TDJ85

I have a good friend who works for theTSSAA and he has stated all along that there are more problems and more time spent investigating Memphis publics than they everv have had with privates.

rollredroll- I agree. The biggest misconception is that private schools "offer" scholorships. It is all done in Princeton, NJ. Schools have no say so as to who receives what or how much. If, and that is a big if, a school is offereing money, it is coming from an individual and not the school.

volnut- It has been a few years since I have officiated, but that was what we were told in the nashville association which was relayed to us from the state supervisors. If it has changed since then I apologize, or it could be different associations choose to interpret it another way.

hvwarrior58 You are right about charge call. all refs are instructed by the state not to call charging if the defensive player is within a 3 foot radius of the basket. The reasdoning is you don't play defense under the basket. It was designed to keep from having cheap calls.

What many people do not understand is that the State ( Ronnie Carter ) as well as the local associations give out very strong instructions as to what they espect officials to do concerning all types of situations, including handling coaches and the scorers table. We are told to stay as far away from coaches as you can. My phylosophy was I would explain an unusual call or situation to him but would not argue. The problem with most coaches is once you start talking to them, they will want or expect an explanation for every call. Then you really have problems. As far as I'm concerned fans can yell or say what they want. That is why in a previous post I said that sometimes I got amused or even smiled at them. If they could reverse things and see what the official sees from the stands they would probably laugh themselves too! The only time I ever threw anyone out of the gym was when he came out of the stands cussing me and I felt threatened. It happened one time. We are also told that the scorers table can be either your best friend or worst enemy. Regardless of what the scoreboard says the table has the official book. If he is not paying attention or getting too caught up in the game it can cause major problems. Just on other clarifcation. You are not considered in the front court until both feet and the ball have crossed the line. Officiating is not just knowing the rules and making the calls. The great officials know how to handle themselves on the court, control the players, know when and how to communicate with coaches and just in general control the game. I think part of the problem now is most young officials do not take the time to study the veterans. If you're professional and act like you know what you are doing, you can get away with far more missed calls than the official who knows all the rules but has yet to learn how to handle himself on the court.

libertyfan I do not understand the thought process to get rid of all "different official organizations." And bring it under one roof? They already are - the TSSAA. as stated in a previous post, local organizations serve as the training ground for all officials, especially the young ones. I know the Nashville group meets every Monday night. These meetings usually last about 1-1/2 hours. Rules, mechanics and different situations that occurred at games from the previous week are all discuussed. It is a continual learning process for both young and old. I do however agree with you about going back to two man crews. Sometimes I think with the extra official their is a tendency to wait on your partner to make the call. I'll take two good officials any day for a big game. Your comment about same crews year cround is not practical at all and will never work. Did you ever stop to think that some officials work a college schedule and are not available for all high school games? There could be many reasons why someone might not be available on any given night. One last thing. I'm not sure how other areas of the state work, but I do know Nashville ( unless they have changed this the last couple of years ) has a rating system for assigning games. Each coach prior to the season is asked to rate 40 officials. They are to list 5# ones, 5# twos', 5# threes, etc. Each coach is also allowed two scratch up to five officials. The assigner then schedules officials based on the highest rated official of each coach for each game. Also an official can not have the same team more than 5 times a season or 3 times at home. It may not be perfect but 90% of the time each coach will have the two officials that they have rated. It also weeds out the weak ones. There may be some that will have as many as 30+ games a year. Others no more than 4 or 5.

Many people on hear seem to think that the privates have all this money to give away on scholorships. Very,very few would give out more than a handful if their were a split. I doubt if their would be more scholorships with the split than what they do in D-11 now.

DABOOKIE Great post! As an "old" retired referee ( h/s & college ) your post nailed it. I have read most of the post with a good bit of humor ( brings back fond memories ), seeing that the average fan has know idea what goes into officiating. This includes both on and off the court. I was at a college game the other night and the ball was shot and hit the side of the back board. Everyone around me was booing and cussing the officials. I just sat back and smiled at their ignorance. That is just one small example that most if not all fans are clueless when it comes to rules and mechanics. Also, since when does having the fouls even on both teams mean the officials did a good job? That is the biggest myth that I hear. Well I've said my peace. I'll continue reading the post. This is better than the comic section of the paper.

FHSrebel27, No problem. My vent was not directed at you personally.

Having officiated both high school and college for sixteen years, I'm really saddened to hear of this incident. Quite frankly, even worse are the few who thinks it is funny. If people new how much of a hassle an official goes through for having a "confrontation" with a fan or throwing a coach out of a game, you would not be making such stupid comments as I've heard on here. As an official I would go out of my way to avoid such problems and I think other officials would do the same. Not that it matters, but for what is worth, it has been my experience that most fans do not know the rules. I'm reminded of this at every game I go to. Don't cast the first stone till you've been out on the floor!

Does anyone know when the "recruiting rule" was actually written?

Antwan, You said that the small publics are not being heard. A bit ironic since the privates have never been heard.

GWAVE1, I may be mistaken, but were the recruiting rules different back in the 70's & 80's. I always heard two things: 1) You could talk to prospective student athletes ( I think you still can ) as long as they initiated the contact. 2) You could contact prospective students at a certain grade level, possibly 7th or 8th grade. ELA- maybe you can shed some light on this.

I agree with all previous post. Unfortunately though, I know of one prominent football school that wants participation in other sports but only in the ones the coach selects. For instance; soccer and baseball is looked down upon if you want to continue your high school football career. Track and wrestling is OK.

gobigred-- Did not mean to imply that at all. My whole point was to show that private schools do not have a strangle hold on the best pitchers. It is hard work and parental involvement that is needed for development. It seems some will want to show that as a private school advantage.

While I have done very little if any posting, I have followed this thread quite closely. From what I know ( from friends with daughters who play softball ) and seen, pitchers start training and working at a very young age. You do not suddenly decide in 10th grade that you want to pitch. A lot of time and money goes into developing a pitcher. I think this gets back to the topic of private school participation and parental involvement, not the least of which would be financial.

Where do you get the idea that private school athletes do not get noticed as much as public school athletes? Can you give an example? That statement makes no sense.

The 1A rural and privates are in the minority therefore had no chance in an election. That was one of the privates complaint with the TSSAA.

Can I change my screen name without losing any previous post?

Ego, In response to your eariler post ( I still have not figured out how to use the quote bar ) about the 7 D1 players at BA and if they rec'd financial aid, I know for a fact that the majority, if not all, did not receive any aid. In fact 3 or 4 that I know of started at BA in sixth or seventh grade. A couple of others parents are BA alumni. As a private supporter, you should no better than to make statements like this without knowing all of the facts. Also for those who might have forgotten, private schools before the split were limited by the TSSAA on how many students could be on financial aid for each sport. I believe football was limited to 4 each year. Guess how many they can have now since the split??

All Mi-state relies on coaches to send in nominations and stats to the Tennessean where the writers pick the team. I know of players who signed D-1 scholarships that did not make the mid-state team because their coaches did not send anything in. Not to take anything away from those who made it, but the mid-state team has historically been weak. Also, there were players who made all midstate first team last year who did not even make honorable mention this year. Did they suddenly lose their ability or was the first selection a mistake? As I understand it, the all state team is selected by coaches entirely without feed back from writers. Even then their were quality players left off including D-1 players. Bottom line is every all star team in any sport has quality players left off.

They generally do not come out until July. It was late July early August last year.

I will add one more thing to your post. You incorrectly stated that Memphis and Chattanooga were the only serious bidders for spring fling. Nashville made what I understand to be a very serious bid offering more compensation than did Chattanooga. A good majority of the venues were in the Vanderbilt area. Nowhere near as much travel between sites. The Tennessean reported that two days before the final decision was made Memphis had already made arrangements two fly Ronnie Carter to Memphis on a private jet. I think Memphis had secured the spring fling regardless of what Nashville or Chattanooga offered!

The TSSAA does not have any control over the scoreboards. It is strictly up to who ever controls Mike Rose.

Yankee........Memphis has hosted the State Cup and the Regionals which are bigger from a soccer standpoint without the scoreboards, so why should anyone expect them to work for TSSAA?