Local politics blues

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

The fact is that there are good ole boy networks. They exist just about everywhere to some degree.

The fact is that many officials who think their schedule is poor because they are outside "the network" are simply not as good as they think they are.

The fact is that there are officials who others believe are "in the network" that they think are not as good as they are....and they may or may not be right.

Hiring/Assigning decisions are made base on many factors...not exclusively the ability to call the game. That's life. Not one of you would do it any different, no matter what you say. You can't. You're human. When given the choice between two people, your choice will ALWAYS be swayed by the secondary factors.....to a greater or lessor degree, of course, but you'll never eliminate it.

You simply have to establish the fact that not only are you capable of calling the game, but that you are also going to make life better for your assignor. Maybe those guys getting the assignments took a whole bunch of 5-grade girls games for that assignor year after year when the assignor was in a bind....they took care of the assignor. Now, the assignor takes care of them. The whole world of any competitive business is give and take and is a much larger picture than a single game or season. The influencing factors always extend way outside of the immediate task.

I also think a lot of the reason guys never advance or advance the way they want to is they do not learn their system. We have a lot of people in my area that think they are going to work varsity for everyone if they work for one guy. First of all that almost never automatically happens and you have to be seen by each person at their camp or at a game. We do not have a lot of guys that assign other levels and if they assign summer ball that is just to cover those games, not to evaluate the ability of the officials that show up (and it is not like they will be there). I think we need to do less complaining and more learning in many areas and we will be better for that knowledge.

Peace