Real Bad Officials

[oldergoat]

The level of officials in High School Sports has been going down hill for some time. TASO will do nothing about the problem and UIL will do nothing about TASO. So the coaches that are not "IN' are getting the short end of the stick.
It is time that something is done about the situation.
I for one wish that UIL whould remove TASO and take total control of the officials. Then maybe a ligit complaint from a coach would be heard and investigated and maybe something could be done to improve the level of officials at every level.
Before any of you current or past officials blast me I was an official for 15 years so I have had skin in the game.
It is sad that in a pregame meeting with officials that the only accknowlegment to one coach is a hand shake, not even an introduction, and the other coach is greated by first name. You know as a coach it may not be your night. Then every call goes to one side. And there is nothing a coach can do but take the abuse directed toward them and their players. And the official knows that he will be protected by the "Good old boy" system and has no worries about future asignments.
The level of knowledge of the rules at every level, from 6man to 6A is so bad that it is not worth paying for a ticket to watch a game.

 

[JasonTX]

The training at the TASO level is at the highest levels I have ever seen. The UIL and TASO have a great relationship. The UIL once tried to take over officiating and it didn't work out. The problem with officiating is recruiting and retention. It's not bad officiating that you claim but inexperienced. We have a task force that is currently trying to come up with solutions but it's a challenge to recruit. The number one reason people don't want to officiate is the treatment they see officials go through. The 18 to 30 year olds are not joining. Those that do leave after 1 year so a lot of schools are seeing 1 year officials every year. We are spread out all over each week. I'll say it now, if we don't get lots of people to start joining, in the next 2 or 3 years you will see fields without officials. It's that serious. Last year our chapter had 5 new members. We averaged 15 to 20 in previous years. This year we are at 5 as well. That will not be sustainable. So 10 new guys in 2 years. That may seem like a decent number, but when you consider that we also had 20 retirements during that time we are at -10. These numbers are very similar across the whole state. Bad officials? Not hardly. It's lack of experienced officials.

 

[oldergoat]

Jason I agree that recruiting and retention is a major problem but it is far from the major problem. It has been for a number of years. What I saw in the two chapters I called with was the simple fact that the young guys found out very fast you had to be “with the in group” or you were never going to “move up”. Another problem is that way to many officials think that unless it is 5A or 6A the game is not really important. And if the more “experienced” officials are forced to work a 3A or 2A game they wonder what they did to make someone mad. And forget all about putting an “experienced” official in a 6-man game.
But to my original post I have watched a number of games (baseball) and the officials were 10 year+ veteran officials. They were very “one sided” in their attitude toward the coaches. And it was “BAD OFFICIALS” not “lack of experience” that was the problem.

 

[JasonTX]

Welcome to the life of the imperfect. Typical of the human race. I've been searching for perfection for many years but I keep hitting brick walls.

 

[High Drifter]

Or you can have a situation like in San Angelo where they are short of officials, but have 30 or so walking streets that got tired of "ole boy" system. Chapter secretary had his pets and if you did not kiss his butt you were out of luck. I knew I was not going to call Central but had some good games. Got too old but had fun when was doing it.

 

[Falconfan24]

You know I don’t want to sound like a Debbie downer but Covid is going on people are loosing their jobs bc of vax mandate or deciding not to work bc democraps are paying them not to. Inflation, shortages that is going to get bad. As far as officials, probably lucky to have what we have.