Officials' Accomodations
 

Someone's comments in another thread got me thinking about some of the facilities that are given to us to dress in.

In my area, there are a bunch of schools that are good, some that are mediocre, and a few that are just downright frustrating to go to.

The good: usually a coach's office with a separate bathroom and shower. Most of the schools around here take this approach. It works pretty well, except when people from the school feel they can walk in and out whenever they want. When it works out the best is when it's the AD's office and he's the only one with keys and he knows to leave us alone. One of the negative things about this in many schools is that you're a paper-thin door away from one of the team locker rooms in some situations. One night a partner of mine came into our dressing room at halftime and expressed his frustration with the H coach. Not a few seconds later, we hear him expressing his frustration right back at us. That wasn't a fun night.

The mediocre: several schools have us dress in the boys' locker room when we're doing a girls' game and the girls' locker room when we're doing a boys' game. Sometimes this works out fine, but for the JV guys, their dressing time almost always coincides with the end of practice. It can get hairy in some situations where game management isn't on the ball.

The bad: We have one school in my area where the officials' room is a 10x6 room with an attached bathroom but no shower. In that room is crammed a row of lockers and some IT equipment, making the area even more cramped. When the freshman and JV officials are getting out of their games and the varsity guys are getting ready for theirs, it makes for extremely cramped quarters. No shower means you either have to go home in your own sweat or request the AD to take you down to the coach's office to shower. You pass right by the visitor's locker room on the way. One game I had to pass by the JV coach who I had T'd up only a half hour earlier. Nothing happened, but I would prefer to not be put in that type of situation. The sad thing is that this is a brand new school.

The ideal: there is one school in the region that has a dedicated official's room, with its own entrance and a bathroom and shower. The room could be a little bigger to accommodate 6 officials at once, but I'll take it over being in a coach's office or a locker room where people are coming in and out and/or you're right next to the team's locker room.

The worst I've experienced is having to dress in the maintenance worker's break room (no shower), and in order to get to the gym we have to walk through the machine shop. I remember having to sidestep two tractors and step over a few weedeaters in order to get to the gym. This was a women's college game too!

That's pretty bad. Worst I've ever had is dressing in the weight room at a junior high for a freshman game. No shower, and the room stunk like BO. No sink, no nothing. Not fun at all.

I was at a school this past weekend where it was a (big) classroom but no where to shower was available at the school. That is about as bad as it gets around here.

Most places have a shower in the suburbs, but when you go to the city that changes drastically in many cases. Sometimes the locker rooms are very small, but not most give us a good room. The vast majority of the time we are put in a coach's locker room and that usually has enough room for at least 3 officials to be for the night.

Peace

Several of the bigger schools around here have dedicated officials' locker rooms with your own lockers, shower, bathroom, etc. Some of them are really spacious and nice. I was in one on Friday, and they leave water and snacks in the room for you so you don't have to ask for anything.

The rest of the time it is a mixed bag. Usually it's a coaches office that isn't being used, so we have a bathroom and shower. At some of the smaller schools, we see nurse's offices, classrooms, etc. A couple weeks ago my partner and I were in what amounted to a closet next to the visitor's locker room. This thing was about 8x8 and had about six chairs in it along with a table and some boxes. We could barely turn around. We used the visitor's locker room bathroom when they weren't in there. It was either that or venture out into the lobby of the school, which we weren't about to do.

The worst one I have seen around here is a weight room that is upstairs from the stage on the end of a gym. It is NASTY. Hasn't been cleaned in years, and you have to climb some very narrow, steep stairs to get to it.

Another interesting one was a few weeks ago at a girls varsity tournament. My partner and I were dressing in a classroom that had a bathroom attached, so it was a good setup. The problem was that it is right next to the concession stand, so they store concession supplies in the room. We had about four people just casually stroll into our dressing room at different times before we went to the court. Included were two teenagers that walked in just as we opened the door to leave. Thankfully we were dressed. We were actually being evaluated that night, so I mentioned it to the evaluator, who said something to the AD. They ended up putting a sign up on the door. (The state gives them one that is supposed to be up anyway)

We don't have a dedicated officials room per se.A lot of our people come dressed and ready to work but if anyone doesn't they get dressed in the AD's office.Our people like us because we provide a good table crew,pay in cash,and provide four officials chairs (two for the team on court and two for the varsity officials waiting to go on) behind our scorers table.

I'll take that over a closet-sized coach's office any day.

Worst one i've been to (ignoring those that put you in a classroom or such)....

Entry door is a 2/3 size door under a stairwell into what is really a closet....you go under the stairs through the closet into the back side of a shower and through the shower into the "room". It barely has room for anything. Last time I was in there, it had several wheelchairs piled in the room. It has a small couch and a few feet for standing room....just enough to change in. It has another normal sized door that must go into the nearby locker room but it is blocked off.

Overall, no complaints from me.

As others have stated before, most times we get a coaches office - in a few cases an entire locker room (which is nice).

My worst one though was a small, private school - a decent sized utility/gym equipment closet, right off the gym floor. We could workout on the few free weights there during our pre-game. :rolleyes:

Once Got Changed Next To A Snowblower ...
 

Isn't it great when they use the shower to store physical education equipment?

Been there, done that.......
 

When I first started we had many a MS shower stacked with cleaning supplies, TP, paper, books, office supplies, etc.

The other night...
 

Teacher's lounge - no shower - no bathroom - but a refrigerator!

Broom closet, complete with brooms. But not many, it wasn't big enough.

You don't realize it but I bet many come dressed because you don't offer a better facility for them.

You may think so but I would bet that if you offered them an opportunity for a private dressing room with a place to shower after the game, they would jump at it.

Front office CONFERENCE room with no shower, bathroom or refrigerator!

I've also dressed in a horrid smelling JV football locker room, a stinky weight room, numerous bathrooms, classrooms, rooms with wondows, etc.

Snaq, I'll take small over smell any day.

The simple fact while some don't have an appropriate place, many don't care.

All we want is privacy, a chair for each official, and a place to shower afterwards. :(