Politics of Basketball

[johnny d]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

Actually what is has done is stagnate the development of young officials here on the Peninsula. We don't have any new officials hungry to get better. I got into officiating at 37, I'm 49 now. I'm old. I got pick up on an NCAA roster in 2008 at 44. Since then only 2 guys from the Peninsula have been hired to NCAA-Mens staffs and both of them were in the process of moving up north the summers they were hired. A 49 year-old official shouldn't be the newest NCAA official in area with this much basketball going on year around.

You may only care about yourself, who knows. I like seeing young guys (and ladies) get better, get "big games", and get hired in college conferences. The environment of HS officiating where I live has killed officials passions for the game.


Because when those are the only games being played at the time, you are either working them or sitting at home.


You were the first person to bring up "so called big games". Seems to be on your mind more than anybody else's.

I think your original post starts with the cream doesn't rise to the top around here. One implication of that statement is that qualified officials are being excluded from perceived big games. You followed up with talking about holiday tournament games and playoff games. Not sure about what goes on in PA, but where I come from those games are also perceived to be big games.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by johnny d

I think your original post starts with the cream doesn't rise to the top around here. One implication of that statement is that qualified officials are being excluded from perceived big games. You followed up with talking about holiday tournament games and playoff games. Not sure about what goes on in PA, but where I come from those games are also perceived to be big games.

This is my exact quote:

Cream wasn't rising to the top around here. In these parts, the cream would go to camps and better themselves and get ridiculed by veterans for "trying to be college officials." The HS officiating situation is a joke where I live, that's why I travel up the road to work public school games.

Not my fault what you perceived. You brought up "big games" all by yourself. Holidays and post-season means there are only a certain number of games being played at that particular time. You travel 250 miles to work games, but you don't care to work post-season or in-season/holiday tournaments?

You went off on a tangent. You brought up people's schedules, not me. You totally ignored the bolded part of my original statement. You brought up all the different levels of college basketball you work and say you don't do it for the money. So what exactly do you do it for, if not for "big games" and not for "money"?

BTW, I live in VA, not PA. And if I chose to work for the association now doing public school games in my local vicinity, I would be doing all the "big games" my calendar would allow, and be home less than 30 minutes from the final horn. But I choose to drive 50-80 miles to get whatever I get. So your pyschological evaluation came up short in this case.