Help/Ideas on Becoming a College Official?

[dbking]

All HawkeyeCubP advice is excellent.

-Work high school basketball.
-Work high school varsity basketball for a while.
-Work elite high school varsity basketball in your area for a while.
-Search this forum for a thread from last year that has a listing of the majority of collegiate officiating camps in the country. Bookmark those sites of camps in your region, and check them around April to see if they have current camp info on their pages.
-Find a current/recently retired college official in your area and ask them if they would act as your mentor, to help guide and assist you in your quest.
-Be humble.
-Be in the right place at the right time, and work every game with your A game, because sooner or later (and sometimes often) important people will see you work that can help you advance your career.
-Go to camp.
-Go to camp.
-Nod your head a lot at camp.

Don't make the same mistake as I believe that I made. You can work on your skills now at college camps. They will help your HS games as well as your potential college games. I have become a much better HS official by going to college camps but did not start going until later in life, 40+. Now I am 20+ older than most of the campers, makes for a big uphill battle.

- Do not start at a D1 camp
- Find a NJCAA conference in your area or NAIA
- Sign up for camp now
- Listen with both ears
- Talk very little
- Take what works for you and discard what does not
- Work parallel schedules
- Find a mentor
- It will take a lot of camps to be both good and lucky at the same time.