State Association Ratings System

[Scratch85]

My State Association (IHSAA) has finally made a change to the tournament officials rating system. After years of having the "School Vote" account for 100% of the rating they have added criteria. The "School Vote" still accounts for 50% of your rating, which is fair. But they have added Previous Tournament Experience, Years Licensed, Number of Contests Worked, Test Score and Association Participation. I think it is great that they have made the change.

Now for my question. There is some pretty heavy weighting to the added criteria. The Contests Worked is 20% of the rating. The Previous Tournament Experience (level of advancement) is 10%. It appears to me that this may cause a separation of officials for the Girls Tournament and the Boys Tournament. Making it difficult to rate high in both genders. Does anyone work in a state where the rating system is similar and does it cause a definite gap between officials for the genders? Or does anyone work in a state where there is a definite gap in the genders for another reason?

[JRutledge]

It sounds like your state changed to a system similar to our system.

We have a 40 Point Power Rating where each category is worth 5 points total.

• License Level
• Score on Part 1 Exam
• Previous tournament experience
• Contest ratings percentile
• Top 15 list percentile
• Highest clinic in last 3 years
• Most recent clinic
• Varsity games worked

This works here for the most part. The Contest Rating category involves both varsity coaches and certified officials. Certified officials can rate an individual twice a year and only if they observe them in person. So coaches ratings are minimized and I typically get more officials ratings than I ever do coaches ratings, which tends to be the norm. I like it as an objective gauge for where you are as an official, but there are other things that can be considered based on the Sports Administrator in the IHSA office. That does not mean that someone gets somewhere that you cannot wonder about, but most numbers seem to pan out. And out of the 8 categories, we control 4 totally and one of these categories can be controlled more than people actually think.

Peace