IOWA FB Officials

Not to get off the point, but I'm from Omaha and my crew work some Western Iowa games, i.e., Glidden-Ralston, Sidney, Corning, etc. I'm the guy that primarily does the scheduling for our crew, and am looking towards the next 2 year cycle. Are there any schools west of DM that I should avoid contact with because they use an assignor similar to the CIML? I just want to save my time and postage, etc, in contacting schools about our crew's availability. Thanks.

[BoBo]

Class 3A District 8 has the AD at Harlan assign game the last two years i know. We usually do 2 games a year over in their district.

The headache in Iowa this time around is their is a strong rumor that the state is going to do the scheduling for all games both district and nondistrict. So schools will have no say so at all.

As far as the wild day after for us officials getting dates will be a nightmare. That is one reason why i like the assignors so i am locked in ahead of time.

Selfish i know but dont miss the 6 am calls from ADs trying to find crews

[buckrog64]

Good luck tonight....

I'm not sure football will see the huge crush on need for officials, but I sure wonder about basketball sometimes....a lot of these small Iowa schools have separate school districts that share one football program, and then may or may not compete against each other in basketball. So a lot of schools have their own b-ball programs which means the need for more officials in many cases. Some guys I know who have done varsity work over the years are finding little to complain about when reffing lower level games on a local basis, particularly if there are a lot of games to be covered. I know one night in my town, with two high schools and two middle schools, there was a need for something like 20 officials to cover the different games, from 7th grade on up to varsity.

[Junker]

Looked like you had a great game Bobo. I caught the score as I left the Newton game (which was also very well played) and then the highlights on the news. Nice job from the 45 seconds of the game I got to see.

[Junker]

Originally Posted by buckrog64

Good luck tonight....

I'm not sure football will see the huge crush on need for officials, but I sure wonder about basketball sometimes....a lot of these small Iowa schools have separate school districts that share one football program, and then may or may not compete against each other in basketball. So a lot of schools have their own b-ball programs which means the need for more officials in many cases. Some guys I know who have done varsity work over the years are finding little to complain about when reffing lower level games on a local basis, particularly if there are a lot of games to be covered. I know one night in my town, with two high schools and two middle schools, there was a need for something like 20 officials to cover the different games, from 7th grade on up to varsity.

It has been my understanding that the state was sitting pretty good on football and basketball officials. They REALLY are in need of baseball umpires.

[MJT]

We had Newell Fonda at Bishop Garrigan last night in the first round. 40-13 and a pretty good game actually. Garrigan is pretty good, 10-0 now and it will be interesting to see how the do down the road.
Hoping for a phone call today about a round 2 game.

Originally Posted by Junker

It has been my understanding that the state was sitting pretty good on football and basketball officials. They REALLY are in need of baseball umpires.

I'll believe that. The other 4 on my football crew do baseball, and they all already have contracts in Iowa for Summer 2008, with "promises" from the same AD's that they'll have about the same number of games in 2009. The fellas commented that it's easier to get a high school game in Iowa than in Nebraska. I would assume it's because it's a summer sport in Iowa and a spring sport in Nebraska, where it would have to compete with track and whatever else is offered in the spring.

[Junker]

Originally Posted by Ref Ump Welsch

I'll believe that. The other 4 on my football crew do baseball, and they all already have contracts in Iowa for Summer 2008, with "promises" from the same AD's that they'll have about the same number of games in 2009. The fellas commented that it's easier to get a high school game in Iowa than in Nebraska. I would assume it's because it's a summer sport in Iowa and a spring sport in Nebraska, where it would have to compete with track and whatever else is offered in the spring.

1 of the problems is having to compete with softball. The games are usually shorter and such. Personally I can't take all the chants and cheers so I stay with baseball.

[buckrog64]

I was watching the Southern Cal/Pleasantville game. The crew was primarily from Sioux City and they did a real good job. You can sure tell the difference between an experienced crew willing to put in a little extra effort, and the crew that shows up each Friday night.

One crucial play towards the game winning scoring drive included a running back who was in three point stance and hiccuped a little during the signal calls. He just jerked slightly, and of course everyone saw it, but he reset, the defense didn't come offside, so the officials let it go. It's very close to simulating the start of the snap, but i've seen more people let it go, than call it. Any thoughts? What if the D sees it and comes offside? Do you blame the back?

Originally Posted by Junker

1 of the problems is having to compete with softball. The games are usually shorter and such. Personally I can't take all the chants and cheers so I stay with baseball.

I forgot Iowa has softball during the summer too. We don't have that problem in Nebraska. Softball is a fall sport. I guess that would explain the difficulty in finding people to work the baseball games in the summer. Also, you have to remember, Nebraska has Legion baseball in the summer, so our guys do get spread thin with that as well.

Originally Posted by BoBo

Class 3A District 8 has the AD at Harlan assign game the last two years i know. We usually do 2 games a year over in their district.

The headache in Iowa this time around is their is a strong rumor that the state is going to do the scheduling for all games both district and nondistrict. So schools will have no say so at all.

As far as the wild day after for us officials getting dates will be a nightmare. That is one reason why i like the assignors so i am locked in ahead of time.

Selfish i know but dont miss the 6 am calls from ADs trying to find crews

I was going to say, I do remember one assignor for an 8-man district calling me a couple years ago. I thought it was odd he was the AD at one school and he was calling me about a game involving two other schools. Then it occured to me that they had district meetings and he must have drew the short straw to get the assigning job (I would have to think it was the short straw...I wouldn't want that job!). But there were other AD's who called me directly about their own games.

Does that rumor "say" that the state association will schedule all the games AND assign the officials OR they will set the dates for specific games? The way I understand it, the district meetings were set up so that the schools could talk about which dates the games were played on, provided they followed the week schedule the state set up.

In Nebraska, the last cycle got screwed up because the state's computer inadvertantly released the schedules 12 hours ahead of schedule. As a result, the schools were screaming the state association should take over the assigning of officials. The board declined, saying they didn't want to be burdened with whining from the schools when they get assigned someone they don't want.

[bisonlj]

Originally Posted by BoBo

Class 3A District 8 has the AD at Harlan assign game the last two years i know. We usually do 2 games a year over in their district.

The headache in Iowa this time around is their is a strong rumor that the state is going to do the scheduling for all games both district and nondistrict. So schools will have no say so at all.

As far as the wild day after for us officials getting dates will be a nightmare. That is one reason why i like the assignors so i am locked in ahead of time.

Selfish i know but dont miss the 6 am calls from ADs trying to find crews

In general, Indiana doesn't do any assigning at the varsity level. It is up to crews to network with ADs to schedule games. Our crew is prett full through 2011 already, half a 2012 schedule and 1 game in 2013. I've talked to crews and schools that are booked through 2013. It's a crazy system but at least we have some control over where we work. I wonder if it would be nicer to have an assigner process (we might get an opportunity to work some more interesting schools), but I'm sure that is full of politics. The playoffs are assigned by the state on a week to week basis.

Originally Posted by bisonlj

In general, Indiana doesn't do any assigning at the varsity level. It is up to crews to network with ADs to schedule games. Our crew is prett full through 2011 already, half a 2012 schedule and 1 game in 2013. I've talked to crews and schools that are booked through 2013. It's a crazy system but at least we have some control over where we work. I wonder if it would be nicer to have an assigner process (we might get an opportunity to work some more interesting schools), but I'm sure that is full of politics. The playoffs are assigned by the state on a week to week basis.

How the heck does Indiana have games scheduled that far in advance? Nebraska and Iowa don't even have the games scheduled yet for 2008 and 2009, as they handle scheduling on a 2-year basis. Even before the states took over the scheduling process, I don't think any school in Nebraska and Iowa had games scheduled 6 years in advance. If they did, it was with some out-of-state school in which special arrangements were part of the deal.