How long did you work HS before moving to college ball?

[Scrapper1]

Originally Posted by Gimlet25id

It is up to him if he goes or not (camp). That is what I was saying. In reality it ' "is all up to him."

Look, I'm certainly not trying to pick a fight over this, but it's simply not ALL up to him. Certain things are up to him: the camps he attends, his conditioning, his work ethic. Other things are completely out of his control: his gender, how he is perceived by the assignor at camp, etc. That's all I'm saying. It's not ALL up to him, and I didn't want him to go away with the false impression that picking out a camp and going away for a weekend were going to land him a Juco schedule. There are other factors at play, obviously.

[Gimlet25id]

Originally Posted by tomegun

That is funny; I knew if I described him to you it would probably be obvious. He knows EVERYBODY! Our mothers were sisters.

I guess we were in high school together for two years. Isn't there some sort of rule that says you can't do games at the high school in town. Doing a varsity game there is one of my dreams. Back in the days when Woody Austin was doing his thing the gym would be jumping! 8,000 people on a Friday night is an experience.

Don't know him, know him. I did get a speeding ticket from him once. No talking him out of it. He played golf a couple of times in this weekend group I golf with this past summer. The church he was in or is in had an association with the church I used to be associated with. Real good dude!!!

Woody Austin....Hmmm those were the days. When Dominic James was coming through Tiernan almost felt like it did when Woody was playing. Not sure we will ever get those days back.

[btaylor64]

Originally Posted by Moshiner1345

Camps... Camps... Camps... Everyone is saying stuff about camps. What camps have helped officials get noticed?

I will list my camps that I went to and were seen at, just because they are truly great camps and I did get noticed which led to better things for me:

1.) George Toliver's Pro-Active Camp (Harrisonburg, Va)
2.) Roger Ayers(ACC) and Mike Eades(ACC) Camp.
3.)Any of Joe Forte's (NBA) camps.

I've been to plenty more, but as far as these not being try-out and camps and still getting you looked at, these are great camps.

[Texas Aggie]

I worked 2 college games in my 4th year and a half a dozen or so in my 5th year. I started to camps (years ago when they weren't as numerous as they are now) after my second year and a lot of it was basically in the right place at the right time plus my willingness to do virtually everything I was told to do. Had I stayed with it at the time (I left officiating for a while), I don't think I would have broken into D1 before my 10th year at a minimum, if at all for several reasons -- some of which relate to a changing of the guard. At any rate, around here it isn't that difficult to get a college schedule as long as you are persistent, in reasonable shape, and have decent game management skills. If you are willing to go to the same camps for 3-5 years, sometimes with little or no official feedback in years 1-4, your persistence will pay off. Moving up to D1, however, is a bit of a different ball game.

Again, that's my experience where I am. Other parts of the country probably differ.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Texas Aggie

. At any rate, around here it isn't that difficult to get a college schedule as long as you are persistent, in reasonable shape, and have decent game management skills. If you are willing to go to the same camps for 3-5 years, sometimes with little or no official feedback in years 1-4, your persistence will pay off. Moving up to D1, however, is a bit of a different ball game.

That's seems to the norm in quite a few areas. Because of availability, etc, in some areas you can break into D3 & JUCO ball long before they'll even consider you for a good high school varsity schedule. Availability alone isn't a factor when you are trying to move up, though. There might be 20 equally-competent and experienced officials vying for one open D1 spot. Who gets that spot can be a crap shoot.

From my experience, Scrappy has the right take on what is facing people who truly want to move up.