Dead Ball Officiating

[JRutledge]

Not only did they not have an African-American on that crew, there are almost never a single Chicago area official that is working that level at any other time. And in many cases there are often officials from other parts of the state that work the 3A-4A State Finals from southern or central Illinois when most of the schools are from the Chicago area. You could have had 3 white guys on the game and if one or two were from the Chicago area or Peoria or Springfield or other areas that had normal access to these kinds of teams (like Seton) then this would have made the situation a better.

We always talk about perceptions, sometimes you have to squash the perception even when there is not a real problem. When the 3A-4A Finals come out, the state bends over backwards to get Chicago area officials and even get guys from other parts of the state where most of the teams at those classes are not surrounded by. I know if I was working a game in the Chicago area with an team of one race/community against another program with a similar difference, they would have a racial mix with the crew for the most part. Assignors would do that just to not have to deal with the coaches complaining about someone or the crew did not represent them on some level.

I used to live in Central Illinois (Macomb) and that is where I started my career. When I moved to the Western Suburbs and had to officiate games, it was an adjustment to the speed and size that I saw previously in my career. I even officiated a bigger school game in the Mid-State 6 in Peoria one time and that was a huge adjustment just for me at the JV or sophomore level. Well Seton had two D1 players on them and Harrisburg had at least 1 in that game. That had to be an adjustment for those officials and the championship game was not the time to learn that lesson.

Peace