Hope a friend helps him

[REFVA]

Then what is the point of the "old girls network"? The same? And if it is the same, how would he then know whether he was a victim of the "old boys network" or the "old girls network" if neither lets anybody in?

Funny you mention that, we have a woman in our association that was getting FR/JV games. She was never on high visibilty games or varsity games. She was starting to feel "is there something wrong with my officiating complex".

she went to some camps that year she was selected to do D3 games and this year she has contract for D2 and D1 womens side. We'll see what they give this year as games.

[rockyroad]

Funny that you mention camps, because that was going to be my advice for you to give this other official. Try to get him to go to some local, HS level camps in your area. That way he can get lots of feedback without getting ripped by the "college" guys who want him to be ready for that level...at a camp like that he will meet people who can and will take him under their tutelage and help him out quite a bit, plus he will see what he really should be doing.

Another idea is to invite him to go and watch some of the high-level varsity games in your area and sit and watch the officials with him..

And as for that "good old boys" club mentality, while we all know that it can and does exist, the best way to break it is to be so damn good that they just can't ignore you anymore. Unless you're Snaqs, than you might as well just give up cause they don't want any coughers in the club anyway...

[Adam]

But Dan said....

[tjones1]

Reminds me of a time when I had this varsity official give me a package of M&Ms after my game. I'm not sure, but I think he was trying to say that my performance was equal to or less than the cost of those (peanut) M&Ms. Of course, I'm kidding...

Bob,

I would suggest inviting him to those clinics. Those sound like a really good idea and sounds like they give you a lot of different things to look at. I certainly wish those were what our clinics were like (classroom part) before we go onto the floor. Always seems to me they lose the interest of most of the people in the class after about 20 or 25 slides.

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by tjones1

Reminds me of a time when I had this varsity official give me a package of M&Ms after my game. I'm not sure, but I think he was trying to say that my performance was equal to or less than the cost of those (peanut) M&Ms.

If I was critiquing your performance, wouldn't I have just opened the package and given you only one?

I have found some older officials to have the mentality that helping a younger official is the same as taking away their games. This is probably more true in a rural setting where there are fewer games. That's too bad, because I've found helping other officials actually helps me. None of us want to get stuck working with "that guy" (all genders included!...). So if I can help out "that guy", the next time I have to work with them will be a better experience.

[rockyroad]

Originally Posted by M&M Guy

I have found some older officials to have the mentality that helping a younger official is the same as taking away their games.

Sad, but true...in my case, I would love to have someone take some of those games.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by tjones1

Reminds me of a time when I had this varsity official give me a package of M&Ms after my game

I usually give my partners Ex-lax, especially if they called the game too "tight".