Venting

[kbilla]

Just wanted to put this out there for your thoughts...

I do some jr. high stuff in a local conference. I've been doing less and less of it as I've started to get higher level hs and now some juco stuff, but lets face it, the games are quick, they pay well and they are usually on sat & sun mornings & afternoons so they fill in the rest of my schedule nicely. My biggest problem with these games are the officials who work them. There are far too many officials from what I have seen who work these games like machines doing 6-8 games/day (or more), and do it for no other apparent reason than the money. Watching a game before mine last night, one official didn't make it past halfcourt, walked up court on a break, never switched on a single foul, nothing. I started getting so angry I just buried my head in my casebook so I didn't have to watch... If this was the only official like this that would be one thing, but I see it all the time in this league, and I suspect it happens everywhere. In the "pregame" if you tell your partner that we are swtiching on fouls, you get the eye roll like "oh you are one of THOSE!" They cut time off the clock at halftime as if saving yourself one minute is going to make a difference getting you out sooner - if you are that busy DON'T DO GAMES! Unfortunately the school AD's and league administrators are volunteer parents who 1) usually don't know much about the game and/or 2) could care less about the officials as long as a warm body shows up and doesn't cause them an inconvenience. They are happy to write a check for $30-something a game just as long as someone shows up. Basically the same thing with the assignors, they assign so many games, they too are happy that a warm body shows up and as long as there are no complaints everyone is happy! Forget the fact that it is an absolute travesty, that the kids are being cheated and that the officials are basically stealing money....I guess this plea goes out to any league administrators who fit the description above, you can and should do soemthing about this!! You cannot expect to get officials who are right 100% of the time (because they don't exist), but you should be able to expect, actually demand, that an official will be professional and will HUSTLE for the money that you are paying them...and to officials who fit the mold above, do everyone else a favor and either change the way that you officiate games, get a part time job where you can stand behind a cash register, or stay home.....there I feel better now...