Evaluators
 

What percentage of associations use evaluators? Do they improve the majority of officials work? Do they help officials with more than 10 years experience? Do they help provide fairness in scheduling? What is the #1 pro and #1 con in using them?

Our association does not use evaluators in a way I think they should, instead we are evaluated in two ways. First, individual assignors ask their veteran officials to observe and evaluate. We never know when we will be evaluated or by whom. With that said...

Pro-it forces you to be on your toes in each and every game.

Cons-Some assignors never get around to actually seeing you in person (I have worked for one guy for 7 years, I've met him once) and as a result, they cannot formulate their own opinions. Not to mention there are some inherent biases involved.


We are also evaluated on a game by game basis by the coaches for state tournament assignments.

Pro-if you do well, you get rewarded.

Con-officials with "working relationships" with some coaches get the benefit of the doubt and at times are paired up with coaches who recommend them for state tournament games. I am told this is unavoidable. I don't buy it.

You mentioned you have a system in mind. What is it? I plan on suggesting a system for our association and maybe I can get some ideas from your plan rather than using the book from Referee mag only.

No such animal in my area. We have an observers program, but it has nothing to do with post season and it is an association run system. In other words it is to help officials get better, not get better assignments.

Peace

We are in the process of putting a system in place. In our state, the association hires an assignment secretary. As you can imagine, there is a "learning curve" for new assigners to get a handle on the abilities of the officials, the teams that are "on the rise" and who's programs are tailing off, the lesser know rivalries, etc.

Because of those issues, we are putting together a 7 member panel of evaluators. Each evaluator will be required to observe every member of the chapter once a year...be it summer league, camps, scrimmages or games. Each evaluator will rate the official from 500 (freshman level only) to 100 (any varsity matchup) for both boys and girls. These rating will be put into the assignment software. When the assignor is ready to put officials in a game he can ask for all referees that rate 150...the software will give him a list of available officials considering coach scratches, official scratches, time necessary to reach game site, etc. He simply picks from the list then does the same for the umpire(s).

We feel this will eliminate, or greatly reduce, bias because your rating will be an average of the 7 evaluations. One of the learning curves is eliminated and officials do not have to focus on camps that the assignor will observe but can attend the ones they feel best meet their personal goals. It should also be a reality check for the officials who "have been doing this for decades" but do not attend camps or work to keep their skills at a high level.

Here's the evaluation process we use in our local kids rec league. Each official starts out with 100 points. Points are then deducted for the following:

Not being prepared to start the game on time / minus 5 points

Not dressed properly / minus 5 points

Poor mechanics / minus 10 points

Poor communication with partner / minus 10 points

Bad haircut / minus 10 points

Forgetting to ask coaches to purchase foul insurance / minus 20 points

Taking crap from players / minus 20 points

Taking crap from coaches / minus 100 points

Taking crap from parents / minus 200 points

Forgetting to bow down before me after the game / minus 250 points

They receive an additional 50 points for each technical they assess.

Inquiring Minds Want To Know ???
 

Games with an overtime period? Games with more than one overtime period?

All of our officials know that allowing an overtime period carries the death penalty. We don't need to put it on the eval form.

Same here.

Concur, same for our Association. It won't help me in the post-season as I'm not there yet. But, good evals may help me get a better regular season schedule.

I start my first three-person spring/summer assignments, with evaluators, Monday, and am looking forward to some feedback - both positive and negative.

Our Training Committee has provided what I call "tough-love" in the past and I appreciate their input. They're critical, but fare.