New Official

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by Z REF
For HS, the key appears to be the size of the metropolitan area in which you reside. This is my 8th year. My first year was in the Dallas Metro area, and I was assigned several JV games at 5-A schools. Did I belong in those games? No way. I was horrible and I still feel bad for my partners that year. But it's simple supply and demand. The larger the area, the more games and more supply. Large metro areas (like Miami) usually experience a shortage of officials relative to the number of available games.

For what it's worth, the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area has NO shortage of refs! This year, we have a huge first-year class (due in part to a certain newspapaer article that appeared last spring), and the second and third year classes have not shrunk. It is fiercely competetive to get the "good" varsity games (fortunately, I'm not at the point where I have to worry about it, yet) and we actually had more people sign up this year to be mentors, than mentees. Amazing, but true!