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. :(

+1 to BkBallRef's comments.

The officials are NEVER going to say anything to your locker room situation. ("Never make negative comments about a team's facilities, those comments _will_ come back to haunt you." was one of the lessons drilled into me by the vets in my association).

Pay on the spot (cash or check) is nice.

Good table crew is helpful and appreciated.

Official's chairs near the court... I'm not going to use them.

I had a football game where they put us in a portable next to the field which was fine except it had windows with no blinds. :eek:

The school I mentioned in the other thread that had us changing in the Boy's Locker room was fairly new and you could tell that no expense was spared in its construction...well except for a dedicated official's room. :rolleyes:

One place who has an official as an athletic director has water cups for us with our names on them. He also takes our jackets back to the locker room (he opens and relocks the room and just puts the jackets in there where we can find them).

I worked at a place a few years ago where people would run small bottles of water out to us on quarter breaks and on 60-second timeouts.

Tonight we'll be in a nurses room. Cramped, but clean, private, and with a shower. This school is where I dislocated my patella 4 seasons ago. Good times.

Lucky you!

Nothing worse than not being able to locate game management at half or at the end of the game to open up the locker room/office! Ya just have to stand there or going looking....... :mad:

Cant complain out this way, its all good for the most part.

One school is terrible, I wrote them up for it too. Just a big room with no bathroom, divider, sink or mirror. And I worked there with a female partner, she came dressed. Hopefully there will be some changes when I go back in January!

One school is great, all the accomodations + 3 gift bags w/checks included, LazyBoys & a flat screen tv.

Some schools around here give us a key to the official's room when we arrive on site. I'll leave the key at the table (or put it in my pocket, if it's not on some huge keychain thing) during the game, and retrieve it at halftime/end of game. Then we just leave the key in the locker room when we leave, and the site manager/AD/whoever retrieves it later.

Of course, last night I was in a changing room with shower stall filled with gym equipment, no chairs, and nobody who had a key to let us back into the room until we tracked down a janitor about 20 minutes after the game ended.

Home team lost huh :D

They did, actually. But the home team coach (and visiting team coach, for that matter) didn't complain about any calls the entire game. The only comment I got from the home coach (after a block call on her player) was "what could she do differently next time?". (Defender didn't have LGP when the contact occurred).

I don't know if I'm in the minority here or not, but I would trade all of those for an adequate dressing room. Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate a decent table crew, that's the standard here (maybe I'm spoiled), and walking out with cash is nice. But if I was offered a choice, I'd take the facility.

For the most part around here, we get a mid-sized coach's office; sometimes we have the coaches' office suite to ourselves. Adequate showers are hit or miss, so I've just gotten used to showering at home except for the few schools I know have showers.

A few schools put us in the trainer's room. One designed what appears to be a dedicated officials' locker room, but it's small and cramped with three officials. Shift change is a nightmare.

I hate that. I end up carrying the key in my back pocket the second half cause there's no way I'm making a detour to the table on the final horn.

Me neither. Reminds me of the partner who feels the need to retrieve the ball after the final horn so he can give it to the table crew.

Leave it at the table. Whoever is the first person past the table in the last minute of the game picks it up at that time.

Saves you from carrying it all game *and* from having to go past the table at the end of the game.

I would forget. I can't tell you where my keys, wallet, and cell phone are right now, so how can I possibly remember a key at the table? :D

Pregame it & assign it to your 99 :D

Always love going to coaches locker room with 15 lockers all with combo locks on them. Some pretty scary showers too with what seems like a toxic oil spill everywhere. Found a mcdonalds bag with at least a year old big Mac at bottom of coaches locker. I could go on but it's lunch time

When a school gives us a key, I take it off any keychain it is on and put it in my back pocket. No one knows it's there and I have it all night. Saves us from having to get it from the table or find someone to open the door for us.

Here, it's usually an A/D's office or nurse's office. Both almost always have sinks, but only the A/D's have showers, typically.

On my island excursion last weekend (92 students in the K-12 school), it was an equipment room, neither sink nor shower. Two year old gym, too.

All Aboard, The FUNK Ferry! :D

Best "locker room" ever was a teacher's lounge with a fridge filled with snacks, huge plush sofa, nice shower and bathroom and a big-screen TV. Varsity guys would ride with the JV guys just to get out of the house and watch some tube before their game. :)

Sadly, that school built a new facility and our accommodations aren't nearly as pleasant. :(

Quite funky and definitely not Bootsy Collins approved.

Most of the schools...
 

...in my area have been built in the last 15 years, or have had new gyms built in that time. We generally have access to a coaches office that will have a bathroom and shower. Sometimes there's clutter, or every now and then a school may have inadvertently turned its hot water off for the weekend, but most times the facilities are good.

If I work a private school, or a school that doesn't have a dedicated shower for the officials, I'll use whichever locker room that's empty.

What Were You Doing In Connecticut ???
 

I worked with that guy last night.

That Guy is everywhere.

Closet off of the marching band practice room...Early basketball season, late football season....With the band practicing.

And my reaction is...more power to him. I'll have half my uniform off before he gets to the locker room.

Been there...literally. It's my least favorite as well.....

My least favorite was the wrestling coach's office, while the wrestlers were weighing in.

A Helpful Tactile Feature
 

Favorites are the two recently remodeled local schools, each of which now have lavish, spacious, dedicated officials' locker rooms complete with a hallway signs saying "Officials" both in English...and in Braille. Helps to know I'm headed into the right room. :)

And if you can't spot That Guy....

(finish the sentence)

Before they tore down the old Chicago Stadium(the grand old lady) there was a black tie event that was held on the floor. We snuck around and went down to the team locker rooms for Hawks and Bulls which was shockingly a dump. Even more shocking was the officials locker room which was very tiny and cramped with cheap wood walls that were white washed with nails for hanging clothes. I don't recall any lockers. I was blown away at how shabby it was.

From there after a few more cocktails we were entertaining the idea of sneaking out one of the blackhawk goals, but it wouldn't fit in the trunk.

My least favorite is a coaches locker room that has sufficient space and a shower with hot water. What makes it my least favorite is that the wrestling coach feels it's alright to take a shower while we are in the room, even at halftime of a basketball game.

LOL...(I thought we were the only ones to have an out of control wrestling coach)we service a school that has a wrestling coach that will not leave his desk while we are using the coaching office to dress and pre-game.

He sits there and will not let us use his "space". It is already crowded...but, he just stays and makes sure nobody gets near his precious chair and desk.

One school we service has a great teacher's lounge...big screen TV, couch, fridge, sink, tables, chairs...but no shower. We have to walk down the hall to the girl's locker room to shower. Of course the girl's are not there...but, sometimes the players have finished a game in another gym and we have to wait for them.

The worst part about this school is that we have to walk outside (snow, rain, sleet) to get to the Main Gym. Then we have to BEAT ON THE BACK DOOR and hope someone opens it to let us into the Gym. This is for a Varsity Game!

Then, of course, after the game...we walk back outside (snow, rain, sleet) and, most of the time, there is a school official that will let us into the teacher's room in the other building.:cool:

I'm a pretty easy-going person, but I'd be asking the AD for a place where the crew can get some privacy.

Agreed
 

I've had a coach/teacher come in and get something and leave, but staying, for any reason, is a different story.

Still being relatively new to this....

When you happen to work with "That Guy" in a two man crew, as his partner, what is the proper thing to do at the end of the game while he's making a big to do about getting the ball back to the table or doing something other than getting off the court?

Wait for him near the door that takes you from the court to the officials locker room?
Do you just make a bee line off the court and go to the locker room solo?

While I don't want to leave my P out there alone, but I certainly realize the need to get the heck out of the visual confines of the court ASAP.

Had the occasion to work with two of "Those Guys" this past week.

Regardless of what they've said or done, I'm not doing this.

I'm exaggerating some...he's not there ALL the time, but enough of the times I've been there over the past few years, that I did "good naturedly" mention it to the AD last year.

The AD said, "yea, he is pretty particular about people using his desk and messing it up."

I have to agree, somewhat. We officials should ALWAYS make sure the place we use is cleaner, or at least as clean, as when we got there. And that is not always the case.

Many times, I am going around picking up water bottles and towels that have just been left where some officials last used the items.

Getting in a pi$$ing match with the AD and Wrestling Coach is not a battle I really care to get into. If the Dude wants to sit there and watch a bunch of guys get dressed and listen to basketball talk...actually his back is to us as he "works" at his desk...oh well.

Was It "Captain Lou" Albano's Office ???
 

Been there. Done that.

Agreed, I'll do a hurry up and wait. Walk with a purpose to door and if partners aren't there, I wait for them

No Need For Any IAABO Jokes Here, Just Move Along ...
 

We have a deaf official on our local board, but we don't have any blind officials. You guys really take, "Hire The Disabled", seriously, don't you.

http://ts4.mm.bing.net/images/thumbn...326dd02090c9c9

Or "That guy" who after giving a technical to the H coach during the game, goes to find him after we dress after the game to smooth things over with him. I just went down the hall and stood by the door to leave and waited for him.

This is the same guy who told me that when Team A has the ball in their backcourt, throws the ball toward the frontcourt, one of A's players jumps from the frontcourt and catches the ball in the air then lands in the backcourt.....is NOT a backcourt violation. This was apparently because "All three points" haven't been in the frontcourt, and because the ball didn't cross the plane of the division line. I can't make this stuff up.

For some people, it's not just about leaving it as clean as you found it; it's about leaving everything in the precise position in which he left it. I work a few of these types, and if you so much as move the stapler half an inch, it drives them crazy. Further, it may be about the insecurity they feel when leaving others alone with their things.

Unfortunately, someone has, at some point, made this stuff up; and too many people buy into it.

I guess because they can't be bothered to read the rule book or take the Part II test without being fed the answers every year.