You call yourself a Referee, but You never played varsity hoop?

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Smitty

I get the feeling the OP just wanted everyone to know she played Varsity and college basketball to establish some aspect of credibility here. Based on her posts so far, if that was her goal, I think she failed.

I got the impression that she's had these deep thoughts brewing in her for some time and she thought it would be helpful to share them with the officiating world now that she's found an outlet that will facilitate that.

I can relate. The world is entitled to my opinions, after all.

[rockyroad]

Originally Posted by Adam

I got the impression that she's had these deep thoughts brewing in her for some time and she thought it would be helpful to share them with the officiating world now that she's found an outlet that will facilitate that.

I can relate. The world is entitled to my opinions, after all.

Sounds pretty much like all of us at one point or another.

Basically we have a poster who - compared to many of us - is fairly new at this, and is wanting to share his/her deep thoughts on the issues of officiating. Some don't like the new people expressing their opinions and so they fire back. Others of us just smile and remember ourselves 10, 15, 20 years ago and don't get all worked up over it.

[JeffM]

I agree that having played basketball at the level you are officiating may be helpful.

Playing experience helps since you understand the game from that perspective. Simarly, experience in the followiing roles and an understanding of what they want from officials would also be helpful.

Coach
Athletic Director
Assignor/Evaluator
Scorekeeper
Timer
Officiating other sports
Officiating other levels of play

Parent
Teacher
Preacher

EMT
etc.

However, all people really care about is whether the official is professional and good/fair/consistent. The experiences that shaped that official are just background.

[JRutledge]

Any opinion expressed is going to get scrutinized. All of us have had our comments dissected and scrutinized. Put your big boy or big girl pants on and get over it. And you can be a veteran here and still have people go back and forth about your opinions. We really need to stop being so sensitive all the time.

Peace