College Basketball Officials Overworked

[26 Year Gap]

You only have one chance to make a good first impression.

[IowaMike]

Like most everyone else here, I have a full time job in addition to officiating. Many a night I put in my 8 or 9 hours at work, get in the car and drive an hour and a half to the game, work a varsity doubleheader, drive an hour and a half home and get in bed at about midnight. Then I get up at 5:30 and go to work the next morning and sometimes head out to another doubleheader somewhere the next night. Nobody seems to complain that I'm overworked, or that every other high school official who does the same thing is overworked.

I believe most of the big time college guys who work 5 or 6 nights a week don't do anything else; it is their job. Most of us work 5 or 6 days a week at our jobs too. Heck, major league baseball umpires work 6 or 7 days a week for 6 months, minus a few weeks of vacation each season. I don't hear anyone complaining about their work hours either. People outside of the profession just like to find ways to criticize officials in my humble opinion.