On Long Island the coaches rate officials and those ratings determine playoff positioning. We work as four-man crews, therefore, the majority of the ratings for a crew fall within a range. That fact by itself might indicate coaches ratings are subjective. And, of course, the scale has no uniformity, therefore, the schedule will determine your rating.

I am interested in hearing from other officials around the country on how they are rated and how playoff positions are determined.

If the ratings are done strictly by coaches, do you feel they are objective.

Ratings....
 

Ed. We had an discussion on this board under tpaul on Aug. 14. You can check it out on discussions past year and page 2 on the bottom of this board. Hope it helps you! Larry from So. Cal.

ratings
 

Ed, I work in Ohio and the coaches are required by the state to vote for a minumum of 5 officials at each position. (5 man) The state is broken down by region so you are in competion with only the officials in your region by position. THis year if you recieved 8 votes in my region you made the "pool". The top vote getters in the poolgot the alloted games.
THis system is flawed in my opinion because there are officials politicing coaches for games, coaches "block voting" for officials in the old scratch my back I'll scratch yours, and officials writing letters to coaches . I know of one official who worked 10 regular season games and yet got 31 votes. He only worked for 20 coaches...
All this is screwy, but the real problem is that the officials getting the games often times are NOT the best guys out there. And some critical bad calls in the state finals the last few years proves that.
Personally...I feel that crews should advance together since they work together all year and how each other work and cover and the like. State finals is no time to throw 5 strangers together in my opinion. But ..thats just my opinion for whatever thats worth!!

Re: ratings
 

rating of officials
 

In FLorida 5 man crews are used and are submitted to the State by the local associations. Each association has a recommendation committe, which is required by the FHSAA, that puts together the crews for the playoffs. The committee in my association takes into account, evaluations from that year, tests scores and years of service. We usually submit 5 crews. Crews for the semi's and finals are 6 man. Coaches have no input becuase we are not allowed to work the scholls that we contract with.

You can't always go 100% on coaches' ratings as far
as playoffs and post season games. You need to have
observers' ratings as well as other officials' ratings.
If you go with coaches only, you will have officials
catering to coaches whims, or they will pick officials
who didn't hurt them on calls. You are open for everything
but one thing...call your game on what you see and be
fair to both sides. Good coaches want the calls made
if they're there. Also, hustle and knowledge of
game is necessary, along with common sense and above
all, integrity.

I think the idea of coaches rateing officials is insanity at best. How many times have you heard a coach go nuts, because he didn't understand the rule, you were enforcing? I'll give
you a classic example. Last season I had a coach go nuts on me, because we let the ball remain live after "an incomplete backwards pass" How could it have been a backward pass
if the receiver was looking behind him, was what he asked. Well the "receiver" started out five yards behind the "passer", he tried to catch the ball two yards behind the passer. That coach knew I had blown the call. The game tape disagreed but that didn't convince the coach at all. Is this guy qualified, or impartial enough to rate me as an official? I should say not! I am sure we all have similar stories. I know I have dozens of them.
Here in Virginia the state assigns playoff games to associations. Than the association assigns crews. We have a retired official who assigns all our games, including play offs. This seems to be the fair way to do it. Unless you have the man power to establish fulltime evaluation crews, made up of retired officials.