Perception is many peoples Reality!

That might be true, but I am not going to work game because everyone has a perception. I am not going to not work a game with a school down the street when I have no tie to that school because someone might think I know all the parties when I clearly do not.

Peace

I agree completely with you JRut. It is a philosophy I have been following for some time now and helps me to explain why many people take a certain position on a topic. If you know what I mean? Their Azz may be sucking wind but it is how they see the world!

Though I would choose not to do my sons games for "perception" reasons, plus I'd rather watch him then work the game, I have done my high schools varsity baseball/basketball games, where I happen to be on the school board and several committees, including athletic booster pres and hall of fame chair. But I dont care who wins!
I'd like to think that I'm like many of us, who focus or are "zoned in" to the game, and make calls on what I see, not hesitating to think "which favored school?". Its just safe/out, or foul/violation, and go from there. I'm more concerned with my reputation- calling the best game I can with correct mechanics and positioning, knowing that I can always learn something from each contest.

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A little late on this discussion but you guys might find this interesting:

My group (within the past 2 or 3 years) initiated a Conflict of Interest form that we had to fill out. Among the questions were:

1. What High School did you go to and how long ago did you graduate? (Most officials in our group are from the area we serve)

2. Do you have any sons/daughters/relatives attending any of the schools serviced?

3. A few other personal questions about other conflicts of interest.

The end result was that any official who had graduated high school in the area less than 15 years ago could not work those school's games. Besides this and the other predictable "kids going to the school, etc, etc", I don't know what other conflicts have come up that have prevented officials from working certain games.

I'm not 100% sure why this came up. However, a few years ago, there had been rumors flying around that there was some errors assigning officials to a rivalry game where all the officials were alumni of one of the schools playing.

While I don't know if any of this is true, it makes sense if our group wants to avoid future conflicts of interest.

Like some of you said though, lots of officials I talk to have no tied to their former high school. For myself, I would not want to work my old high school's boys games since I watch them at games when I can (head coach's first year was my senior year).

If I could, I would work the girls games since I don't know the players or coaches of the girls program.