Retirement...when it's time?

[Trap]

Lets change the question a little. Say your a middle aged official in modest physical shape. You joined officiating to be part of the game and help the youth and give back to the community.

Over the past few years the travel, constant whining and bickering of coaches and fans has taken a toll on you. You are now wondering is it worth it anymore. Is this the time to say its over?

I would believe lots of officials at some time feel this way. Just curious to get peoples take.

[falsecut]

Why do you say the R has to have this discussion with him? Shouldn't it be the crew chief? Or are you assuming that they are one and the same?

As to the whining factor, I'm guessing that this is one of the biggest factors in officials quitting. If you can't handle it, get out. If it bothers you and keeps you up at night, get out. The whining and how you deal with it is almost more important that your rules knowledge or mechanics. If you can't deal effectively with it, then you cannot be an effective official.

Trap, if you were to come to me as a person who had this problem, I think I would want to discuss why you feel this way, and how we can refocus you on the officiating instead of the outside influences. On a practical basis, I think that if you were the type to want to talk to somebody about it, you could probably be "saved". It's the people who don't want to talk about the situation, but just get surly, distracted, or disinterested who suddenly give it up or worse, drive everybody they work with crazy.

As a basketball official once confided in me, he planned in his last year, "I'm going to go on a grand tour and T up every one of those SOBs that have made my life miserable for the last thirty years". He was kidding (I think so anyways ).

[Theisey]

Trap .. the one thing that stands out for me is this, when it no longer is fun to work the games.... it's time to stop. Not there yet, but I know the
day will arrive. The second for me is when I physically can no longer work
the field at minimum of 90%. Only I can say when that is, but since I'll
know it when it happens, I will stop.

Appears to me in JimB's case, that official doesn't see or know he is at the end of the tunnel. You have to tell him you are going with another U.

[OverAndBack]

Originally Posted by Trap

Lets change the question a little. Say your a middle aged official in modest physical shape. You joined officiating to be part of the game and help the youth and give back to the community.

Over the past few years the travel, constant whining and bickering of coaches and fans has taken a toll on you. You are now wondering is it worth it anymore. Is this the time to say its over?

I would believe lots of officials at some time feel this way. Just curious to get peoples take.

Dude, I feel that way now and I've only been doing this five years!

I got out of basketball because that dollars-to-grief ratio quickly got out of hand.

Now, when everything's going well and you have a good game and you're working with good people and the game is crisply played and the coaches are behaving and there's nothing extraordinary (or if there is, you get it), it's great. When a game is rolling and you're really working well together as a team, it's a really fun avocation.

But lots of times, it ain't all those things. I don't know if it's a function of the level of play or playing mix-and-match with partners or whether my temperament would be better suited in the back than on the wings or what.

The bad games aren't that prevalent, but they stick out more. I wonder if anyone else feels that way.