I am amazed at what some associations do. The malcontents in my association should read how these others do it and then they might complain less. I have a very good friend who did the 5A boys championship at the end of his 3rd season and was working D1 the next year. Good thing for him he lives around me instead of Portland or Ct. I will admit that he is an exception to what most people do, but guys like him do come around.

Get the best officials on the court.

Just because a young official is working at the college or pro level doesn't mean that the individual does a superior job to the more senior official who is only working the local HS games.
There are many reasons that upper level assignors hire young officials. One of the most obvious is that he is betting on their development. He gives them a chance to gain experience while working with some of the folks on his staff and waits to see what happens. The belief is that these individuals have time to progress and the assignor will take the chance that if he starts them early enough and provides opportunities they may pan out, while this is not the case with the older person.

Age has nothing to do with my argument. Many of our rookies are over 40. Some of best officials are inder 30.

I agree with Stripes....

Put the best officials on the court.

I"m not sure why you put Portland on this list. People move up based on their ability in Portland (mostly). Some faster than others. Just because a brand new person to our area can't get any varsity games in their first year in Prtoalnd doesn't mean that we aren't judged by out ability.

But I do think it's a little unfair to guys and gals who've been around forever in the association, moving up, getting better, being top officials and then to get bumped off the championship for some upstart hotshot. I disagree with never moving people up but there are top officials who deserve chamionship games and are good enough (ie as you say, get the best officials on the court) who can be overlooked when there's just a totally open system.

Juulie - who runs the association in Prtoalnd - Wdrhao? :confused:

And is "out ability" something that there's not anything wrong with? ;)

Well at least there seems to be a mechanism in place for quality control among the veterans, but if that's the case, why not put something in place that allows up and coming officials to work-in? If you are already ranking officials, why not just do away with the illogical, predefined "seniority" categories and just rank or categorize officials based on ability? Experience can certainly be taken into account here, as well as by the assignor. Seems to me like you have bureaucratically imposed glass ceilings, your best JV official might in reality rank in the top 25 overall officials, but it will still be no less than 4 years before he gets a full varsity schedule. That makes no sense.

While I'm at it, why would someone classified as a "full varsity official" only get 8 games??? If their ranking is that bad, why not lower their status? I still don't get this system, and in an era where there is a shortage of officials, why would you put in place a system that doesn't reward achievement?

I think that this is a great point that is missed by a lot of up and coming officials. Just because one person is working college and another isn't, that does not mean that the college guy is the better ref and it definitely doesn't mean that the college ref is more qualified to work a specific assignment. In postseason assignments especially, experience is very important, and the hot shot younger ref might not be right for the game.

At the same time, younger refs have a huge advantage in getting picked up because they are easier to mold and have far more potential.

The era doesn't matter. If there's a plethora of officials in that area, there could be lots of different systems to hold people back. Not saying that's the case in Billy's area, but here in Portland, we have lots and lots of officials, and many of them are very qualified. So it's really hard for a really good person to move up because that displaces other really good officials. It's hard to find a system that will balance out all the various "fair" considerations.

Juulie, do you guys do a transfer scrimmage or anything? I'm still having a hard time understanding how your system allows people to "move up" based on their ability, but then you say that someone will not get varsity games their first year.
Being in the military has caused me to move around more than I would have liked. Every time I go to a new place I hear guys complaining about someone "new" getting playoff games and/or assignments for good games. I'm not new to high school basketball and I have paid more dues that most officials would believe. Are you saying that someone in my situation has no chance of working what they normally work - varsity - because they are new to your area regardless of their experience and abilities?
Without knowing your system or the people who put it into place, I would say a system like this is run by someone who is scared of losing games. As an association it is always a good thing to get better and limiting what officials are on a game based on how long they've been in the area doesn't help the association improve.
I was on the board in Las Vegas and there were times when I went to the assignor and told him that an official needed to be moved up. I just don't get this mentality. Fortunately for me, my next move will probably be my last move and it will more than likely be to a location I've been to before.

No it's not. It's easy to find the systmen that works. It's hard to convince the good ol' boys to implement it.

In reality, what could be better than an assocation being able to train every official to be a top rated official? Shouldn't that be our goal? I realize that in practice it will never happen, really, shouldn't it be our goal. To do otherwise is to say we don't want all of our officials to be good.

To work in any area that believes it has an over-abundance of top officials, the system simply has to share the games. No one gets a 100% varsity only schedule. Everyone who has the ability and experience to work Varsity would get some games.

But those at the top now are too invested in having full Varsity seasons and they will fight to keep their games.

It comes down to the fundamental purpose of an association.

I'm pretty sure I saw a first year transfer working varsity games his first year in our association (Portland). I know he's working top varsity games this year (his second year here), but I'm not sure if he has a varsity only schedule or not. I saw him work last year and was incredibly impressed. He is young, in great shape and was an outstanding official.

Garth, I somewhat agree with you. Saying there is no way someone who is new will get varsity games is another way to hold people back. I don't understand your statement about nobody getting 100% varsity games. Why do you say that? Are you assuming that there wouldn't be enough varsity games for all varsity officials to get them?
Since working my way up to varsity, I have been in this situation three times and every time the complaints concerning me made it seem like I just started officiating when I arrived at the new location. The complaints really didn't slow me down because I worked hard to get where I'm at and I have a passion for continually improving and doing a good job. I would have a problem with a system like the one in Portland. How should I feel if the official working in front of me is better than me or just as qualified? I would wonder what kind of system I was working with.

Smitty is my hero. :D

(inside joke) :p

I was going off Juulie's post.

It most areas, that will not have to be the case, but if in Portland, there really are so many top officials that moving someone up "displaces" a good official already there, sharing games is the answer.

Here in Missouri, you have to prove yourself to work a varsity games. If I have to do that in Portland, then I have no choice. I just need to get my foot in the door. I'm sure that the higher people don't really care about what I did in Missouri until I can prove them. And I hope I can do some V games within 2 years of living up in Oregon