Accountability for officials

[heyitsme]

I'm one of the few that on this board that actually defends the refs from time to time. And I often wonder why? Several reasons I guess, but one of the primary reasons is that when we face failure, its very easy to blame someone else rather than looking at and attempting to correct our own mistakes. Its popular in our society to blame others, and athletics are part of our society.

 

I have said it before, but I think that the quality of officiating in high school sport is comparable to the quality of athletes that are participating and the quality of coaches that are coaching. I admit that I have seen some officials that were terrible, on the other hand, I have seen more that were quite capable and do an outstanding job of officiating. But in all fairness, there are some kids that are playing that really should not be on the basketball court, and don't take that as being disrepectful for their willingness to participate. Same thing with some of the coaches that I have seen, most do a wonderful job, yet, an increasing number are there only for the 'personal' recognizion and/or the 'supplement' pay. With that said I must reply to couple of posts on this subject.

 

OPPERMAN, you have probably shown everyone on this board why you are not able to adequately judge officials. Your 'hang-up' with the refs that made the kids keep their shirts 'tucked' in, or made the kids wear the 'correct' color of spandex shorts are perfect examples. Little did you know, that these 2 examples are part of the rules book. And little did you know, that these are the most visually 'obvious' infractions to detect .... if an official can't see this, how in the world can he/she make a block/charge call? Additionally, both coaches are required to have their players 'legally' dressed, not the officials. Maybe, if coaches could adhere to the simpliest of rules, the officials could concentrate more on the 'action' of the game. Your 'hang-up' with using proper 'signals' is as fundamental to officiating as dribbling, passing, and shooting are to basketball. Just like most players and coaches try to look and act like a player or a coach, what is wrong with an official trying to look and act like an official. Consistent and uniform use of the signals is part of that process.

 

As far as the officials that missed 3 calls and cost you a game, you sir, have 'sour' grapes plain and simple. Anytime I hear or read comments like that, I wonder, what were the statistics of that game? How many turnovers, how many missed lay-ups, how many missed defensive assignments, how many coaching mistakes, how many missed calls that went 'your way', and so on, and so on. As far the particular ref, as you described it, calling only 'charging' calls. If that was true, I would think that by the 4th quarter, someone (like a coach or player) would have realized "all I have to do is stand in front of the offensive player and take a little contact and the ref will call a charge and we'll get the ball back"! Imagine how much that would simplify the strategy late in the game.

 

TIREDBBMOM, I agree with your comments! While basketball is a tremendous sport, it is still 'just a game'. In the big scheme of things, basketball for the most part, is only a temporary sideshow of the really important things in our lives. I hope when it comes to the things that really matter in our lives, that you expect the same type of "accountability" for other professions (things such as government elected officials, teachers, corporate executives, clergymen and clergywomen, police officers, news reporters, military personnel, etc.) Sometimes I think that we want to hold these high school referees more accountable than the people that really controls our lives. Not saying that that is bad, just that we need the same passion for other professions when it comes to "accountability" as what so many want for these referees.

[Opperman]

Posted by heyitsme:

OPPERMAN, you have probably shown everyone on this board why you are not able to adequately judge officials. Your 'hang-up' with the refs that made the kids keep their shirts 'tucked' in, or made the kids wear the 'correct' color of spandex shorts are perfect examples. Little did you know, that these 2 examples are part of the rules book.

 

Little did you know, I didn't say I have a problem with referees keeping kids' shirts tucked in. Little did you know, I work in a college athletics department, and little did you know, I'm pretty familiar with the rulebook...tucking in your shirt is in there, just like the bit about how the first and last letter of the team name has to be at the same height on the jersey, what is allowed to be on the shorts, how big the numbers are supposed to be, all that good stuff. In case you didn't actually read what I said, my problem is with the officials who make a big deal about tucking shirts in and don't know the rest of the rulebook too.

 

Posted by heyitsme:

And little did you know, that these are the most visually 'obvious' infractions to detect .... if an official can't see this, how in the world can he/she make a block/charge call?

 

Again, I never said they shouldn't correct undershirts, tucking shirts in, etc. I said they should get more important things right first.

 

Posted by heyitsme:

Additionally, both coaches are required to have their players 'legally' dressed, not the officials. Maybe, if coaches could adhere to the simpliest of rules, the officials could concentrate more on the 'action' of the game.

 

I agree, the coaches should keep their players in line there. But calling the game properly is more important than keeping a kid's shirt tucked in.

 

Posted by heyitsme:

Your 'hang-up' with using proper 'signals' is as fundamental to officiating as dribbling, passing, and shooting are to basketball. Just like most players and coaches try to look and act like a player or a coach, what is wrong with an official trying to look and act like an official. Consistent and uniform use of the signals is part of that process.

 

What's wrong with focusing too much on mechanics and proper signals? Easy...if you've got somebody who doesn't know the rules, make sure they know the rules before you worry about whether or not they're raising their hand straight enough. I'm not saying it's bad to work on mechanics. I'm saying it's bad to work on mechanics at the expense of working on actually calling a good game of basketball.

 

Posted by heyitsme:

As far as the officials that missed 3 calls and cost you a game, you sir, have 'sour' grapes plain and simple. Anytime I hear or read comments like that, I wonder, what were the statistics of that game?

 

It's water under the bridge, it doesn't bother me at this point that we lost the game. Those calls would have bothered me if we had gotten them, they would have bothered me if we had won the game. They would have bothered me if I was watching two teams from Afghanistan that I had never heard of.

 

Posted by heyitsme:

How many turnovers, how many missed lay-ups, how many missed defensive assignments, how many coaching mistakes, how many missed calls that went 'your way', and so on, and so on.

 

The continuation itself didn't cost us the game. Our best player being on the bench with a stress fracture in his foot had more to do with it. But that still doesn't change the fact that our opponent got 11 points on continuation calls (three plus a technical for arguing one of them) in a game that was decided by 5 points.

 

Posted by heyitsme:

As far the particular ref, as you described it, calling only 'charging' calls. If that was true, I would think that by the 4th quarter, someone (like a coach or player) would have realized "all I have to do is stand in front of the offensive player and take a little contact and the ref will call a charge and we'll get the ball back"! Imagine how much that would simplify the strategy late in the game.

 

You don't think that happened? And it didn't take three quarters for our coaches to realize that...they pointed it out watching film on one of our upcoming opponents. Lo and behold, they were right when gametime came.

[Guest nthezone]

Heyitsme-I really liked reading your post and agree with all that you said.

 

Opperman-Just because you work in an "athletic department" doesn't make you a TSSAA Official. And untill you have been on the basketball court with zebra striped shirt on and a whistle in your mouth then you have no right to be putting down any kind of referee, because as soon as you stepped out on the floor people would be saying the same stuff about you. GUARANTEED!

[tex]

I have been going to high school ball games for over thirty-five years. I have saw some of the best officals this state has to offer and I am sad to say I have also saw some of the worst.My question would have to be how do you hold officals accountable, do you take games away when they have a bad game or miss a big call at the end of the game? If so who do you replace them with someone with less experience then who have helped out? I do not have an answer just food for thought.One think I do know is people are not lining up to officate for what ever reason and the ones that do try it are usually gone after three or four years

[Opperman]

Posted by nthezone:

Opperman-Just because you work in an "athletic department" doesn't make you a TSSAA Official. And untill you have been on the basketball court with zebra striped shirt on and a whistle in your mouth then you have no right to be putting down any kind of referee, because as soon as you stepped out on the floor people would be saying the same stuff about you. GUARANTEED!

 

I'm calling a duck a duck. There's a lot of good refs out there, but there's a lot of bad ones too. I don't have to be a TSSAA official to know a good official from a bad official. I don't have to be an NCAA official to know a good one from a bad one...but I usually know when I see the list of names how well-called a game we'll get that night.

 

Yes, I know people would be saying that I stink as a referee. In case you can't read, I already said that I stink as a referee. Some people can officiate basketball well, I'm not one of them...I watch things differently than a referee is supposed to. That's fine, I'm not pursuing that because I know I would have no future in it. That doesn't mean I don't know what constitutes good officiating.

[LargeK9]

I think heyitsme is missing the point of this whole thread. No one is bashing officials. In fact, I agree that they are doing the best job that they can right now under this sytem. However, no one can improve if they are satisfied with where they are at. If we don't question if there is a better way, then there will never be any improvement. We ask that of players and coaches. Can't we ask that of officials as well? Why is commenting on offciating such a taboo subject? If handled in a professional manner, it shouldn't be. I think a dialog among coaches is a great start to one day implementing an evaluation that we all, coaches and officials, can be proud of in the future.

[imasoftballer]

Your first statement is an easy one to answer. Just about everyone!!! The people who work in factories put the work out in front of millions not just hundreds. And guess what? If they produce poorly they lose their job!!! Now the abuse they (refs) take while performing their job is a totally different beast. It should not be allowed, period! The biggest difference is that if I don't like a product that I have bought, I go with a different product the next time. With refs, we have no options. We take what the tssaa gives us!!!

[Stokomo]

I somewhat disagree with the last comment. We do have a "say-so" in the matter of refs. One, you may write a letter requesting the removal of a particular official. Two, you can talk to the coach of the team you favor. If he is in line with what you complain about, the coach can request to the ref's supervisor that he not call his games at his gymnasium any longer. And three, you can be a ref yourself. People don't want the "headache" that comes along with being a ref. Refs that miss calls honestly are only human. The only alternative is to have computer-generated refs to call games. It's too expensive and will take 6 hours for a basketball game to conclude. The refs that dishonestly call games need to go. I had one ref tell me after our loss to a team that I could take that loss back home with me. This was after we were up by 6 points with 3 minutes to go, the foul situation was 8-3 in favor of us, and the coach calls a time-out. The refs talk to the tourney director for 5 minutes, in which he also finances the team we are playing. After the time-out, we had two gouged eyes, a bloody arm, and 9 fouls called against us vs. none for the other team. We lost by only 3. Now those games few and far in between, but still the weeds (bad refs) need to be pruned. I can live with a ref that may have made the wrong desicion honestly. Chalk it up as we'll get the other side of the coin next time, because we ALL are not without flaws.

[imasoftballer]

The only problem with that is... I am tring to do the two and somethines 3 jobs I have now to the best of my ability. I can not do everyone elses' job just because they can't. I ref B games and will be the first to say what a tough job they have. And I don't have to deal with the big unruly crowds that they have to.