Schools Hiring Officials Out of District
 

Has any one ever had an issue with a school hiring officials out of district? My daughter's coach openly brags about not using the area officials. She has hired 2 officials to officiate every home game from a town about 45 minutes away.

This does not affect the organization that I assign for because it is in the neighboring state. I just don't understand her being allowed to hire 2 specific officials for every game that do not officiate the other schools in their district. I'm concerned that if word gets out, the schools that I do assign for will do the same thing.

I wonder if this is an issue that you can get the state liaison of officials involved in? Especially because she's hiring the same two officials every home date. I've never heard of a school in a territory using the assignor system hiring officials outside that territory to ref their school.

In my area of Pa. (and I would guess almost all of Pa) schools can hire any certified official to work their matches. Unless there is some agreement with a conference or league, schools can hire any PIAA official to work any match.

I've worked in a handful of states. Some with assigners. Some without.

1. It's relatively easy to get a good schedule after the assigner and others in leadership see that you know what you are doing.

Even those schools with assigners sometimes contract directly...though usually on the sly. It's typically because the assigner doesn't have the motivation to find officials for the smallest / least influential schools. In those cases, the small schools find their own and it works (as long as the assigner isn't informed).


2. In the states where officials contract directly with schools, it's difficult to get started, but after coaches/ADs see that you are good, you will work pretty much the schedule you wish, because you will get so many offers. You can feel free to turn down matches you don't want, while accepting those that you prefer.

Wise officials will decline to work at the same school more than a couple times/year. It's simply not a good situation to work all of a single school's home matches.

My first year in a direct-contract state, I was working a total grab-bag schedule. By my third year, I was working conference tournaments and nearly every day of the week that I wanted...and also turning down matches in far-away locales. Often, I would have offers to work at multiple schools on the same date. When I moved to yet another state, I left behind high school assignments scheduled 3+ years in advance! I arranged for excellent officials to cover all of them.

In Michigan the schools are free to choose who they would like to hire as an official, be it a local official or an official half the state away. If they choose to use an assigner for assigning, they do have some input in telling assigners they don't want a particular official working their games.

As examples of this, I assign a different sport and have a couple officials who are blocked from working certain schools.

I also an requested to go across the state to work one schools volleyball tourney's each year, and now that includes them requesting the assigner they use for other sports assign me there for those events.