rickref72":18kpw9i1 said:
I am not sure other chapter polices etc. but I know for ours 1-2 year guys were not going be getting in 4-a and above games. We have had strict policies in place based on officials divsion points coupled with the rest in crew and the fact you must be a D3 to have been placed in one of those games.
In my years just because you have xx years means you are absolutley good enough for some games. You can be a second year official in ability for ten years. That also does not mean in chapters every where the social aspect can and will help guys who do not deserve shots or get shots too early to bigger games. Now I have seen guys who get those gifts early self distruct themselves. I also have seen officials with less experiance out perform guys who have been around for years. The hope is guys progress in their careers, make contacts, work with other good men and can get on solid crews. Be humble, work hard, have patience and the rest will take care of itself.
However Amarillo is not unlike many other parts of Texas or the country for that matter. Jobs and personal lives can take one away from this game. I am fortunate to have a job I can manage that allows me to go anywhere any given Friday. The Texas panhandle is spread out and that does hinder where some guys who get off late on fridays where hey can work. Other factors like abuse on some fields or schools is factor. Some guys just can not get past small stuff and some guys get fed up with the big stuff. In the past 3 years I know 10 guys alone who are gone due to work. Thats two ball games on any given Friday we do not have numbers for. I have been coaching my son for the last several years on most sub varsity nights.
So I personally have not called many jv games etc. When I did get a few in last year I was shocked at how some lower level coaches where behaving. 14 years ago that would have run me off.
Several points about this post, I don't know if it is due to typos or not but you sort of contradict yourself in your statement, and your chapter polices are backasswards, to say the least.
Wanna see why retention is low? Look at a big chapter, as a new official you have to work umpteen thousand subvarsity assignments and chains and clock before you are given an opportunity to work under the "big" lights. Society as a whole has shifted to a "I want it now" model, it is the age of instant information and instant gratification. So the idea that someone in the millenial generation would put in that much time and effort to maybe get "rewarded" several years down the road is becoming more and more of a stretch.
Now look at a small chapter, since reading between the lines, it appears that you are from Amarillo, and see restrictive policies that are in place to make sure the young guys, experience speaking, are kept in their place and the old guard gets "their" share of the games.
So, your crew has to tally up a certainly level of something and you have to be a 3 or above to work in a "big" time game. So what would the make up of the crews tend to be, predominantly they will be made up to placate to the arbitrary theory that if you are a 4 or 5 that you can not work those games. So, they will keep those games to "themselves". You should put that in the ad too, hey it will be 5-8 years before you are deemed "worthy" by some arbitrary number to work a game above a 3-a level.
Folks, and you did mention this, that is why I was somewhat confused by the wording of your post, there are officials that have been calling their first year for the past 25 years, and there are guys in the 3-5 year range that are now calling college football, from naia to FCS, now, the latter is not that common, but in the d3 and d2 ranks it is common. So to paint with the broad brush and say that guys with that experience "can't handle" big school Friday night games in naive, and that is exactly what the policy above is stating. Is that every 3-5 year guy, no, absolutely not, but you aren't even giving them a chance.
In our "exit" interviews last year, the #1 reason that 1st year officials weren't coming back was the treatment by the coaches in sub-varsity games. I understand that it is their job and it is our avocation, but we are talking about yelling and screaming at officials in jr-high games. I am pretty sure at that level everyone is learning, no 1st year official is going to walk on the field with a mastery of the rules and officiating philosophies of the game of football, it just isn't going to happen. Just like there are very few Jr.High coaches that know the rules entirely or that will call a perfect game and although mom and dad think so, Johnny 7th grader certainly has a lot to learn, even if they were an all-star in the local peewee league. Especially when you are dealing with say an 11-man 7th grade game and only 2 or 3 officials are assigned to the game. Or in a six man jr high game where there are likely 2 guys there. They can't see everything, they don't know everything. You can try to send an "experienced" guy with a rookie or two in that situation, but typically that doesn't always work out well either. See the 25 year rookie mentioned earlier.
It is a fine line to walk for sure, but if the downward trend continues it is going to become a very real problem on Friday nights. From the old guard that are retiring, most chapters are EXTREMELY top heavy in age demographics, to middle of the road guys that have more family commitments as their children reach the age of participation, to the new guys that basically decide that it isn't worth 70$ for 2-3 hours of someone possibly yelling at you the whole time for one mistake.
