If I knew then what I know now...

[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.