Legal Right to Look at Game Assigners' Master Schedule

[jcv44wf]

I don't know why you keep on insisting on making these references to teaching and Haldane, NY., and abuse of students; and read what where????

What has that got to do with this topic?

Your comments in this line are irrelevant. I guess that about says it all.

[jcv44wf]

By the way, practice is spelled p-r-a-c-t-i-c-e, not "p-r-a-c-t-i-s-e." Again, you've missed the mark.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally posted by jcv44wf

How does a lawyer generate business for things that are perfunctorily guaranteed by the law?

Would it make a difference to you which of those two applied to me? Are you willing to help or just being sympathetic?

I have the sense your questions are rhetorical and you're not interested in my answers in the least. So why be so disingenuously sarcastic?

What's your point? To be confrontational and argumentative?

John:

My point is that I would like to know why you are so fired-up about this subject. So I would appreciate honest answers to my honest questions.

MTD, Sr.

[jcv44wf]

I am neither a lawyer nor a disgruntled referee. I am merely someone who seeks some equity in assigning for all. That seems a fair and a noble endeavor to me.

The way you asked your questions, I had the feeling that you did not seriously wish an answer, but since you've clarified it for me, there you have your answers.

I believe I have all along said from the start what my intentions were. So to reiterate and clarify, here, restated are my intentions.

Sorry for the confusion.

It seems me that the situation in my case is the exception as I have said; it seems from the small sample of respondents I have here that most boards/assigner are fair. Such is not the case with the boards I belong to.

I merely wish to pass along some information which may help others expose unfrair boards/assigners. As I say, knowledge is power. Those who have information and do not wish to share it often, but not always, have something to hide, as I have learned in my case.

Thank you.

[Andy]

While your stated goal of promoting equity and fairness in the officials assigning process is a good one, it will take a whole lot more than just getting a look at the master schedule.

Speaking as a person that was an assignor for several years, I will freely admit that my master schedules would show some officials with many more assignments than others. I will also tell you that the master schedule at the beginning of the season looked a whole lot different than the one at the end of the season.

A big reason for that is availability. If I had an official that was retired, worked from home, or had an otherwise flexible work situation and had shown me in the past that he would work games on short notice, that was most likely my first telephone call when a new game came on the schedule or a game was rescheduled, etc.... I'm not going to spend an hour on the phone when I can get the game covered in five minutes.

I'm also going to consider the contest itself. Do I want a new official on a potential high tension rivalry game? Of course not. I made the effort to watch and work with as many of the officials in my association as possible so I would know who the stronger as well as weaker officials were. This doesn't mean that the weaker officials intentionally received fewer assignments, but I am going to put the best officials available on the contests when necessary.

One of my goals as an assignor was to be fair and equitable and try to evenly spread out the assignments amongst the association membership. However, if you were to judge soley based on the master schedule, you would not think that goal had been met.

[jcv44wf]

Andy, thanks for your comments. I agree with everything you've said.

It may have been or is unclear, but generally speaking, I have asked for end of season assignments because I am aware of all you say and agree with it.

Peace

JCV

[ref18]

Do we really want equity in assigning? And what's your definition of equitable?

In my association the games aren't equally distributed, and it will never happen. There are guys who do nothing but ref, and there are guys who have to juggle reffing with all their other commitments so they don't get as many games.

But there are also those people who piss off an assignor, or who the assignor doesn't like. While this isn't really fair, there's nothing you can do about it. If you appoint someone else as assignor they'll just play favourites and neglect those they don't like. Part of officiating is politics, and if you don't like it, there's not much that's gonna change.

I can say for certain that if I was an assignor, I know I'd probably give my friends and those I like more games than those who piss me off. It's all politics, and playing the politics is part of the game.

BTW, I'm happy with the amount of games I get each year, and if I had the option to look at the assignors master sheets I wouldn't as I feel it will just cause more trouble then we need. We have coaches and fans yelling at us constantly, do we really need to turn on eachother?

[TriggerMN]

For high school ball, in most cases the assignor will:

1. Be an official or former official in that sport, and will be able to evaluate you to see if you can do a good enough job.

2. Receive feedback from other officials, supervisors, and/or evaluators on your officiating skill.

3. Receive feedback from coaches/athletic directors. In our association, a number of schools have a "we want to see these guys" list, and some have a "we don't want to see these guys" list.

Our assignor does his best to keep everyone happy. Sometimes, that's impossible. All you can control is your own skill as an official. If you are good, you will be in high demand. If you're not getting a full enough schedule, perhaps you should ask why, unless you are afraid of the answer.