You mean in this day and age with cell phones and smart phones he does not know what happened?

It sounds like he did not confirm much of anything if this happens and he does not know why the officials never showed up.

Peace

Yeah something is definitely up here. If one guy doesn't show, I'll buy it. But if an entire crew (Or two) doesn't show up, some wires got crossed somewhere.

Like Rut said, if the AD confirmed officials for the game, he has their cell numbers. Why not call them and find out what was going on?

Also chances are in Iowa that schools assign "crews" that normally work together. So something must have happen either with the contract (wrong date) or he gave them something totally erroneous to not show up. I have dealt in that system of assigning and you would be surprised how many mistakes ADs make in their scheduling. I think he told the media what he did to take the pressure off of himself and tried to make it sound like the officials screwed up. If I have guys texting me the game status yesterday, I am sure he could have done the same or a similar confirmation process.

Peace

Most certainly :D

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Twice, in the last three years, Mark, Jr., and I have had contracts to officiate H.S. basketball games where we sent a reminder email that included all pertinent contact information and attached copies of our contracts, with the email CC to our assigner. In the former case the AD never bothered to contact us or our assigner that she had canceled the game, and in the later (just last week) the AD moved the game up two days and never told us or our assigner and then was leaving voice mails on Junior's cell phone wanting to know why we were not at her game (because we were on the court officiating a basketball game).

MTD, Sr.

And, naturally, because you lived up to your end of the contract, you were paid in full for these dates. Right?

Rich:

ROFLMAO!!

MTD, Sr.

I'm telling you -- this is a drum I'm going to bang (including here locally, when I have the opportunity) until things change.

Rich:

You are preaching to the choir here.

MTD, Sr.

I don't blame you. We work through assignees here and there is standard language concerning cancellations. And if the officials are to blame for a cancellation our association has to reimburse the schools for school bus transportation costs.

We had two crews show up for a game last week. Turns out BOTH had contracts. The crew that went home is afraid to ask for pay because they don't want to get scratched by that commissioner / conference.

I see it's been mentioned already these are two rural schools, but does anyone else find it crazy the administration supposedly searched for local officials and found NOBODY able to do the games on short notice?

Are there only a few dozen officials on the board? Every board/association has its problems, but I think lack of #s would be a first.

Guess I'd be getting scratched.

You're assuming that there are well-defined boards/associations in the area. In rural schools around here, the schools would have to call from their contact list of officials -- it could be a small list.

Rich, around here if the schools cancel without letting us know and we show up, we get full game fee and mileage. If they cancelday of - unless it is weather related or some kind of emergency - we get paid our mileage. One of the perks of having an association that the schools have to contract through.