Should I take charge?

[Jay R]

This weekend I got to do four games in a tournament. I am a rookie so I tend to let the vets take charge of pregame matters. My partner today never mentionned anything of substance before the game (no pre-game). Should have I brought up double whistles etc? Also we never had a captains meeting. I felt strange about this. Again, should a rookie have enough confidence to say "OK let's get the captains"? Any thoughts?

[mick]

Originally posted by Jay R
This weekend I got to do four games in a tournament. I am a rookie so I tend to let the vets take charge of pregame matters. My partner today never mentionned anything of substance before the game (no pre-game). Should have I brought up double whistles etc? Also we never had a captains meeting. I felt strange about this. Again, should a rookie have enough confidence to say "OK let's get the captains"? Any thoughts?

Jay R,
Take a low-key approach.
For example, pose it as a question, "Should we get the captains?", "How should we handle double whistles?"
Ease into it until it bugs you too much to ignore.
It's tough, but sometimes we have to deal with the "Ho Hum" approach.
I'll tell you one thing though, the higher we work, the more important those sorts of things become.
Good luck.
mick

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by Jay R
This weekend I got to do four games in a tournament. I am a rookie so I tend to let the vets take charge of pregame matters. My partner today never mentionned anything of substance before the game (no pre-game). Should have I brought up double whistles etc? Also we never had a captains meeting. I felt strange about this. Again, should a rookie have enough confidence to say "OK let's get the captains"? Any thoughts?

Always be willing to take charge. It will benefit you in the long run. You need to know what they are going to do, or what their philosophy is before the game. You have the right to know so that you will not make mistakes yourself or that you will not have much discussion on the floor.

Just simple say "for my benefit, what are we going to do on double whistles?" That should open up the jar and you can then discuss other things. If you are worried about how they are going to react, you just bring it up in such a way so that you understand what is going on. Then they will usually open up the discussion or continue it based on your lack of knowledge. Believe me, any official worth his or her salt does not want to deal with a rookie that does not have a clue what is going on or any official for that matter. It is to their benefit to get you on the same page as them.

Peace

[topref]

Diffently, Take charge and use it as an opportunity for you to work on at least three weaknesses or areas during those 4 games. Dont let an official who chooses to take a lax approach to a T-Game to impact on your opportunity to polish your approach to the game. I always work on at least three areas, when I approach any game!

[rcwilco]

I can empathize with your position. When I started a few years ago it was irritating to have to figure out a way to have a pre game with out actually having one. While this was not the majority of the time, it still happened too frquently. I would ask questions like "In your experience how do you handle..............? or I have wondered about this....or, I do this on such and such a situation, is that how you do it? I think it is a sad reflection on an official to refuse to have a pre game when, not only does it improve our officiating, but they could use it to train and improve others.
Fortunately I have only had that happen once in the last two years. I love working with a top notch varsity offical who is helping out at the JV level and dong a pre game with them, they are usually such a great learning opportunty. Hang in there.

[Jay R]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I will use your suggestions for bringing up pre-game situations with some tact. Also, I must say that the majority of the guys I worked with this year were very helpful. One veteran spent an hour discussing officiating (after our game). I certainly took advantage of those types of situations. Those guys know their rules but they also have many years of experience, something you can't get from a rulebook. Thanks again.