Moving to Wichita, Kansas (Need some help)

[Murph]

Brand new to the forum. I am getting ready to move to Wichita, Kansas in the coming weeks and wanted to get some information on officiating football in Kansas. I recently completed my first year down here in San Antonio and I really enjoyed it. Any info would help! Thanks in advance...

Murph

[DonInKansas]

General Info:

They don't take their football near as serious here in Kansas as in Texas...

I'm about 3 hours west of Wichita, but I know there's at least one Wichita official floating around here somewhere.....

[grantsrc]

I'm not far from Wichita, I'm across the state line in Kansas City, MO. If you are having difficulty connecting with someone, I have some contacts on the Kansas side that might be able to put you in the right direction.

Good luck!

[KSRef]

You can contact Rick Bowden at the Kansas State H.S. Activities Assc. He has responsibility for football in the state. I'm sure Rick can put you in touch with the right people in the Wichita area. Rick's phone number is 785-273-5329 or email [email protected]. Oh by the way, we play NF rules in Kansas so you'll have a whole new rules set to learn.

[Warrenkicker]

Thanks for the heads-up shave-tail.

I am in Wichita. We have a pretty large group of officials in this area. One of the previous emails mentioned the contact info with the state and this in an area which you may want to work with soon. Returning officials must register each year prior to May to avoid a penalty but, as is your case, new to the state officials can register on the night of the rules meeting in August. One draw back is that this is a bit late to make inroads to current crews. However with this upcoming year being your second year it may be difficult, but not at all impossible, to get on a varsity crew in this area. Some areas of the state are really lacking for officials but that really isn't the case in Wichita.

My suggestion is to begin by becoming a member of our local officials association as soon as you get to town. It is $20 a year and you will develop contacts that way. Finding the varsity crews that have openings is much easier this way and also coming in contact with local officials who assign crews to sub-varsity games. You can work any day of the week around here if you really want to. Go to www.gwoa.org and check out what is there. It is run by a basketball guy and hasn't been updated in a while but it is a start. Otherwise you can send me a private message and I can see about getting you in contact with the right people to start.

You will have to forget some of what you learned last year because of the different rules but I haven't seen too much problem with that with other Texas guys coming here.

Welcome to town Murph.

[mcrowder]

Wow... "May be tough to get on a varsity crew in your 2nd year" being called out as MORE difficult than the rest of the state.

Where Murph is coming from, there are a good number of good 3rd or even 4th year guys not on crews. And some decent 5th year guys too. It's almost unheard of for a 2nd year guy to be on a crew in Texas. Work varsity games? Yes, if you're really good and really connected... but as a fill in, not as part of a crew.

Makes me want to move to Kansas!

[JasonTX]

Originally Posted by mcrowder

Wow... "May be tough to get on a varsity crew in your 2nd year" being called out as MORE difficult than the rest of the state.

Where Murph is coming from, there are a good number of good 3rd or even 4th year guys not on crews. And some decent 5th year guys too. It's almost unheard of for a 2nd year guy to be on a crew in Texas. Work varsity games? Yes, if you're really good and really connected... but as a fill in, not as part of a crew.

Makes me want to move to Kansas!

It all depends on what part of Texas you are in. In my area, it's unheard of for a 2nd and 3rd year to NOT be working varsity. I do know what you are saying. I have heard of some 10 year guys only getting 2 or 3 varsity games in a season. In fact, I spoke to some at a clinic once in which they had twice as many years as me, but I had twice as many varsity games than they did.

[Warrenkicker]

Originally Posted by mcrowder

Wow... "May be tough to get on a varsity crew in your 2nd year" being called out as MORE difficult than the rest of the state.

Where Murph is coming from, there are a good number of good 3rd or even 4th year guys not on crews. And some decent 5th year guys too. It's almost unheard of for a 2nd year guy to be on a crew in Texas. Work varsity games? Yes, if you're really good and really connected... but as a fill in, not as part of a crew.

Makes me want to move to Kansas!

Well if you come to Kansas to get on a crew immediately there are many areas you would want to avoid. However 10 years experience and knowing the right person will get you on a crew anywhere. Many parts of the state will put a first-year guy on a crew without blinking an eye because there is a big lack of officials in those areas.