In a Small Town
 

Curious..for those of you who work and live in a small town or rural America, is being a ref hard on you and your families? for example, you go out to dinner and people come to your table to talk about games or calls you made.

Hardly. The hard part about reffing in rural America is that your driving a half hour to two hours for games.

I also imagine you're limited to the number of schools you do and how often you see the same teams, yes? Less likely with us large city folk.

Pretty much. 3 schools in my County, not counting the Christian school which games aren't sanctioned by the ohsaa,they have their ow sanctioning body, come to think of it most of the counties within 2 hours of me have only 3 high schools give or take one or two.

I can drive that without leaving the city....and I'd rather drive a smooth hour on rural roads any day over an hour in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

I've driven as long as 1:45 to get to a game in the city with no abnormal situations other than really bad traffic.

Not sure it is harder than it is living in a big city. Started my first few years in rural and small town Illinois. Most people had no idea that I worked games when I worked there. And actually when people find out I am an official, it was usually an interesting conversation as most people are very ignorant about what we do. As said, I would rather take the rural driving and know I am going to be in the car and hour, then have to fight constant traffic to get to places. It is all about perspective.

Peace

Yeah the driving is a bit easier out here but some of these places that if you go off road, you might be found in a few months.

Back to the OP though, unless you happen to know someone that had family playing in a game you did within the last week rarely does it even get talked about. Most of the guys I work with or are in our association never talk about previous games except at meetings or in the dressing room.

Best part is that on those longer trips, you got plenty of choices on the way home to stop for food, and if you do happen to run into a bus, it's a school going back the other way.

I like the alteration of scenery, playing styles, and cultural nuances that inhere with reffing rural hoop games. In the city, driving well, sux.
I must say that the fans at rural gyms do voice their displeasure on calls in a more--cordial and humored manner--than fans at the urban gymnasia. Also, I've found that those parents and school admins are so "grateful" that I came out to ref they games. Nothing like pulling into a school's gym and seeing gunracks on pickup trucks in the parkling lot.
Rural gyms are near and dear to my heart, that is how I got opportunities to 'move up' by taking varsity assignments out in the county when all the older/networked officials had saturated the urban/metro school varsity assignments. I was willing to travel 45 mins to 1.25 hrs to work those rural games and my assigner appreciated it. Been offered to go fishing and quail hunting by local folks after games too--though I never took up on it--for good reason..lol

I know this does not apply to everyone those differences, but that is not my experience. Some of the worst things said to me were in rural areas. One of the reasons I was so willing to move was to get away from those situations I was facing. Fans in general can be vocal. I think where they are from certainly does not mean they will be offensive or less animated. I have been around more fan incidents because often times the people in the rural areas take it so personal what is going on the court. Urban people might know the players or individuals, but not everyone there has the same interest. At least for me, I would take going into urban and suburban Chicago area over going to some very small town where there is not a lot of diversity in those situations. That being said, it is not a huge difference in bad behavior or good behavior. It is very small actually what I have experienced, but i would never suggest that rural people act better. And I am from a rural place and saw some really bad things way before I became an official that I hardly see in the area I currently live.

Peace

The only real difficulty I've had as a rural area ref is the limited number of schools and the inherent familiarity with coaches/players/teams and our pool of officials. As much as we might try to give people a clean slate if negative behaviour on their part carries from one game to another or year to year there is very little we can do. Odds are we will see a certain team or coach 5-6 times a year at least.

I think it comes with the territory. I seem to know a lot of people because of officiating and being the rule interpreter locally I get asked a lot of questions while out in public. I don't mind it for the most part because people are usually very nice and just want a clarification of a rule. I think my wife gets annoyed that I know so many people.