Madison prep writer not a fan of 3-person crews

[canuckrefguy]

"Not only has off-the-ball contact become irrelevant..."

I actually took this guy seriously until he said this.

What an idiot.

[williebfree]

Hello Mr. Hernandez:

I just read your sports blog/commentary online. It appears your attempting to address perceived shortcomings, or a lack of improvement, with three-person officiating crews. Note the gender-free reference, because I have officiated with highly qualified women. Nonetheless, I am thankful that in your commentary you acknowledged the crew of the "featured" game met your standard for officiating. But I have to ask "What criteria do you base your evaluation of officials?"

Let's step back and analyze your claims: "I continue to be dumbfounded by the abundance of no-calls or missed calls by the ones assigned to do Big Eight games and -- thanks to sports reporter Matt Goins of the Verona Press -- I have visual evidence to back up my claim." In your perfect world, the officials would have called the contact in this play. However, if you understand the role of the official you can allow room for judgment of advantage/disadvantage. In this play, the official let the play develop and determined the contact did not create a disadvantage for the shooter. (This concept is known as a "patient whistle") You openly admitted the shooter scored, this does not sound like an egregious error in judgment.
As follow-up to the concept of advantage/disadvantage you may need a greater understanding in evaluating "increased physical play." Are you confident that officiating crews are really that neglligent? Do you truly understand officiating to the level you can legitimately assess them? In regards to the game you discussed in the commentary, perhaps the crew missed the call (in the photo) and a few others along the way, but I am confident they were fully competent to administer the rules.I challenge you to step over to the "dark side" acquire some training and get on the court with stripes and a whistle. I am confident it will be an epiphany. I would love to see a follow-up article/blog after this experience.

My final observation, in a perfect world, writers and editors would not post an article/blog/commentary online or in print with misspelled words or other grammatical errors. Take a closer look at the last sentence of your sixth paragraph --Conference. Additionally, the first sentence of the seventh paragraph has an unnecessarily repeated word "game." One more thing, as a writer/editor, you have the benefit of time to review your decisions... sports officials need to process and act in split second timing.


Respectfully,

"Willie B. Free"
WIAA Certified Official
#200837

[mcarr]

Originally Posted by GoodwillRef

I used to work in the league the writer is talking about in the Madison, WI Metro area but quit because of the assigner. This conference (Big Eight) has lost most of its good officials since the new assigner took over 3 years ago. The problem is not the 3 person system it is that the assigner has guys working varsity games that struggle with freshman games. If you put bad/inexperienced officials in a system they don't know very well they are going to struggle and it hurts everyone.

I am in total agreement.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by mcarr

I am in total agreement.

And I couldn't possibly argue, either.

But again, it's not the 3-person officiating that's the root cause of this.

[ga314ref]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

And I couldn't possibly argue, either.

But again, it's not the 3-person officiating that's the root cause of this.

Maybe he's lobbying for 4-person crews. I could use the extra money.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention [email protected] is a twit.

[bigdogrunnin]

Originally Posted by williebfree

Hello Mr. Hernandez:

I just read your sports blog/commentary online. It appears your attempting to address perceived shortcomings, or a lack of improvement, with three-person officiating crews. Note the gender-free reference, because I have officiated with highly qualified women. Nonetheless, I am thankful that in your commentary you acknowledged the crew of the "featured" game met your standard for officiating. But I have to ask "What criteria do you base your evaluation of officials?"

Let's step back and analyze your claims: "I continue to be dumbfounded by the abundance of no-calls or missed calls by the ones assigned to do Big Eight games and -- thanks to sports reporter Matt Goins of the Verona Press -- I have visual evidence to back up my claim." In your perfect world, the officials would have called the contact in this play. However, if you understand the role of the official you can allow room for judgment of advantage/disadvantage. In this play, the official let the play develop and determined the contact did not create a disadvantage for the shooter. (This concept is known as a "patient whistle") You openly admitted the shooter scored, this does not sound like an egregious error in judgment.
As follow-up to the concept of advantage/disadvantage you may need a greater understanding in evaluating "increased physical play." Are you confident that officiating crews are really that neglligent? Do you truly understand officiating to the level you can legitimately assess them? In regards to the game you discussed in the commentary, perhaps the crew missed the call (in the photo) and a few others along the way, but I am confident they were fully competent to administer the rules.I challenge you to step over to the "dark side" acquire some training and get on the court with stripes and a whistle. I am confident it will be an epiphany. I would love to see a follow-up article/blog after this experience.

My final observation, in a perfect world, writers and editors would not post an article/blog/commentary online or in print with misspelled words or other grammatical errors. Take a closer look at the last sentence of your sixth paragraph --Conference. Additionally, the first sentence of the seventh paragraph has an unnecessarily repeated word "game." One more thing, as a writer/editor, you have the benefit of time to review your decisions... sports officials need to process and act in split second timing.


Respectfully,

"Willie B. Free"
WIAA Certified Official
#200837

I hope you fixed this to say "you are" or "you're" before you sent it.