Playoffs

[MadCityRef]

My first commish once said he feared officials with 3 to 5 years experience because, "they think they know everything, but actually know just enough to get themselves into trouble, and not enough to get themselves out of it."

[Andy]

Originally Posted by MadCityRef

My first commish once said he feared officials with 3 to 5 years experience because, "they think they know everything, but actually know just enough to get themselves into trouble, and not enough to get themselves out of it."

This quote is beautiful and can be applied across all sports........

[Rick KY]

Every state is different, but here is a general outline of how playoffs are assigned here in KY. Most new officials work regular season varsity games in their 2nd or 3rd year.

In order to qualify for playoff assingments, officials must:
1. Achieve a minimum score on the annual test of 80%
2. Attend minimum number of training meetings (6 out of 9)
3. Attend state rules clinic annually
4. Have a state rating above the minimum after round 1
1 - Registered (all new officials)
2 - Approved (min 3 seasons, includes min test score requirement)
3 - Certified (min 5 years and all above requirements)
5. Register with both state and local assocication on time, and pay fees on time. Late registration or late payment of fees will DQ you from playoff games.

Local assignor assigns first 4 rounds after the state tells him which games he should assign. For 5th and final round the state asks each assignor to provide a list of potential final candidate officials. The state assigns final round from that list.

Local association politics still plays a part in which qualified officials get a game, or which game they may get. It also plays a role in who is on the short list for a final. I suspect politics in our association will always play a role.

[OverAndBack]

Like I said, usually. Of course there are exceptions to every rule. There are people who "get it" right away, and I'm sure we've all worked with guys with more longevity who either (a) don't get it or ( b ) had it and lost it a while back.

The guy who's done it for 35 years isn't necessarily better than the guy who's done it for 3. I'm talking general.

And I realize some here are Supermen who got it from day one and are married to Morgan Fairchild (who they've seen naked) and can divide by zero and who scare Chuck Norris - I don't know about those guys, but I know that my first year, my head was on a swivel and I just tried to survive it.

If you can pop out of a classroom or a clinic or a series of them ready to do varsity games, God love ya. If you can do playoff games by your third year, terrific. We need more quality officials in all sports at all levels.

I just don't think that's the norm, and I don't believe I ever will.

When I first got into this, I was at a clinic and someone asked the clinician in our group (a very, very good official who I respect and who was one of the guys whose counsel I always sought - JRut, you know the guy, is in FVFO) how long it took him before he felt he had a good handle on the rules and he said it was his fourth year.

Now, y'all don't know this guy, but let me tell you - it didn't take him four years because he's dumb or because he didn't work at it. He's very good at this and very dedicated to constantly learning and improving. But it struck me at the time that this wasn't an overnight process, and I still believe it.

[With_Two_Flakes]

Someone said earlier "does it take a year to learn where to stand?"

Of course not, that takes about 5 minutes of reading your mechanics manual.

What takes a year or more to learn is movement (and I would suggest a better measure would be eg. 100 games). I train rookies in my area of the UK and I like to think I do a reasonable job in preparing them before they go out on the field and buddying them during their first few games. But there is no substitute for having worked 10,000 snaps .
That should provide you with enough of those odd ball plays which teach you about when to stand still, when to move, how to move, where to move to, how fast to move there and where you should be looking during all of this....

[Texas Aggie]

if you are doing the same thing over and over but are doing it wrong, then how much experience do you really have.

I agree with you 100%, as I've said this exact thing on job interviews where I may not have had the years of experience that other applicants had, but wanted the job. In at least one case, the manager told me he'd never thought of it that way.

But this is just as true of the 5 year official as it is of the 3 year official. My point was that, everything else being equal, the 150 game 3rd year is a bit beyond (or at the very least, close enough to) the 100 game 5 year. Besides, in our chapter, most Thursday night (i.e. frosh/JV) crews include at least 1, and probably 2, 10+ year official. To the extent that they offer any critique, the lesser experienced officials won't be constantly doing it wrong, unless they either don't comprehend or don't care. If that's the case, they won't work on Friday nights and certainly won't get a playoff game.

[raiderfan]

http://www.imagehosting.com/show.php...arian.bmp.html

Does this official deserve a playoff game ?

[ref18]

I guess I'm coming into this late, but I have a little story that relates to this.

I started officiating a number of years ago back in grade 10. In my second year, I worked all though the playoffs and did the Division 2 city final. The next year, I did the division 1 final. Over the summer, for our provincial summer league that year, I did a final, as well as the under 17 national championship.

Then I moved away to college, joined a new association and haven't seen a playoff game in the past 3 years, except this year, where I didn't work any playoffs but my home association assigned me the provincial bowl game.

The point of the story is, I guess that different places do things differently. While you might be ready for the final, or the playoff game, there might be other guys ahead of you. But don't let it discourage you. I've done a few big games now, so I don't do it to get the playoff assignments, I do because I love it. I have fun doing it, and hopefully I'll be able to move up to that next level within the next couple of years.

[grantsrc]

Originally Posted by MadCityRef

My first commish once said he feared officials with 3 to 5 years experience because, "they think they know everything, but actually know just enough to get themselves into trouble, and not enough to get themselves out of it."

That is so true.

I've thought about this topic some the last few days. My experiences are much like the first posters. When I moved to Missouri, I had 4 years of underclass experience with a few varisty games mixed in. I got picked up by an experienced crew, had a pretty good season, and got a playoff game. I don't think we were suppose to get one but we did a good enough job in the regular season to warrant one. Same thing next year, had a good year and got another playoff game, this time a bigger, more important game. The third year, had a good regular season schedule and got the biggest playoff game of the area. This was in my third year as a registered official in the state. Some may frown on this but the guys I worked with had years of experience, state championships under their belts, and two worked D2 college ball. We were a pretty good crew. To top it off, the next week we got another playoff game that year, a semifinal game in the second biggest class. So we had a quarterfinal in the largest class, and a semi in the second largest. My confidence was sky high.

All that came crashing down the next two years. Like the quote above said, you think you know everything at that stage of your career. The next two seasons I didn't get a playoff game because the rating I received from coaches was too poor. In fact, the first year our crew got a playoff game but I was replaced. In MO, we get ratings from coaches and that's a big part in our selection process. So I worked harder, learned the rules better, lost some weight, and did my best to get better with each game. This season our crew worked a state championship game.

I pass this along to reinforce what many have said here. Work hard, improve each week, and don't get discouraged. Many great officials have been burned by envy, jealousy, and being over-zealous. Don't trash or badmouth those that get the games you "think" you should be working. Work harder so you are better prepared for when you get those assignments.

Lastly, there is something to be said for the "old boy network" but it goes both ways. It can help you, but it can also hinder you. Don't run your mouth about so-and-so because it can hold you back because word gets around. On the other hand you want to make sure you are making positive connections with those that can help you learn and advance. An article written by John Bible in Referee magazine last year said that he felt no official is ready to work college ball until they get 10 varsity seasons under their belt. A little harsh maybe, but his point is valid. In fact, I read this article from time to time to remind myself not to get in too big of a hurry. Don't get in a hurry to advance/get the good games. One mistake can cost you.

[OverAndBack]

I still just don't think you can microwave your officiating career.

I mean, I know just from my experience that I'm considered a wuss because I felt that doing 22 or 25 games two seasons ago was a lot for me. But based on the time I had to devote to it and the other things in my life, that was it for me. That was all I could do.

Then I have the notion (which I expressed at the time), that while I think you can do 85 games a year (of course you can), can you really do justice to 85 games a year? Is it physically possible to be up for this 85 times a fall if you do other things? Are you getting 85 games worth of benefit out of your 85 games? Or is it just slogging through them?

If I took a brand-new, never-officiated before guy and gave him (unrealistically), 80 games his first year, would that make him 4 times better than someone who did 20 games? Would he necessarily be four times further along? I know there's no substitute for reps and making mistakes and learning from them, but is it realistic to say that without sufficient time to reflect and gather feedback, to let situations sit in your mind, to take in the counsel of others and to do the educational components necessary to really improve, that there aren't diminishing returns here? That after the 40th or 50th game, you're not getting that much more out of it in that particular season?

I don't know. That's just my theory. I think that you can't make yourself into a fourth-year official simply by doing four years' worth of games (for some guys) in one fall any more than you can make yourself a college senior by taking 80 hours your freshman year. You need to grow (up and older), you need to reflect, you need to take it in and process it, and I think some of that time is taken up just by driving from one field to another, washing your uniform for the fifth time that week or any of the other procedural things that just....take....time.

Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.