Girls Games
 

I've been thinking about this and thought I'd throw it out for feedback. Every since I started officiating, I have always had far more boys games than girls. I do a couple ... and that literally means about 2 .. JH girls games a year and a handfull of JH boys... except for conference tournaments and play-offs.
Before I moved two years ago I had signed several varsity contracts for V girls and then I moved. Since being where I live now I do about 3 or 4 girls JV games a season and all the rest is JV & V boys. When talking to an AD last week I mentioned this and he said he'd get me some girls JV/V combos next season. I've gotten the impression that they have fewer guys that want to officiate girls games. I thought about telling the ADs I would focus on the girls side for awhile if they needed me. Sound off, espcially you IHSA guys. What do you think about this?

Be careful what you ask for. You may get it. A lot of it. For a very long time.

Girls games can be brutal. All the coaches and fans want are travel calls.

No thank you. Got a girls V/JV doubleheader this Tuesday, my second of the year. Not looking forward to it, hope it's my last one this year. But if you want more games, go for it. I'd rather be at home than work a girls doubleheader.

Where I am, Girls V is fine. JV attached to a V game is tolerable. JV attached to a JV boys game is the lowest I'll go in the girls game. I don't do frosh or anything lower anymore because the game is horrible. The coaches THINK the officials let more and more rough play go every year, when the reality is that the coaching gets worse every year. These coaches can not teach these girls how to make clean plays on the ball and how to avoid contact, then expect you to bail the girls out with a foul call when they are out of control.

If I was told to do frosh (or lower) girls or quit, I'd quit. No brainer decision.

You don't get a choice where I am for HS ball. Work a JV B/G DH, or a V G/B doubleheader. Or don't work at all.

Honestly, most officials I know do not want to do girl's games. It is that simple. I do the very same thing. Also many girl's games are on different nights and there are officials that do not want to be working 4, 5 and 6 nights a week. So something suffers when they decide how much they want to work.

Peace

I'd rather poke a sharp stick in my eye than work a JV/V Girls DH'er.

I'd have to agree. Around my way most schools have done away with the practice all together.:)

Out our way, Chicago area, Girls games routinely outdraw boys games at selected schools and the brand of ball is excellent among the top 30 or so teams. Not sure where you are, but I'd rather not do a double header also.

Varsity girls are enough, you can have the soph games.

And what schools would those be?

Not trying to be funny, but there are only a few schools that consistently do that. There were even conferences that would do the Boy's and Girl's Varsity double headers for conference games. It was a disaster because no matter if the girls played first or second, the crowd would come in to watch the boy's games or leave after the boy's games. And that was even with state contending teams. And this is why many girl's varsity games are played in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday. They know the crowds will not be as big if they play at night, so they do this not to conflict with the Boy's contest. And let us not even start talking about post season games. There have been girl's sectionals that hardly had anyone in the gym. The girl's basketball is not that great overall and certainly not attended much better than boy's games. Right or wrong, that is the truth.

Peace

Carmel, Buffalo Grove, Wheeling, Loyola(during the title runs) Stevenson in the Matucci title runs, Bolingbrook. Darrill Kipps Maine West teams, New Trier has drawn very well in the Terri Rodgers era with the Naughtons and Jaeske's

There have been girl's sectionals that hardly had anyone in the gym. The girl's basketball is not that great overall and certainly not attended much better than boy's games. Right or wrong, that is the truth.

I've been to boys and could say the same.


'Girl's basketball not that great'

Compared to what?

You may want to reread my post, I didn't claim Girls games draw better than boys overall.

Please.........

The Girls 3A championship game in Arizona had over 25,000 people in attendance 2 years ago and 20,000 last year.

A 20% decrease in attendence year over year? That's dismal. Next thing you know there'll be some kind of recession going on. Time to hire some consultants. :eek:

Let me put it this way. I can pick the same number of boy's teams and show you their attendance and it would not be good overall. Heck, I worked a college game on Sunday where the Women's game had more people in attendance (first game) than at the Men's game that I worked. The Women's team won the national championship last year, so success can bring a bigger crowd either way it goes. I would never suggest anything else as it relates to program success. But I have seen many of those ranked teams go on the road in the Chicago area and you would think it was a Saturday morning JV Boy’s game.

And this is why the doubleheaders are not very common at all in the Chicago land area as they are in other parts of Illinois because the attendance for the Girl's games are often sub par no matter how successful either program is. Even a few of those programs you mentioned, get a more attendance on a regular basis with their Boy's programs. And I am not talking about Boy's programs that are year in and year out State Finals contenders.

And for the record, the attendance for the Boy's State Tournaments by far outweighs the Girl's State Tournaments in Illinois.

Peace