Help/Advice on working solo

[BlitzkriegBob]

Well this is turning into an interesting volleyball season for me. Night before last I had a JV/Varsity match scheduled. This is my third year doing volleyball and I was looking forward to doing this match since it would be my first exposure to a higher level of volleyball than I've worked before. I have done two or three JV/Varsity matches each of the last two years, but always at a private school which did not feature what anyone would consider great volleyball action.

So I get there thinking "I'll ask to go up for the first match to get experience at the JV level". The problem is, nobody showed up to work the match with me. The AD was there, and working the phone, but wasn't able to contact the scheduled official or anyone else who was available to work. So now I'm working this match alone.

I had worked just one other match solo before, and that was a 7th grade A/B match. I made sure that the scorekeeper and timekeeper were aware of their duties. There weren't any real problems during the JV match. I kept track of substitutions, but pulling my rotation wheel out and marking down subs seemed to be taking too long, so I made the executive decision to allow the scorekeeper to track subs during the varsity match. Now I've been lucky enough to have had some very good scorekeepers and a few good lines people this year, but for the varsity match I had a high school senior keeping the scorebook for the very first time, a slightly experienced timekeeper who only messed up the scoreboard about three times (twice on scores and once on time between matches), one lineswoman who was spending more time cheering and clapping for the home team than giving me signals, and one lineswoman who was wanting to make over the net calls from her position. I'm not kidding, she actually stopped play twice during the match to come up to the stand...once to inform me that someone had reached over the net to set the ball (?) and once to inform me that she had seen a tip on a play that happened two feet in front of me when I neither saw nor heard a tip.

Okay, so now let me tell you what I watched and couldn't watch and I would like feedback. I could not see myself taking my eye off the ball at any point during the match, so looking for illegal alignments had to occur before the whistle for serve. I tried to keep my eyes on the net for as long as I possibly could, but I know that I had to have missed net violations and center line violations that were taking place once my focus was moved away from the net. Too many times I was watching digs being made as I could sense the net being touched. Was I wrong to not keep track of subs? If I should have been keeping track of them, would it have been bad mechanics for me to keep my wheel in my hand rather than my pants pocket? What exactly are my responsibilities regarding the official score? I straightened out the scorekeeper and timekeeper (who was running the scoreboard) once when I knew they had given the wrong team the point, but on one other occasion I was not 100% sure that they had messed up the score so I let the scorebook prevail. I kept track of timeouts. I checked starting lineups from the court as I would if I were the umpire before going up on the stand. Are there any tips anyone can provide for working a match solo?

The match ended up going 5 games, and while I think I did an okay job, I was still a little bummed that I didn't get some valuable experience working this match with a veteran official. As far as rules interpretations went for the night, I was happy to verify later that night that two no-calls I made that night were good no-calls. Mostly I have lingering questions about mechanics. I hope I never have to work a JV/Varsity match solo again, but if it happens I want to be better prepared.

By the way, I follow on the NFHS board also, and I've kinda gotten the impression that USAV uses only one official. Am I wrong in my assumption? Is that good experience? I've thought about trying to get involved with that since I work only about 20 matches and two tournaments a year during the short high school season here. Most of those matches are still middle school, though this year I'm actually working half a dozen freshman matches in addition to two JV/Varsity matches.

TIA,

Bob

[DaveASA/FED]

Well IMO you were correct to have your main focus on the ball, but I think in working a 1 person you have to give a little. By that I mean you have to make a decision on every situation what to watch, you can only watch one thing.....so priortize what to watch. If a girl is running toward the net to hit the ball, give the net a little more attention (watch her longer than you normally would) before following the ball. I think #1 is ball handling and net play I know that is 2 things but like I said you have to follow both focusing on what is more likely to create a need to blow your whistle.

A couple of generic things if you are working alone.....slow everything down, you are one person doing the job of two people....if it takes you longer to ring in and out subs so what! If you have to pause an extra second to make sure the scorekeeper game the home team a point not the visitors, do what you have to do. About your wheel, I assume you are talking about the disk that rotates with the girls, I also use one of those and love it, some hate it but to each their own. What I do is I take a big binder clip up with me and I clip the thing in the middle to the rope / cable. This allows both sides to be accessable to rotate easily as they are suspended in the air. I am able to look down quickly to verify positioning prior to the whistle blow for a serve, I have my back row there to see them.....it works for me. And to ring subs in and out all I have to do is grab my pencil and write it down on the card. It makes it much nicer.

Bottom line is you call what you can and don't beat yourself up cause you can't see it all!! That is why they schedule two of us!!!!

[Andy]

Good advice from Dave....primary focus should be on the ball most of the time and be aware of when you may have to stay at the net a touch longer to pick up a net and/or centerline violation.

Another piece of advice that I would provide is to see if the referee's stand can be moved to the same side of the court as the team benches. Being on that side while working solo allows you to more quickly administer subs and speak with your scorekeeper and/or timer more easily.

Working alone at the JV/V level is no picnic if the level of play is decent. Do the best you can to try to widen your field of view and catch as much of the action on the court as possible.

I don't work any of the USVA stuff, so I can't help you there, but I know there are several regulars on the board who are active in that group and will answer your question.

[FMadera]

Originally Posted by BlitzkriegBob

By the way, I follow on the NFHS board also, and I've kinda gotten the impression that USAV uses only one official. Am I wrong in my assumption? Is that good experience?

Well, it's not really like that, it just seems that way.

Most of the time, you have a team that supplies the work crew, which includes a 2nd referee, line judges, scorekeeper, scoreboard operator, and libero tracker. More often than not, your 2nd ref is asleep at the wheel, and it feels like you're working by yourself. They will almost never catch illegal alignments, so you'll have to get used to catching those by recognizing them, not from using your wheel, which is NOT allowed in USAV.

Of course, sometimes you'll have a player who will surprise you. I had a player from Team Z 16-2 who caught an illegal libero replacement as the 2nd referee! She was incredible. But that's the exception.

The nice thing is, you can work about 3-5x as many club matches as you do high school matches, if not more. I will probably work about 80 HS matches, 30 college matches, and 300 club matches this year. Great for seeing ball handling, learning alignments, etc.

[MCBear]

Bob, I agree wholeheartedly with the advice that you have been given. The easiest thing to do is to begin to wean yourself away from depending on the wheel to check rotations. As Felix indicated, in USAV we are not allowed to use line-up tracking aids (although as an R2, I can lay both team's line-up sheets on the water barrel in front of me so that I can take a quick glance if I really need to check and see where someone is supposed to be or if I forget which serving rotation we are in).

Look at the things you learned by having to work solo and, then, see where any of it may be beneficial for working with a partner.

How did the coaches react throughout the varsity match and afterwards? Did you get any feedback from them concerning your solo effort? To me, it sounds as though you did a great job for being placed in a very tough situation.

[ASA/NYSSOBLUE]

Let me preface this by saying I just started as a VB official last year, and in our area, you work approximately HALF of your matches on the 7th/8th grade level (here in NY, the call all 7th/8th grade sports 'modified') alone! In fact, my very first game as R1 was by myself!

After a couple of matches alone (including a double match at one school- what a game fee!), I finally worked out where for subs and time outs, I had the coaches hit the scoreboard buzzer to get my attention. I also tried to do the lineup check before going up on the stand for the first game, then had the captains bring it up to me before the last two games. I also let the coaches know that during the games that the lineups were basically on their honor - nobody is going to try to cheat on that level!

My last match of the season was also my hardest - the two teams were playing at a nice JV level, and there was actual real net play! I tried to do my best there..but...you ARE going to miss things...

And just a final thought as a recommendation Bob: Try and see before next season if your association sponsors/works any multi scrimmages schools in your area might hold. I worked at the end of August a scrimmage where there were 13 teams rotating and playing 15 minute games. I ended up working the equivelent of 6 varisty level matches in a seven hour period - what an amazing experience! I found that by the end of that day the confidence where I KNOW I will go and try and qualify as a JV/Varsity official in the future, when my experince allows me to!

Good luck in the future Bob!


Lou

[BlitzkriegBob]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Andy, I especially liked the idea about moving the stand over to the opposite side of the court. I'll keep that in mind. Jan and Felix, I sure wish I had guys like you around here to pester with questions. I'll try to start weaning myself from my reliance on line-up tracking aids!

Jan, before the match even started I explained to the coaches that I would do the best job that I could but that it was highly possible that I might miss calls having only one set of eyes watching the play. The home team coach was very laid back and I had no problems with him before, during, or after the match. The visiting team coach was upset by a couple of calls/non-calls, but didn't cause any problems. I didn't get any feedback from anyone other than the AD, who said I did a great job (but I took that with a grain of salt since he's a basketball coach who doesn't know anything about volleyball).

Have a 6th grade match in a few hours. Those are always a lot of fun!