Never Forget the Fundamentals

[jjrye22]

I used to coach a very low level youth team as well *** officiate.
We had a nothing game (in terms of standing) where only two refs showed up. The coach from the other team knew me from officiating, and actually suggested that I step in as a third so that they could play instead of calling the game.
Only part about it that I found hard was - not throwing too many flags against my kids for small infractions (because they SHOULD know better!). The other team was happy to have been able to play, and didn't complain about any calls.

[sj]

The school isn't without blame here. Someone should have caught it that no one had called to verify. A few years ago here in OK we were riding back from a game and listening to the radio for scores. The announcers were talking about a large class game where the refs hadn't shown up. Of course they were having a field day with it blaming the refs for everything. This was a Friday night game so it sounded kind of goofy to me. How do refs just not show? At least without a phone call saying they'd been in an accident or something. Well what had happened was that the home team A.D. had not turned the game in to the local Officials association. He had accidentally left it off his list. Therefore they never assigned anyone to the game. And the A.D., or whoever should have, never realized that he had never heard from anyone and didn't make a call to find out who was assigned.

[Reffing Rev.]

We had a Varsity game on a Thursday night and got in the car to head home, and were listening to scores, and much like the previous post the officials had not shown up at a game in a neighboring town. Comes to find out, WE were supposed to be there too.

Originally the games were scheduled Thursday and Friday, but the Friday game got moved to Thursday and when they called our crew chief he thought they had said they had to cancel that game (in favor of playing it a different week in the season and using their bye week that week) and they had really told him it was moved to Thursday and he said okay.

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by Reffing Rev.

We had a Varsity game on a Thursday night and got in the car to head home, and were listening to scores, and much like the previous post the officials had not shown up at a game in a neighboring town. Comes to find out, WE were supposed to be there too.

Originally the games were scheduled Thursday and Friday, but the Friday game got moved to Thursday and when they called our crew chief he thought they had said they had to cancel that game (in favor of playing it a different week in the season and using their bye week that week) and they had really told him it was moved to Thursday and he said okay.

No offense, but how does your CC screw that one up?

Also, if you move a game, cancel is the wrong word. Postpone is the word you're looking for.

[OverAndBack]

AFAIK, everyone has accepted their share of the blame in this (we're at fault as a crew as well) and nobody feels worse about it than the school personnel. I offer it only as a reminder that we sometimes rely too much on technology and that a 30-second phone call can save a lot of headaches for everybody concerned.

[JasonTX]

I can't say that things are perfect here in Texas because there have been games that didn't have officials. Our assignment secretary for our chapter handles all communications with the schools. Each week for the games that we have contracted, he will send out a listing of the crew assigned to that game to both teams coaches. The coaches should know that if they haven't received that listing then they should be calling. Last year there was a pretty big game in which the coach didn't know what chapter wanted to use. As the week progressed he totally forgot to contact a chapter to arrange for officials They ended up putting some college coaches on the field to officiate and a member of our chapter was there to watch his son play and he assisted them with making sure they marked off penalties correctly without providing any judgment to them.

[azbigdawg]

Originally Posted by OverAndBack

AFAIK, everyone has accepted their share of the blame in this (we're at fault as a crew as well) and nobody feels worse about it than the school personnel. I offer it only as a reminder that we sometimes rely too much on technology and that a 30-second phone call can save a lot of headaches for everybody concerned.

The ladies in the AIA office get it right 97% of the time...... usually when a screw up happens its from lack of communication from the schools.. (not placing blame..they have a LOT on their plate also) The system here beats having a bunch of local associations by far......

[OverAndBack]

AIA seems to me to be a very good state association and, yes, they're very good at what they do in this regard.