Official Arrested
 

Without getting into specifics(names, places, etc.)...I have heard of a situation in a certain association.

Right to the point...a good Varsity official who was looked upon as a clean-cut law enforcement guy ran into some trouble. He was "blasted" in his local media for domestic issues as well as problems in his department involving possible meth found at his home. I do not know if it was his, his friends or if he was using, selling or none of the above. He was fired from his local law enforcement department.

This official took off last year to fight his legal problems. He has now approached the Board and the Assigning Secretary, of his basketball association, to see if he can get some games this year. He has attended one meeting of the three (the most recent one) and would like to be considered as an official.

The State governing body has been asked to do a background check. The State told the Assigning Secretary that there was nothing in the check that would prevent him from officiating. (I do not know if the State was informed of this individual's local problems.)
I also do not know if there were any confictions or if there was a plea, etc.
I do know his picture was plastered all over his local papers along with numerous stories involving his incidents.

This person has a reputation, as an official... of being on time, a nice guy, good "basketball" judgement, and a good partner.

Question(s): Should this person be allowed to officiate basketball in his local association?

Would you want this person as a partner?

What would you do, if he was your partner...and you heard fans yelling comments such as "meth head" etc. at him during your game?

Any opinions out there?

If the association has cleared him, then I could care less about his personal issues...if he is a good offical then yes I would surely want him as my parnter. Not much you can do about those types of situations, those are things he needs to think about before he decides that he wants to come back. Of course you can always get game management involved if there are individual fans who are getting personal and taking things too far, but unless they are going to clear every gym that you play in then it is probably something that he is going to have to get used to.

If the background check came back clean enough....

I wouldn't think that it is my place to sit as judge and jury of this person. If he passes the state requirements, I would stay out of it. Accusations happen, mistakes happen, perhaps he cleared his name. Perhaps he needed to get some help for a problem. I don't know. I wouldn't get involved in his personal business. I would focus on his performance on the court. If that was fine, I would work with him.

I agree with the previous posts. If the state clears him then as long as he is a good official I wouldn't have a problem working with him.

Character!!!!

In my area this issue would only be dealt with between the IHSA and the official and many the assignors and the official. Other groups really have no say in this issue. Background checks here are for felony convictions and focus mostly on drug convictions and child abuse convictions. And while an official is dealing with legal troubles that involve criminal issues, the individual official has to inform the IHSA about those issues. Usually that means the official licenses would be temporarily suspended until the issue is taken care of. I am sure other factors might apply, but that is what is in black and white.

If my state allowed them to work, why would I have a problem with it? I can separate personal issues with professional ones. You said that this person was a good official by all accounts. That is the main thing I would focus on for a couple of hours.


I would do the same thing if I heard any other very personal comments coming from the stands. Get game management involved and have the people removed. It would not matter to me if they called him this or a racial or gender type comment or talked about his wife or child having a similar problem. Those comments are not appropriate. And just because the media reports something does not mean it is true.

Peace

After the whole Tim Donaghy thing, they all think anybody in stripes is a crook who fixes games for profit. Should I block all potential partners who wear stripes? Sure, it's a silly example. But fans will find all kinds of reasons to denigrate us no matter what our past. If the state/association/assigners have cleared him to work, why should you or I have an issue with his past?

WHAT!!!!! :eek:

How deep do we go on this?

You make the call.

Great comments...

I was also hoping to get some comments from Association Board members and Assigners (JR?) who actually would have more decision making powers concerning issues as this one.

Keep in mind that many are not sitting in the position to make such a decision. No official can make that decision from my state. I know as a board member of a particular division in a sport, all we can do is decide membership in our organization. We cannot decide whether and official has a license or can work HS or any other type of game.

Peace

Maybe, Rut, but assigners and board members can and do make decisions about what types of games, if any, officials get. So it does matter what they think of a particular official's integrity and character.

I am speaking from my perspective. Where you live I am sure is totally different with different set of issues as to how this is dealt with. Board members in local associations have nothing to do directly with whether someone does or does not work. Even if an assignor does not want to hire you, that does not exclude another assignor from hiring you somewhere else. That takes place already despite someone that has a legal issue or even ethical issue to deal with.

Peace