If I knew then what I know now...

[DLH17]

...I would have started officiating basketball during the off season during my high school years and would have made it my 'part time' job while in college.

Why didn't I know how fulfilling this career would be back then?

With that in mind, I talk up the vocation to anyone that will listen. And, I've already started doing some pro bono games with my 13 yr old daughter at our church's youth basketball program. She's already hooked and wants me to continue helping her as she gets older and becomes eligible to to YMCA and biddy ball games.

The life lessons and skills taught through officiating are too numerous to count. I'm so happy she is interested.

Has anyone else introduced their son or daughter to officiating over the years?

[bas2456]

Originally Posted by DLH17

...I would have started officiating basketball during the off season during my high school years and would have made it my 'part time' job while in college.

Why didn't I know how fulfilling this career would be back then?

With that in mind, I talk up the vocation to anyone that will listen. And, I've already started doing some pro bono games with my 13 yr old daughter at our church's youth basketball program. She's already hooked and wants me to continue helping her as she gets older and becomes eligible to to YMCA and biddy ball games.

The life lessons and skills taught through officiating are too numerous to count. I'm so happy she is interested.

Has anyone else introduced their son or daughter to officiating over the years?

Opposite, actually. I got my dad into it this season. He hasn't been able to take a ton of games because he's working on a small project known as a dissertation. Hopefully he'll finish up this spring and dive head first into basketball next season.

[bradfordwilkins]

Originally Posted by bas2456

Opposite, actually. I got my dad into it this season. He hasn't been able to take a ton of games because he's working on a small project known as a dissertation. Hopefully he'll finish up this spring and dive head first into basketball next season.

I got my father back into it last year... He had refereed for a season of HS ball 30 years ago and had a lot to catch up on...and it created a VERY interesting dynamic as partners; players would defer to him as the older, slightly balding experienced ref and he'd have to come ask the young guy for clarification ha.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by DLH17

Has anyone else introduced their son or daughter to officiating over the years?

I got my son started when he was in 7th grade working 3rd and 4th grade games in our local kids rec league. He worked that league all through HS. Eventually, he joined the local officials assn. and worked for (I think) two years doing HS ball before he got too busy with his job and getting married. I've always felt he was so good that if he would have stayed with it, I would have eventually seen him working NCAA and then NBA games.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

I got my son started when he was in 7th grade working 3rd and 4th grade games in our local kids rec league. He worked that league all through HS. Eventually, he joined the local officials assn. and worked for (I think) two years doing HS ball before he got too busy with his job and getting married. I've always felt he was so good that if he would have stayed with it, I would have eventually seen him working NCAA and then NBA games.

Families tend to change priorities. I never really gave it up, but I would take 2 or 3 years off at a time due to jobs, family (babies), and moving to new cities in the middle of a season. I'm just now feeling that I'm on a roll, but really only count 6 of the past 7 seasons.

My 9 year old daughter doesn't seem interested now, but that may change as she gets older. She still doesn't much care for basketball season since I'm out of the house so much.

[ref2coach]

Originally Posted by DLH17

Has anyone else introduced their son or daughter to officiating over the years?

My Son started as a recreation soccer referee 10 years ago, as a 10 year old. He did one season of Basketball when he was 15. He has stayed with Soccer, in fact tomorrow we will be working 3 intercollegiate intramural games at Vanderbilt University, who are hosting teams from Georgia and Florida.

[AKOFL]

My grandfather was the official in our family. He did football and basketball. Football he called in the Bakersfield CA area backin the day. Basketball all over. his last games were is Alaska I believe. He was a great outdoorsmen and sports enthusiest.(?) He got me into officiating but I was never able to work with him before he died of cancer. I wish he was still around to see me work state I'm sure he would be proud. And I could thank him for giving me this rewarding career.

[grunewar]

Wait until Justacoach sees this.......proud papa gonna come out!

I couldn't interest my boys at all unfortunately. Some have the desire, others not so much.

I too do a bit of pro-bono type work with Rec Leagues, talk it up at every chance I get, try to recruit others, and try to show a special interest to help the few young ones that may have a future if they choose to continue.

Unfortunately, I personally got started too late in the game and wish I too had started many yrs ago. I was too busy coaching my boys in soccer, baseball, and basketball....which are the right reasons be late to the stripes IMO!

[Raymond]

When I was in HS I used to keep the book and/or clock for military intramurals and base team games. During my senior in HS the head of the association at Travis AFB asked me if wanted to be an official. I said no because I was thinking I'd be reffing adults I was scared/intimidated. Never even occurred to me that I would start off with little kids games.

Ended up waiting until I was 37 1/2 years old (in need of $$$ because of impending divorce) when I wore the stripes for the first time. Luckily I've had a pretty good career progression for someone who started that late. But boy, where would I be now if I had started as a teen-ager?

Tomegun officiated my games when I was in the military in the early/mid 90's, sure wish he would have recruited to the darkside back then.

[just another ref]

My son called his first game with me at age 10. 11-12 boys rec game and there was nobody else. I asked for an adult volunteer. I tossed him my extra whistle and said let's go. He did fine. He is now 20 and has never registered as an official but has helped me occasionally over the years at levels jr. high and below.

[justacoach]

Originally Posted by grunewar

I was too busy coaching my boys in soccer, baseball, and basketball.

Which means he was still 'officiating' but it was "outside the lines" and he wasn't getting paid and certainly not in proper uniform.....
He has since reformed and is a most venerable member of our brotherhood, if only to assuage the guilt for his behavior while coaching

[Welpe]

Originally Posted by justacoach

Which means he was still 'officiating' but it was "outside the lines" and he wasn't getting paid and certainly not in proper uniform.....
He has since reformed and is a most venerable member of our brotherhood, if only to assuage the guilt for his behavior while coaching

Hehe...I resemble that, too.

[Ref_in_Alberta]

Well let's see...

My father started officiating in 1989.
He got me started in 1991 when I was in High School.
My youngest brother started in 1994.
The middle brother started in 1997.

As a family, we've traveled to various camps in Canada & the U.S.A.
We've all officiated at the JUCO level here.
The "old man" is now a JUCO observer & provincial evaluator.
I'm heading into the 2nd half of my first term as the Evaluation Chair for my local association.

We've been assigned to a number of HS Provincial Championships over the years. The hi-light of which was 2003 when the Old Guy & I worked the 3A Girls (second highest classification in the province) Gold Medal game together. (I was the R... )

2 out of 4 of us have been assigned to National Championships.
Mom is the official videographer for the family. Over the past 20+ years she's logged too many hours to count on the camera.

Thanksgiving & Christmas gatherings usually turn into a clinic (Thank God, Mom & each of our wives have patience & a sense of humour!)...

<>
As a side note: My 2 year son has discovered my Fox-40 and blows it better then some of the guys I've observed other the past year. Might be a 3rd generation referee in the family.

[ChrisSportsFan]

Originally Posted by DLH17

...I would have started officiating basketball during the off season during my high school years and would have made it my 'part time' job while in college.

Why didn't I know how fulfilling this career would be back then?

With that in mind, I talk up the vocation to anyone that will listen. And, I've already started doing some pro bono games with my 13 yr old daughter at our church's youth basketball program. She's already hooked and wants me to continue helping her as she gets older and becomes eligible to to YMCA and biddy ball games.

The life lessons and skills taught through officiating are too numerous to count. I'm so happy she is interested.

Has anyone else introduced their son or daughter to officiating over the years?

Great thread! By the time my Son was 13, he'd been to several of my games and we had discussed him starting to officiate. The clincher for him was when he say me volunteer at the Special Olympics. On the way home he told me he wanted to do that.

Over the next year he read thru the rule book 5 times and took every rules test I could find. We would practice our mechanics in the mirror and we would discuss situations. I even gave him an oppurtunity to earn $5 if he could find a rule that I didn't know. This forced him to really dig into the rule and case book to find those qwirky rules and I certainly learned a few things as well.

The following year when I took my Special Olympic games, guess who my partner was? My Son is now going to turn 17 in 2 months and has roughly 500 games under his belt. He plan to get patched this year and I have 2 assignors who will schedule him Freshman games and possibly some JVG games.

I'd like to take him to some camps but don't want anyone to feel "short changed" for getting crewed up with a young fella. I'm so glad he's hooked and look forward to someday working a Friday night rival match with him on our crew. I'm only 41 so we could certainly reach this goal.