen regardless of how obvious the calls would be. I would make almost $400 doing those tourmanents and decided that I need to stay at home because it became not fun. I saw myself getting into fights instead of umpiring so I quit.

I stopped doing summer baseball, much for the same reason I stopped doing Men's Fast-Pitch. Do not get me wrong, the money is good, but the leagues and tournaments are not run very well. And you worry more about whether or not you are going to get paid, than whether or not you are going to do the game itself. So I passed on that. And also, Ido Football, Basketball and Baseball year-round. I like the time off and if I do anything in the summer I would rather be inside doing basketball.

I am considering stopping girls basketball, mainly because I do not enjoy it. You usually do not work with "quality" or experienced officials as you do for boys. The crowds are not as big usually and played on different nights as the boys. I would still only like to work about 3 times a week instead of 4-6 doing both. And most of all, the administrations do not have as many qualified coaches and those coaches do not have to pay their dues to get to do the highest level of high school ball. On Saturday (same tournament), the coach got so caught up in what I was doing, he stopped coaching his team. If he would have just double team the "superstar" player and stop worrying about what I was calling or what my partners were calling, he might have had a better chance to win the game. But he allowed his opponent to run a spread offense with this "superstar" guard who just days had a right up in the Chicago Tribune about her and 4 other small girl players, he might have let someone else score and beat them. But no, he let what the officials were doing influence what he did or not do as a coach.

The lesson in that, boys coaches tend to deal with much better officials across the board, and learn very quick that good officials do not give a damn how much they b!tch and complain about calls. His girls for several minutes had not meaningful instruction and inturn let the game get away from them.

When you leave the house wondering why you are going to be there, then it is time to leave it alone. I have been at that point for a very long time and talked myself out of it because of PC thinkers like yourself. Just like people that think I am crazy to go further than an hour for a game, I do not try to be critical about those that are not willing to do what I do. I think if you enjoy what you are doing, you need to be happy that is what you enjoy and not worry about what others think about it.

Peace