High School games in your State.

[JRutledge]

How long would it take for a brand new official to do a High School game in your state?

Would they be required to do middle school games or rec. games in order to officiate High School games?

Who makes these requirements, the state or assignors?

Peace

[Brian Watson]

Rut, define HS?

I know guy that work Frosh and JV in their first year (probably shouldn't, but do).

If you mean Varsity, it could happen. Each area is different. Some use assigners, some don't. If you have friends, it is much easier to move up faster. I know a guy whose Dad has reffed for 30 years, he had a full Varsity sked in his 2nd year...

[devdog69]

Originally posted by JRutledge
How long would it take for a brand new official to do a High School game in your state?

Would they be required to do middle school games or rec. games in order to officiate High School games?


Who makes these requirements, the state or assignors?

Peace

Rut,

I work in KS and MO, and there are no "requirements" other than being registered and attending annual rules meetings. MO may require some mechanics clinics for new officials, I'm not 100% sure. It is mostly who you know and/or what assignors have seen you work and think you might be ready. A brand new official, guided by the proper mentor, could probably work a decent high school schedule in his/her third year if they were ready. I am mostly speaking of KS. Most assignors around my area want you to work a year or two of JV/Jr High ball for them, before giving you a shot at varsity, unless, of course, you ar working for other assignors already.

[crew]

i was lucky and was assigned varsity in the 2nd half of my first season. dont get me wrong, he assigned me with 2 very good officials to pick up the slack in situations i could not handle. location and shortage of officials, i think, has a lot to do with how fast i moved up in varsity ball. i have a friend that lives in philly and he started officiating highschool basketball 9 yrs ago and worked an nba preseason game before he worked his first highschool varsity. that goes to show that in that area it is not how good you are but how good of a buddy you are!

[Sleeper]

I just got off the phone last night with the new officials coordinator with my local chapter, and new officials are started on Freshman and JV ball. Varsity is normally not seen in the first year, with the exception of possible small schools or private schools in the later part of the season. The association doesn't assign for middle school, that's left up to each institution to fend for themselves because of not having enought officials to guarentee all of the middle schools would have coverage. Often times, officials work out deals with middle schools local to them and call on nights when they don't have association games.

I am looking forward to getting started.

[ChuckElias]

Oh, for cryin' out loud. Move on, Jeff. Who cares??!?! This is just a stupid little pissing contest. Take this argument with Tony to the other board, where they appreciate stupid threads that trade insults for 3 weeks.

Brad, any chance you can get rid of this thread?

Chuck

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by Brian Watson
Rut, define HS?

I know guy that work Frosh and JV in their first year (probably shouldn't, but do).

If you mean Varsity, it could happen. Each area is different. Some use assigners, some don't. If you have friends, it is much easier to move up faster. I know a guy whose Dad has reffed for 30 years, he had a full Varsity sked in his 2nd year...

Any game or level that is considered a High School game in your area. For example in Illinois and Iowa for example, you cannot do any HS game without a license with the Illinois High School Association or the Iowa High School Association for games from 9th grade thru 12th grade (Boy's Association. They have a two associations for some reason.) . If officials do games without a license in both of these states, schools can forfeit games or be possibly suspended from these respective associations depending on who gave these games to the non-licensed officials. So if you do a Freshman game in these states, you must have a license with the HS Associations. If you do a 8th Grade game or lower, it might not at all be required to have any license. Not sure about Iowa, but I know it does not matter in Illinois. Even thought the Illinois Elementary School Associations (IESA) recommends that all officials have an IHSA License, but it is not at all required. But all middle schools or elementary schools do not belong to the IESA either. So you could do games with schools that have no affiliation with the IESA at all.

Peace

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by ChuckElias
Oh, for cryin' out loud. Move on, Jeff. Who cares??!?! This is just a stupid little pissing contest. Take this argument with Tony to the other board, where they appreciate stupid threads that trade insults for 3 weeks.

Brad, any chance you can get rid of this thread?

Chuck

This is why this is a discussion board. If you do not like the post, do not read it or respond to it. This has nothing to do with Tony really at all, but since on the "other board" coaches were claiming that they would not hire officials that did not do lower levels or have other experience, I wanted to see if that applied all over the country. I would like to find out if Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and even Indiana have different standards for HS officials. It might help officials that answer questions about becoming an official and how it relates to the actual jurisdiction that the prospective official resides. It would be easier to ask the question then looking up all 50 states for their requirements and not knowing the ins and outs of a particular state's assigning practices.

Peace

[Stan]

Originally posted by crew
i was lucky and was assigned varsity in the 2nd half of my first season. dont get me wrong, he assigned me with 2 very good officials to pick up the slack in situations i could not handle.

Crew,

Three man crew? Is this high School? What state?

Thanks, Stan

[Andy]

Originally posted by JRutledge
How long would it take for a brand new official to do a High School game in your state?

Would they be required to do middle school games or rec. games in order to officiate High School games?

Who makes these requirements, the state or assignors?

Peace

You asked...I'll answer.

I work in AZ, Phoenix area. AZ does things differently from anywhere else, to the best of my knowledge. If you register with the state association (Arizona Interscholastic Association), you go to clinics and are assigned FR and JV for approx 4-5 years, there are exceptions to this time frame, of course, but that is the average. These games are assigned by the area commissioner. The officials associations that exist handle city rec leagues, some middle school and Jr. Hi games, boys clubs, etc. These associations and the AIA are completely independent of one another. So, if an official only desires to do HS games, he pays his dues, buys a uniform, and is doing FR and JV games. There is NO requirement that an official has any officiating experience before registering with the AIA.

I have only worked in the Phoenix area, but am reasonably certain that this procedure is basically the same around the state.

[Jeremy Hohn]

In TX here, you are supposed to be a TASO (Texas association of sports officials) dues paying member to even call sub-varsity level, but I use guys that aren't TASO members to call ball if they have no aspirations to referee varsity, and I make the AD sign a waiver stating that he knows they aren't TASO members calling the games. That covers me if their is any problems with it. Also the AD is happy that he has referees rather than his coaches having to cover the games. Everyone wins. However, generally you will call some lower level games, but the number and level of competition directly coincides with your level of officiating. I have used first year guys here in small school varsity games and they have done a great job. It really is up to the assignor/evaluator in your area and what the bylaws in your state are, but we don't have a minimum number of sub-varsity games that you have to call. I think the shortage of officials again contributes to that factor.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally posted by JRutledge
[/B]

This has nothing to do with Tony really at all, but since on the "other board" coaches were claiming that they would not hire officials that did not do lower levels or have other experience, I wanted to see if that applied all over the country. I would like to find out if Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and even Indiana have different standards for HS officials. It might help officials that answer questions about becoming an official and how it relates to the actual jurisdiction that the prospective official resides. It would be easier to ask the question then looking up all 50 states for their requirements and not knowing the ins and outs of a particular state's assigning practices.

[/B][/QUOTE]There's nothing the matter with the above reasons for posting,now I know that I won't have to read any kind of "I told you so" post that is based on self-interpretation of incomplete data.Different areas or associations in larger states could have completely different standards,due to the number of games available,number of officials available,use of assigners vs. schools booking their own officials,etc. I had the same doubts as Chuck,and I'm now glad that we were both wrong and we won't have to see this thread referenced in any follow-up posts to Tony in the future.

[Tim Roden]

I've worked Texas and Colorado. As mentioned before, I have worked small(class A) varsity games in Texas with first year officials.

When I began in Colorado, I never saw a first year official call a varsity game. I saw several second year officials calling varsity. There it is totally up to the assignors and assignments are made before the rookie test. You have to make an 86 on the test before you can become elgible to call varsity. So the only way you can even get a varsity contest as a rookie is if someone backs out of a game. Then the assignor can put a rookie in to cover the game. He rarely does in the larger cities on the Front Range. I don't know about the assignors in the mountains, Western Slope or high plains.

[Mark Padgett]

As I've mentioned before, my son Josh just joined the major association here in Portland. Although it was his first year in the Assn., he was assigned to the third-year class, because he had so much rec experience and he attended a review night and was evaluated prior to his class assignment. That's as high as they can put you with only rec experience. His schedule was all Freshman and JV. After only this first year, he was just told he will achieve "regular member status" next season and will start to get varsity games.

There is a procedure wherein a ref can "transfer" from another association and have his experience there count here. He is put in the cleverly named "transfer class".

[JRutledge]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jurassic Referee

I had the same doubts as Chuck,and I'm now glad that we were both wrong and we won't have to see this thread referenced in any follow-up posts to Tony in the future.

I am not glad that you were wrong, but I had doubts of what was true myself. That is why I asked. I wanted to address this question earlier, but was preparing to go out of town and just forgot.

I will say this, I am surprised that it is so easy to get varsity games in many places. I would have thought it would take longer. But I guess there really is a shortage in many places.

Peace