Mentoring Program

[The_Rookie]

Anyone part of an association that has a "FORMAL" Mentoring program?

Can you please share info...looking at creating one for young officals in my part of the world

[BryanV21]

Originally Posted by The_Rookie

Anyone part of an association that has a "FORMAL" Mentoring program?

Can you please share info...looking at creating one for young officals in my part of the world

We have one in the Central Ohio Basketball Officials Association (COBOA). Basically a varsity crew volunteers to be mentors, and they choose three JV officials to form a crew and work all the JV/Freshman games that happen before their varsity games.

The varsity crew will watch as the many of the JV/Freshman games as they can, and give their feedback on things. When I was in the program the crew chief for the varsity crew would have meetings at the end of the season, where we'd sit around and watch videos and such.

It was a great way to learn and get constant feedback. In fact, when one official from that varsity crew that mentored me retired, I was asked to take his place. I owe that mentoring crew so much.

[OrStBballRef]

I've been a part of our mentoring program for the past several years now. It recently underwent a little bit of a revamp in terms of placing officials together in the same geographic area.

Mentors are expected to observe and communicate with the folks they are mentoring. Not just observe for a quarter 1-2x a year but actually take in 3/4 or a full game. The folks being mentored are supposed to stay and watch their mentors if they are doing a varsity game. Which includes coming down at halftime or at the end of game in addition to the all important pregame talk.

I have to say this year in our association our assignor did a great job of pairing up myself and my mentee. We only worked a couple of MS games together but he followed me like 7-8 times this year. I was able to observe him at the start of the season, the middle and at the end. Early in the season I observed several things that needed to be corrected and constantly worked with him over the course of the year in the games I observed to correct those things.

That being said I was surprised in the amount of times I followed him he never stuck around. Never stayed until halftime or the end of the game. Never really followed up to ask how anything played out in my game etc...I talked to several other people in the program and their experience was similar. The folks they were mentoring never stuck around once the JV game was over with. I have to say it's valuable to be around the locker room before and after the game to hear what plays out. I sure learned a lot when I was first starting out from the varsity guys and we've been told to include the folks we are mentoring in the pregame/post-game stuff.

[BryanV21]

Originally Posted by OrStBballRef

I've been a part of our mentoring program for the past several years now. It recently underwent a little bit of a revamp in terms of placing officials together in the same geographic area.

Mentors are expected to observe and communicate with the folks they are mentoring. Not just observe for a quarter 1-2x a year but actually take in 3/4 or a full game. The folks being mentored are supposed to stay and watch their mentors if they are doing a varsity game. Which includes coming down at halftime or at the end of game in addition to the all important pregame talk.

I have to say this year in our association our assignor did a great job of pairing up myself and my mentee. We only worked a couple of MS games together but he followed me like 7-8 times this year. I was able to observe him at the start of the season, the middle and at the end. Early in the season I observed several things that needed to be corrected and constantly worked with him over the course of the year in the games I observed to correct those things.

That being said I was surprised in the amount of times I followed him he never stuck around. Never stayed until halftime or the end of the game. Never really followed up to ask how anything played out in my game etc...I talked to several other people in the program and their experience was similar. The folks they were mentoring never stuck around once the JV game was over with. I have to say it's valuable to be around the locker room before and after the game to hear what plays out. I sure learned a lot when I was first starting out from the varsity guys and we've been told to include the folks we are mentoring in the pregame/post-game stuff.

Great point that I forgot about, as they wanted us to stay for the varsity games and sit with them in the lockerroom before, at halftime, and after the games.

I remember going to a lot of my instructors' games (two officials taught my class). It got to a point where I felt like I was bugging them, but looking back I'm sure they saw it as my being "into" the profession.

[BillyMac]

Little Corner Of Connecticut: Inexperienced officials (not necessarily brand new officials) ask for a mentor and are assigned a varsity mentor. Assignment commissioner is made aware of the mentor/mentee relationship and schedules the two officials to work at the same site, one in the junior varsity game, and one in the varsity game. They may be assigned to the same site for a handful of games. Varsity official observes the first the three periods of the junior varsity game. Junior varsity official showers and watches the varsity game. This will usually last one season.

Around here schools either assign themselves or use an assignor. There is one association in the state that assigns for a region of schools but that's not prevalent. Thus, there is very little mentoring that goes on. I had to find my own mentoring and specifically ask Varsity guys to watch my JV game in order to get feedback. There is one assignor who tells his Varsity guys to give him feedback on the JV guys but I'm not sure how that works out.

[BlueDevilRef]

in our association, 1st year officials are required to participate in a mentor program. we have about 3-5 new guys paired with a senior official. They are encouraged to talk all the time and to tag along with the senior official to games, sit with them during association meetings, etc. It gives a new official a point of contact in the association as well, so the assignor is not having to field calls/texts all day about rules/association issues. We have about 185 officials in the association, so it helps him out as well.

In addition, our association requires new officials to work at least 5 thirds with a varsity crew. You go with the varsity crew to a JV/V night and work the JV game, one half each with the V crew. The other V official evaluates you/takes notes while you work and before the V pregame, they go over their thoughts with you, noting things to work on and things they found positive. Then, they send a form to the assignor noting those things and an opinion if you are to be recommended for full membership in the association. These are non paid nights, but very beneficial, imo anyway. While you are only required to do the 5 nights (10 total reports to the assignor), you can do more and a new guy in our association actually got recognized at our business meeting for requesting to be assigned to work so many of them. Most of the V crews that work with the thirds are board members and high ranking officials, so their opinions are valued and trusted. It seems to be a very good system.

Last but not least, Missouri requires new basketball officials to attend a mechanics clinic for the first 3 years. Ran by the association at a local high school practice. We do some on floor mechanics and then get to work some live action scrimmage. If your state doesn't do that, I'm sure it would be easy to set up through your association. For some guys, this clinic is the first time they have ever put on stripes or blew a whistle, so it is really helpful for them. Much easier to do it at a practice when it doesn't matter than at a game where it matters to the players, coaches, fans etc, who wins.