My wife married me and she has good taste in men.

Guess I am lucky. In Fort Worth, the chapter holds a free instructional camp for officials on 2-man mechanics (from what I understand, geared to the official with 3 or less years of experience). Then they hold a camp to teach three man mechanics in August (unfortunately not free). I was told, and time will tell if it was true, that if you attend the 3-man camp they will give you some games (even if it is small varisty).

So I plan on attending both.

The majority of camps you will find are teaching camps. These are camps who's sole purpose is to teach you how to officiate basketball. Most of the these camps do have a tryout aspect to it but that should not be your purpose in attending. If you go to these camps with tryout in mind then you won't learn what you need to to move on. But since HS Varisty assignors are usually there, you are being evaluated as well as taught.

That said, there are various levels of teaching from camp to camp. Some camps only want those who have officiated less then three years. Some cater to all levels of officials. Some only want those who are ready to move up to college or high level HS Varsity. I can't give you any specific ones because I don't know your area of the country. I can tell you if you live in Colorado, then there is Al English, for the officials who wants to concentrate on HS ball. This is a good one for the first to fifth year official. He has a two man only camp. Dave Hall's camp caters to the middle of the road where first year officials work with Veterans who are getting ready for Div I tryout camp. His is both two man and three man. Then there is Vern Harris who focus's on the officials who has been calling a few years and wants to move on to the next level. His camp is totally three man.

There are a small minority of camps that are tryout camps. They cost a lot of money and the sole purpose is to find new talent to call college ball. From what I have been told, the only thing you will learn is that there are 30 other officials that are just as good as you, probably better.

Well Tim,......
 

In Illinois many of the camps are "tryout" camps. Or at least have a "tryout" element to them.

In Illinois it is required for officials to go to a camp in their particular sport every 3 years in order to keep their license. We have what they call a 4 hour camp and a 6 hour camp. The 4 hour camp is just classroom camp. You go over mechanics and some rules applications all in a classroom setting. The 6 hour camp is where you have both a classroom and court time during the camp. The 6 hour camps for the most part are "tryout" camps or have a heavy element of tryout to them. Of course you can learn, but those that are the cream of the crop get hired or are used in some capacity for the assignors that either help out with the camps or observe officials there.

And in many of the camps that deal with college level evaluation are "tryout" camps. At least that is what I have seen.

Peace

Re: Well Tim,......
 

Rut, I agree. All camps are tryout camps in one way or another. Because this is where the assignors go to see who they want to call games. But since most of these camps have an educational aspect to it they can be treated not as a tryout oportunity. The tryout camps I am refering to are the College type camps. Games only, little to no instruction.

If you would like to come to Florida and attend a truly instructional camp for learning purposes only and also be in the sunshine as well, let me know. (probably a run on sentence).

Plus there are instructors and guests from all levels in attendance giving up their time and helping others.

Plus the price is right!!