Referee School - Oregon City, OR
 

Recently I attended this camp. Many had told me that attending a camp is like getting a few extra years of officiating under your belt. I can now see why.

This camp was in conjunction with the "End of the Trail Tournament". I wasn't familiar with this tournament or that the Oregon City High School Women's team was USA Today Nat'l Champs 3 of the last 10 years. All Star teams came from all over the country, so the level of play was extremely high. It wasn't uncommon to see 75 college coaches watching games. Teams like Baylor, Tennessee, etc.

From my limited experience it seems that people will attend a camp for two reasons: 1. To get better from the instruction provided 2. To be seen and network with assigners. (many probably want a combination of the two) I believe this camp was a hybrid of sorts between the two goals. Not only were the clinicians there to give feedback and help in the classroom, but other assigners made surprise appearances who were unannounced. My goal was simply not to embarrass myself.

For a new official, this camp was very beneficial. I've heard that some camps can be meat markets with no feedback(time and place for everything). This was not the case. The day was broken up into two sessions. You either attended class in the morning to go over things like officiating resumes, PCA's, video review, response to coaches, etc. and for the next segment would officiate a few games with clinicians giving feedback.

Some of the people I attended with had attended numerous camps and said they appreciated the level of instruction while still getting a chance to get your name out there.

We were doing basketball related activities from 9am - 9pm. Overall a very good experience.

I worked this tournament for a few years and I must agree the quality of play is exceptional overall. Some of the absolute best girls teams in the country participate. I think that one of the years I worked it, we had a team come down from British Columbia. I don't remember if we had to explain the difference between NF and FIBA rules because I don't remember if they play FIBA up there. Anyone out there know?

I agree Mark, it's a fun tournament to work. I had one so-so game this year, but the rest were very good. Teams from all over - BC, CA, UT, ID, AZ, WA & OR in the games I had......