Had a really "deep" quick question. Someone asked me last week if I feel that I have an impact on the world by being an official. I am curious on what responses i get when asking the question "How do you make a difference". My first question is, if you are a younger official, how often are you looked down upon for this? If you are a female or again, a younger official (or "older" officials), how do coaches/fans/players/others officials/ect. react when the see you step out onto the court? Does anyone have statistics on how many young officials start out, and how many really succeed (college +), and how many quit? This should be interesting, hopefully I can get some feedback, thanks,

Doug

I'm not sure if we have an impact on the world if you're looking at the big picture. But I think we can have an impact on our small part of the world. The biggest impact we can have is to be a positive role model to the people that we serve. Putting on the stripes is to some people putting on a target. Many people consider that their chance to lash out at someone or rebel against an authority figure. In answer to you question about being a younger or female official, I don't consider either of those a reason for anyone to look down on you. One of the best officials in our association is a young female official. She is highly respected by her peers as well as the people she serves. She was chosen to officiate the boys state championship game 2 seasons ago and is the president of our officials association. Many of us officials don't consider the measure of real success in officiating college ball or beyond. I don't have the desire or the life situation to officiate college ball. I know many officials who are highly successful in what they do that feel the same way. Just my 2 cents worth.

A study done recently in Australia found that 85% of referees quit after the first year. Their reasons were (from most common to least):

* Too hard to progress
* Pay too low
* Tired of abusive players/coaches
* Would rather play
* Family/wok/school committments
* Lack of education/support

The report also showed that the top reasons for "veteran" officials stopping refereeing were:

* Family/work committments
* Fitness/Poor Health/Age/Injury
* Tired of abusive players/coaches
* Inability to progress

Personally I think that places like this forum should help address the education/support problem as well as helping o form more of a community.