If you have been here long enough or were an official, you might realize that many people here claim to live by the NF Manual in every way but for some reason seem to change when the situations does not fit. Honestly I do not care what the table responsibilities are as in my state we already have standards set by them and if there are any holes the assignor sets those standards for us. Who cares what the book says about that frankly as it is not related to this topic in anyway.

Also if you were paying attention, you would have realized that what I said about showing up dressed was mainly based on what I am going to do. That would be pretty simple if you were paying attention.

Peace

Yep.

Peace

Apples and oranges. Rules and Mechanics have nothing to do with where you dress and how you arrive at the school.
Last time I checked, the NF had no jurisdiction over middle school games. Just because the middle school leagues choose to use the same game rules doesn't mean they have to do everything the HS's do.

Plus, as many (including you, IIRC, and me) have often claimed, the mechanics book is a GUIDE book. It is not the rule book. Mechanics do carry a certainly level of optionality with them. They are A way to administer the game but the game can be administered with complete legal correctness when done with modifications to the mechanics.

I only used the reference to illustrate that there is a standard. The NF has no jurisdiction over anyone anyway when it comes to mechanics or policies as to what anyone does in any sport. States use the NF guidelines if they choose to, having said that, when I first started working we were told to follow NF procedures and mechanics to the letter. My state has sense abandoned the NF Manual, but the middle schools in much of the state follow the IHSA policies and that includes having a locker room for officials. Actually I have never worked a middle school game and was not provided such a space (I worked an IESA Post Season just in the last couple of years). I will say in my immediate area this is not as much of a standard, but never had a problem getting such a place if requested when attending a game. Again, I am not showing up to any basketball game during the regular season dressed in that uniform. Not unless someone is going to do my laundry when I get to the site. ;)

As I said, I only referenced it to make a point. Also all standards officials (in any sport) are not spelled out in writing. I went to my college meeting today and many things people do are not spelled out. But I can tell you if you do not do certain things they are noticed by the very people that make the decisions. I would rather take my chance that someone in the building is probably going to notice me and expect something more than what is OK by some. I do not feel that "everyone does it" is a good excuse to do less than what is normal. It is not unusual at the middle school level to see an assignor, accomplished official, college supervisor or a big time coach to attend those games and often some individual’s behavior has been evaluated positively and negatively based on how they walk into the gym. I am just giving a suggestion; it is not my career that is going to be affected if you do not go to a game appropriately in someone's mind.

Peace

Let's just say that is the exception and not the rule.

No, let's just say it would be extremely rare that that would happen.

No, let's just say I find it hard to believe that would ever happen.

You think it is an exception that the parents that watch middle school games do not have a knowledgeable or influential parent? I am not saying it is common for the Big Ten Commissioner to show up to his son's game (which happened to many I know), I am saying that it is not uncommon a state final official or a college official might just be at a game and you had no idea they were there. ;)

Peace

The part I find hard to believe is that these "influential" people are at all concerned by the the way middle school officials are dressed when they walk in the gym.

You may find it hard to believe, but officials are regular people too. People will sometimes veteran officials what they think about another official and not knowing where they saw them. I could tell several stories where the wrong impression was given by someone working a game where someone was simply watching their kid play and it did not always start when they first saw them on the court. I hear a new story almost every camp I attend about that very thing. If you find it hard to believe, do not believe it. All it takes is one time for the right or wrong person. It might not be the issue of how they come to the game, but it might be something else. People make judgments about us the minute we walk in the gym. Not many people walk into a school with a bag or black pants and black athletic shoes. I hope you do not think we are not spotted by folks coming in the door.

Peace

Some do, some don't. Just like if someone wore a belt where I've worked, it wouldn't be considered looking professional.

I'm pretty easy to spot. The stripes are a dead giveaway. I actually don't own a bag.

This says a lot. I will leave it at that. :rolleyes:

Peace

As usual, JRut applies his standards to everyone else and they are automatically wrong if they do anything differently than he does. Then he backtracks and tries to talk his way out of it when Snaqwells quotes him. :rolleyes:

In this area, there is one school district that plays their middle school games at 3:00. Most, if not all officials go to these games already dressed. The assignor has made it clear that this is acceptable, and as long as you show up and work the game, everything is fine. These schools are just glad to have two officials show up. They, nor the parents (Influential or not) watching in the stands care about where or how the officials got dressed.

For every other MS game and certainly for every HS game, locker rooms are provided.

Edit: And by the way, I do agree with the part in the OP about schools complaining. If they refuse to provide somewhere to change, they can't complain about us dressing outside. With that said, even the middle schools I speak of above that start their games at 3:00 would find somewhere for us to dress if we wanted.

I've yet to see a school that doesn't at least have a public restroom. It might not be ideal, but at least it is not outside where you can get a sunburn.

If someone has enough time to dress in the parking lot, I would think they would have enough time to find some place inside to dress. I'd ask the head coach where this is...most of the time, it's a closed off locker room for officials, sometimes a room, coach's office...sometimes it's been just a restroom, but any of those places are better than in the parking lot. Probably one of the reasons I'd never work baseball lol :D

I guess this statement came directly from me? Oh, if you cannot read correctly, this was in the email that was referenced in very first post of this thread from an assignor not in my area.

Hmmmmmmmm, interesting. Is that not pretty much the exact statement I made previously?

I better not ever hear you tell others what to they should do, because after all that would be your standards right? :rolleyes:

Peace