Grading-Ranking Officials

[freeagent]

About ten years ago, I was at a meeting held by one of the basketball/volleyball officials group in San Antonio.

Of course, one of their concerns was that they always could use more officials. They brought up a story about one of the Houston area basketball chapters, which did a pretty significant recruiting drive -- because in the next few years, something like 48 new public middle schools and 20 some new public high schools were coming online. They figured with all the varsity, sub-varsity and middle school games they would need something like 150-200 new officials to cover the new games.

One year, they were able to sign up something over 100 new officials. By the end of the basketball season, only 23 signed on for the next year. As you would expect, most if not all of these new officials were calling middle school and sub-varsity contests. When asked why they decided not to continue as officials, the most often given answer was poor sportsmanship by coaches and parents.

Anyway, all of us know that the best calls are made from the 7th row of the stands. Maybe 10th row for basketball. Too bad the chapters don't change their mechanics and start putting the refs up there.

 

[freeagent]

I agree with you if this was a practiced policy on zone officiating. But, officials are human and they follow the play, just like everyone else.

yeap and it is a learned skill and takes time . I sure learned by trial and error over the years.

Seriously, a couple years ago, I happened to be in Austin and was planning to meet Granger for lunch. But there happened to be a football lecture over at the Bob Bullock Museum and he suggested we take it it.

Two guys were on the panel, one was Ben Wear, a columnist for the Austin American Statesman (and who calls a lot of six-man games) and the other guy, I forget his name, was another Austin TASO ref who was also a Big 12 official (and also played a coach on Friday Night Lights).

When you're officiating at the Big 12/D1/NFL level (with 7 or 8 man crews), mechanics really are set that you have a limited area that you watch ... maybe only four or five players at the most. And it does make sense, because if you start watching the whole field, you end up missing lots of calls. To be successful at that level, you can't "watch the game" while officiating.

Of course, the problem is when you start calling stuff far away, you're going to have lots more "officials conferences" and longer games because what I see from here is probably not what you see from there.

Like I used to say in basketball, when my kids start shooting 90%, making all their free throws, and all their passes good and sharp, then I'll complain about missed calls.

 

[freeagent]

I have 3 big gripes about officials....1st and biggest to me is the "its not my call" statement! If you see it throw your flag it doesn't matter who's call it is! This one really sets me off and has become a big issue during most of our games. 2nd is when the white hat tells you to talk to him during the game if you have a problem...then you approach him calmly to discuss something and he gets an attitude with you. That's when I become hostile and now people get yelled at! HOLDING...call it! Can't tell you how many times we get held and its never called. I'm talking jersey pulling, taking us to the ground holding. Its game changing, especially when the team is already twice the size of us...now we have no chance in the game!

Truth ... one way to get the officials attention on that is, as someone once taught me, was the use sugar instead of vinegar theory ... the guy was a basketball coach. If somebody was pushing his kid around, instead of yelling at the ref, he'd yell at the kid (loud enough for the ref to hear, by the way), "Don't let him hold you like that!"

More often than not, soon later, the call would be made.

 

[PopRay]

Basketball is the toughest venue to officiate...the closed in area makes for a very loud office to do your work in...coach, player and official...As a human and a official you have to have thick skin to work in that environment...

 

[PopRay]

I understand what everyone is saying about respecting the officials and not being so hard on them; but the issue is there is no accountability for their work - positive or negative. If a coach has a bad moment, the official can remove him from the contest, justified or not. Then UIL gets involved and has the option of putting sanctions against that coach for any amount of time deemed fair. However, if an official has a bad moment, bad game or anything (which is human) - no one holds them accountable. No sanctions, no disciplinary action - nothing.

If I'm paying for a service, and the service is inadequate, there must be a recourse or at least a deterrent to avoid this result in the future. There must be a system in place to hold officials accountable, for the positive and negative. Grading them after a game is insufficient if the results are never tallied and correlated to find trends or tendencies. Reward the officials who have great seasons with post season work. But also, stop allowing officials who have received multiple complaints, from multiple school districts, represent your chapter in the playoffs. Officiating is a tough job, and there's no way I could ever do it. I have the utmost respect for all that do it. I just wish the accountability in High School sports was universal for all participants - Officials included.

Disclaimer: The officials that worked our games this year were really good and we look forward to having you back.

I agree with coach...let's reward the officials who are true professionals...

 

[Guest]

As in all endeavors, there are those who excel and those who should find an activity that is more suited for his/her skill set. It would be hypocritical of me if I did not first admit that I have been and continue to be critical of officials. And, apparently the apple does not fall far from the tree because my son was the master of criticism when he was growing up and playing ball. We have both seen major blunders at every level of competition. As a matter of fact, we had front row seats in 1996 at Sweetwater for the state championship between Whitharral and Gordon, and were witness to the infamous 5th down after the officials failed to access the loss of down portion of the penalty for an illegal forward pass. By the way the pass which was good for a touchdown was not illegal. The officials were only guessing that the passer had crossed the line of scrimmage.
I happen to officiate quite bit before starting my coaching career, and I have a tendency to have an open mind and to see things from every perspective. My son who conspires to join the coaching ranks soon and was such a critic of officials when he was player is now an official too. Guess which side of the argument that he currently takes. Officiating is good pay for a college student and generates a viewpoint that all future coaches and parents should possess.
I think that split crews are a bad idea. An officiating crew is a team, and I feel that mixed group will not be as proficient even if not all members of the crew are the best the state has to offer at their position. A crew works together all season develops a “feel” for each other just like the teams that are playing.
There is an accountability system in place. Anyone (coaches, administrators, players, parents, or simply fans) can go to the UIL website, click on the Sports Officials tap in the upper right hand corner, then scroll down to Evaluate Officials on the bottom right hand part of the page, and click on the tap to evaluate the officials of the sport of your choice. These evaluations go straight to the UIL director of officials, and I can assure that he reads all of them. However, you should evaluate the officials or crew when you observe really good officiating performances as well as those that are bad.

 

[PopRay]

Thanks Coach Rutledge....We all now have an avenue to rate officials...good or bad...
I went to the UIL website and it works...far right upper corner....

 

[Little Doc]

Now that we've got the site where to evaluate the officials, wonder when they will have a place for all to evaluate the coach. Oh, that's your local school board. And when you are already on the school board, you carry more weight. Not good, not good at all.

 

[cowman52]

There are not a lot of ranking of officials right now. There are not enough officials to cover games now and it's not getting any better. Playoff games are more or less on coaches agreeing on a chapter and the secretary sending who he thinks is qualified. Now if they are or not is the question. We had the teachers pets go to. 4a game early in the season, every one of them thinks the NFL is going to use them on Sunday. They flagged everything known to man and their evaluation came back not so very good. And what happened, not a darn thing,
You do find chapters where this is not the norm but it is rare.
You want to get a hold on this, figure out a way to get rid of the coaches only getting to talk to the chapter secretary. Find the mid 50 guy and talk to him. You will get a better idea of who to use and why.
Will give an idea how hard it is, state championship 3 years ago, winning TD scored
with offense in an illegal formation. 4 officials could have called it and the general response from all 4 I didn't see it.

Another thing that is tough, these younger officials do not know how to talk to coaches. They are either so smart they never make mistakes or they see themselves as Matt Dillon the town Marshall.
We try but sometimes there ain't much we can do.

 

[HP Drifter]

Well spoken cowman 52.

 

[Shad Kline]

My take on referees.
1. Try having a game without them, let me know how that turns out.
2. They are people too. Treat them with respect. Even if they are wrong, they are to be told they are wrong in a way that doesn't involve spittle running down the tellers chin.
3. Until there are too many officials, lol, a grading-ranking system will do no good. Are you going to fire an official that makes mistakes when you don't even have enough to cover a friday night?
4. Retention will lead to better officials. This is key. RETENTION WILL LEAD TO BETTER OFFICIALS!!!! So don't run em all off!!! Getting experienced officials to return is gonna lead to having better, more experienced officials. Duh!!! So try to at least be nice to em. I understand sometimes they get it wrong, but to treat them like a dog when they do doesn't help anybody.
5. Make pay standard. And I mean standard. From 5A to Six man, a game is a game, pay the officials a set amount.
6. Follow through. If you feel that an official made a mistake, send in the film. The whole film. Mark the play, explain why you think is wrong. Ask for an explanation, make it a point that you get one. You may be right, the official may have gotten it wrong. BUT, there is a chance, ever so slightly, that it is YOU that was wrong.
7. If you are an official, try to understand that a coach is generally a passionate person. He WILL get over excited, he WILL yell louder than needed, and he WILL try to convince you that you are wrong. This is his life, a lot of coaches jobs depend on that W-L record. A lot of coaches want nothing more than to make sure they kids that they have come to know and love are not being cheated. If a coach comes to you with a problem, take the time to at least listen to what he has to say. If need be, let him know that you will listen as soon as he calms down. I've seen that approach work wonders.

 

[rickref72]

Hornkeeper is spot on. All are amazing points but 6 and 7 are the ones that help the best overall.

 

[Little Doc]

Good job hornkeeper12. Everything you said is so true. As someone once said, sugar draws more flies than vinegar. We don't have replay to overrule a bad call, so contain yourself when you disagree.

 

[Legacy Zebra]

I cannot stress number 6 enough. Please, please, please send film. Just like you and your kids learn from film, so do officials. Whether it's a judgement that was wrong or being out of position that lead to a missed call or anything else, we get better by watching film. I would add this to number 7: If you have a problem, the time to address it with me is not as the QB is going under center for the next play. I have a job to do at that point. If you will wait until the next time out, score, etc. I will be glad to give a full explanation then so that neither of us is distracted from our primary duties (me officiating and you coaching). Also, don't forget about rule 3-3-4-e: "A player, incoming substitute or head coach may request a head coach’s conference with the referee, if the coach believes a rule has been enforced improperly. If the rule enforcement is not changed, the coach’s team will be charged a timeout, or a delay penalty if all timeouts have been used."

 

[PopRay]

Thank you HK...your points are very good...

#6 Is necessary to clear up misunderstandings about rules and to help teach all those involved..coaches, refs, players and fans...

My intention of this post was to reward those Officials consistently applying the rules and calling a fair game....by having them officiate the playoffs and state game...

We won't improve the competency of the Officials( and all of us) unless there are tools to encourage learning...that's why if you do have a problem or concern...turn in the game film with the comments...

 

[STX425]

I think consistency is very important. Why a ref will go 38 minutes and never call a holding penalty and then call it with 2 minutes left in a tie game makes me insane!