Welmer Drinking game has commenced

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by mightyvol

Ahhh B.S. There are plenty of others out there that are capable. Im not buying this B.S one minute. How the hell else are the other young guns supposed to get exposure when he does every damn game?

I am not asking you to buy anything. But the young gun officials are not up for his games. It is a numbers game and Welmer like Hightower, Burr, Ted Higgins (and the other Higgins) are at the top of the food chain. Officials trying to break in are lucky if they get non-conference game between the worst team of the league and a team with so many hyphens that you did not even know that was a school with that name. If Welmer works in the Big 12 on any night in that conference that leaves 5 other games and 15 other officials working games on a particular night or afternoon. And Welmer is not working the two worst teams in that conference, he is working the big game of the night that is featured on national television. Games that are on national TV are not games that do not feature the top teams or the best match-ups in that conference. That is why you are not seeing a bunch of games on ESPN with Nebraska or Iowa State on a regular basis.

I will give you a better example. Last year Ed Hightower got a bad knee injury and Hightower was out almost the entire year. Guess who replaced him? It was not young officials that barely worked in those big time conferences. He was replaced with other officials that had been working in those leagues for years and might have picked up a game or two individually to cover the hole left by Hightower. And if you do not believe me, just look up the information on the Basketball State website and you can look at the schedules of many officials across the country. There are a lot of names on that list and you will see that Welmer is not the only one working games.

Peace

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by mightyvol

. How the hell else are the other young guns supposed to get exposure when he does every damn game?

Earn it maybe?

Welmer did, whether you like him or not.

[tjones1]

Originally Posted by ace

OR are these jackets given to the guys who make the state tourny?

No, a patch is given to our state final officials. It can be placed on the shirt under the IHSA patch.

[rainmaker]

Originally Posted by mightyvol

How the hell else are the other young guns supposed to get exposure when he does every damn game?

He doesn't do even close to every damn game. There are plenty of other games going on where you can catch the attention of an assignor and gradually get moved up. It's just that you don't see them on TV. There are two other people working with Welmer. Perhaps one of them is doing his first TV game. He worked his way up by starting at the bottom and doing a good job -- just like Welmer did.