NCAA Women's Tournament Officials
 

Thread for officials in the Women's tournament

You can see all the women's officials listed here.

Philadelphia Basketball Referee - College Women Postseaon

Tina Napier, who works the Final Four every year, does not get a regional assignment this year. The only notable missing official that I see.

Anybody know the name of the alternate official for the UConn/Dayton game? She looks like someone I was in camp with about 5 years ago.

Tiara Cruse. She was the stand by in Albany all weekend. Works in the NBDL and WNBA as well. I have known her for years. She's a Northern Virginia native who started in Cardinal and then moved quickly into the ODAC and CAC...then...BOOM! Big time!!

Has there been a release about who's working further?

South Carolina vs. Notre Dame: Lisa Mattingly, Felicia Grinter, Bryan Brunette

Maryland vs. UConn: Joe Vaszily, Eric Brewton, Maj Forsberg

Likely means Dee Kantner will be working the final again.

I would put money on Kantner and Denise Brooks working the final. The third one is a wild card.

Now we know what JetMet has been up to this past month!

I'm thinking Mike Price or Cameron Inouye, possible.

It is Mark Zentz

Who?

Dee Kantner

Denise Brooks

Mark Zentz

Didn't recognize the name but pulled his schedule-works games out of several conferences including-SEC,ACC,CAA,MEAC,Big Ten,Big 12,CAA and WAC to name a few.

These are my two biggest criticisms of the NCAAW officiating system:
1. If you aren't female, you have a very slim chance of working the top games because the powers that be almost always put a minimum of two females on the crew.
2. It's the same couple of people year after year on the championship game. Seriously, can't they train a few other people or haven't a couple of other people developed to the point that someone doesn't have to be assigned to eight NCAA Finals in a row! Seriously, spread the wealth and give someone else a chance!

All the other eligible refs are dudes. There aren't that many women who have been working the 15+ years necessary to work the championship game.

This is what stands out to me.

As far as male representation in NCAA-W, oh well. Playing the gender card are we? Whenever the demographic in power finds itself on the short end of the stick, all of a sudden it some major injustice.

How much better than everybody else would a female have to be in order to get an fair shot on the Men's side? Shoot, how much better do women have to be just to get a few BV games in their local associations?

All. Of. This.


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Additionally, the goal is what? To get the best officials on the game. That's what the coaches want. If something were upsetting them in the process and/or what 12 officials get the F4 assignments in any given 5-year stretch, they'd be vocal about it. Must not be unsatisfactory to anyone but...some men working on the women's side. (Of which I happen to be one.)


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I can tell you in my association, women are getting their shot at varsity boys' games. Your comments are obviously valid for NCAAM, though discrimination on one side doesn't make it right on the other side.

I do agree, it's hard for me to drum up too much indignation about it, though, given the way things are on the men's side; and I'm rarely short on indignation.

Well, you do live in Colorado, a lot of things are different there.

I can't argue with that.

I hire women to work varsity boys games if they want them. To me, they have to be no better than any other male official. They can also be no worse.

One of the problems with this who is assigned, is female officials often get college opportunities they would never get at the same rate on any other level. There was a female officials that worked the McDonald's All-American game this past year that only had like 3 or 4 years total officiating experience. There is hardly any such equivalent on the Men's side regardless of gender. And when a female officials is snatched up, they are given a full schedule of college. Heck I would rather work for $160 or more on a regular basis too, instead of working for $60 in a similarly packed gym.

It is also very rare that female officials get assigned the boy's side, but heck they hardly do high school anyway if they are moved as fast as they often are moved.

Peace

Well, here in good ole VA, I have seen at least 3 good female officials get denied boys HS games, while some horrible, and I mean horrible, male officials get top of the line games.

What I do know, is that if the conversation were about blacks not getting certain assignments, the phrase "race card" would have jumped off a couple folks keyboards real quick. What makes complaining about a lack of males getting certain assignments any different than a lack of blacks getting certain assignments?

To me it's playing the "gender card".

I work for the schools, but I couldn't imagine anyone complaining that they were sent a female official. I'm just trying to imagine that conversation. Personally, I've scheduled females for some of the toughest male coaches to work for that I have. Doesn't bother me a bit if they don't like it, either -- cause they likely won't officially say anything about it.

Don't get me wrong, they are denied. But often they know this going in and quickly get over it and move on to the other level if they have the opportunity. They leave the high school level behind very quickly. I never would suggest that they were given an equal opportunity on the boy's side of the isle.

Peace

And I don't deny that it happens here, either. I just have no time or place for it. personally.

If you remember, someone here in the forums who works for an association in another part of my state posted that his association was told (off the record, of course), not to send female officials to work BV games. And he said his association leadership would adhere to the request for fear of losing the contract.

And I used to have a female co-worker who is also a HS official. She had worked the GV portion of a GV/BV DH. In the BV game, a member of the crew who came into the game ill had to bow out after the 1st quarter, so she volunteered to step in. After the game, she called her assignor to let him know the situation, and she got reprimanded for stepping into the game. The gist of the conversation was that females do not work BV in that association.

Fortunately, I don't have those concerns.

I have second-hand knowledge, from individuals directly involved on both the officiating and assigning sides, at both the local high school and women's junior college levels (shared with me in confidence at both levels), that those conversations and statements do and are happening, still, as recently as the last two seasons. So it does still happen. Maybe not everywhere, but in some places. And to be clear, I'm referencing head coaches openly stating to assignors and officials that they do not want women officials on their games.

All true, and the NCAAW assignors doing the reverse isn't proper either.
I've seen some quality male officials denied spots in favor of females who "can be trained or developed."
It is very obvious that a single criterion was the determining factor.

I think it is even worse on the Women's side because there seems to be not only an issue of gender, but what you identify yourself as too. Because it does not seem that the powers that be and what they claim to be is not in the complete background and who ends up getting assignments. I think there is something wrong when the same person works the title game over and over and over again. One of the officials on the Men's side worked the Championship game two years in a row and people thought that was out of line. But to have a certain official on this side work every year, there is something not right. There has to be someone else available or that deserves a chance at some point. And this kind of politics is one reason I never wanted to work Women's basketball. That distinction was obvious way back when I would go to those NCAA Meetings in Chicago in the early 2000s.

Peace

I'm almost afraid to ask, but...please clarify...?

Not going there in this forum.

Peace

That's true, all of the good female officials (the ones who want to move up anyway) move up right away and don't stick around long enough to get BV games.

In the past, it certainly was true that the good female officials moved on to college and gave up HS before they could move to boys HS but, to be fair, many good male officials in our area also moved up somewhat slowly too. The pipeline just moved slowly.

However, that is no longer the case in our organization. Good officials, both male and female, can move up more quickly now.

We just had a relatively junior female official (about 4-5 years experience but VERY good) that gets a strong mix of boys varsity games get selected to work the Oregon Boys 5A state championship game.

What may have been true in the past is just no longer the case. Qualified officials advance quickly. Maybe this achievement will stop the unqualified females from claiming they are not moving up because they're female.

I do not think he is referring to moving up in high school. I know I was not talking about moving up in high school. And it is rare where I live for anyone within 15 years to even get a State Final opportunity and usually it is much more than that before someone gets their first shot at that level. But in my areas many females never even try to work a the playoffs as they are often working a lot of college. One of my good friends almost exclusively works college ball as she does not even qualify to work high school playoffs.

Peace

Not sure where else they might stick around long enough to work BV.


It is used to be that way here too in a lot of cases but some changes were made to give capable officials a better chance of working in the tournament (quaterfinals and beyond) than in the past.

That isn't unusual here. There are often people that get picked up for college for one reason or another than are not always the best officials and some great officials don't work the college route for various reasons.

Well most people that get into this do not stick around long anyway. But if they get to the 5 year mark, then if they are given an opportunity to make more money or to get better opportunities, they take advantage of it. It might actually keep them in the game. And since there are so few women in the first place, they are often not going to stay working high school for less and considerably less money. Money might not be everything but it is a motivation in other aspects of life. And when they will give you a shot to work college playoffs as well and even a reasonable opportunity to work the D1 level, high school is not going to be a priority for very much longer. We have male officials that get their college opportunities and soon the high school level takes a back seat. Not sure why that would be unusual or anything hard to understand.

I belong to one of my associations and we might have 5 female member out of 200 or more. I can tell you that almost all of them work college ball. And I know more women who if they work a high school game, it is only as a favor or to fill out a hole in their schedule.

Peace

Are you talking about Natalie S.?

Not sure of her name, but I read a report and was told something about one of the officials. I know one the officials very well and her husband worked the boys game that night too.

Peace

I did not see the game, but a female from our area worked the McDonald's All American game in Chicago.

I would have to look back at posts, but all I know is she was the other white female on the game I believe. I did not know the African-American woman but the other official is my friend.

Peace

I used to wonder why when I watch a Women's college game or a WNBA game on tv: why are there always 2 female and 1 male ref on the crew?
Why not just have 3 female refs in there?

1. is it to show "gender balance" for th crew?
2. is it to present the best refs possible?
3. is it to appease male refs?
4. is it to balance any presumed "bias" of a gender equal ref on calls?
5. is it to enforse a "strong" presence in case a fight breaks out in a game?

Still wondering...:confused:

Re: NCAA D1 and D2, that's actually pretty far from being true across all conferences in the majority of games. It varies widely by what the gender breakdown of the conference's staff is, as well as the conference supervisor's philosophy and/or directive from her/his conference commissioner. (Unless you're talking about the NCAA D1 Tournament. Which I have no insight into. Except I do know that the 2012, 2013, and 2014 games were all-women crews on the Championship Games.)

She would have been the other white official.

That is what I figured, I would have to look back at the names to remember.

Peace