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T$$AA Charging More For Games


INoLosers
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You're clueless. In the decades I've been involved with officiating, not once I have heard an official or an assigner say anything remotely close to being racist or sexist. The people that do these jobs are doing them because they're the ones that volunteered. As few people there are now days willing to umpire, there's a much, much, much smaller portion willing to be an assigner. Go educate your self on this topic and volunteer, stop your b****ing, and get a taste. You look like a fool with the posts you've been making here. There are not people beating on the TSSAA door to sign up to be a virtually unpaid assigner that gets to deal with scheduling games, that constantly change, deal with hot headed coaches and clueless coaches, coordinate 30+ umpires schedules to get it all work out. You would lose your mind after day one. If you're half the man that my former assigner is, the world will owe you a huge debt of gratitude. Assigners are not the reason people don't umpire, it's the commitment, time and also having to deal with douchebags in the stands and sometimes in the dugout.

You're right, but missing something. First thing first, I did not look at any of the articles that you put on here (in the first page) so you ended up wasting your time to prove a point when majority of Americans know that there is a shortage of umpires/referees.

I ref a high school sport, I will not say what sport and association because that is my business that needs to be kept to myself. I will say that this upcoming school year will be my 3rd year of being an official. Is my association short? A little. Are we desperate and dying? No.

My point is this, I get asked a ton of questions of what does it take to bring in more and younger officials in the game. I specifically don't know how to answer that because I feel like there are a lot of good answers to it, but not a 'great' answer. We all have different opinions.

I like officiating and I plan on staying in the business until I am no longer physically able to do it or gets burned out and do something else.

The one thing I will say about being a ref is that there a lot of refs that are jerks too. Towards players and coaches (behind their backs). 

I will say is that a referee/official should not constantly tell their partners about what happened if his partner made a mistake. In other words, an older official should not tell the younger official what happened if the younger official made a mistake. It has to turn the younger official off.

Also, I believe that every official should do everything in their will to stay in shape over the off season. Coaches and players have an off season where they improve their themselves to be better, I would love to see officials at least maintain their shape in the off season (I don't think a lot of officials do that). If an official does not do that, I believe it is not fair to the coaches and players. My opinion.

Yes, referees/officials are going to get chewed out sometimes by coaches, fans, and probably a player or two. It is bound to happen and it fits in the job description as an official. If an official can not handle it to a certain point than the official should question whether being in the officiating business is right for him/her. Not every fan and coach is a douchebag, sometimes when they have an argument, they are probably right.

Edited by TryNotToSuck
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You said in your first post that there was not a shortage in the U.S., now you say everyone knows there is a shortage. Maybe you did read those

articles. Never let a player "chew" you out. Just no. I about said, in my

earlier post, that the younger generation does not officiate because they

cannot not handle someone being critical of them. Your comment on this is

just plain dumb. You need someone, who has been there before, to tell you

what's up. I had some great guys teach me. I helped several young guys the

last several years I was umpiring. The last 3 or 4 years those young guys

just didn't want to listen and apparently never picked up the book before

either. Very few lasted past the first year, either by their own choice or

because most guys didn't want to work with someone unwilling to learn.

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You said in your first post that there was not a shortage in the U.S., now you say everyone knows there is a shortage. Maybe you did read those

articles. Never let a player "chew" you out. Just no. I about said, in my

earlier post, that the younger generation does not officiate because they

cannot not handle someone being critical of them. Your comment on this is

just plain dumb. You need someone, who has been there before, to tell you

what's up. I had some great guys teach me. I helped several young guys the

last several years I was umpiring. The last 3 or 4 years those young guys

just didn't want to listen and apparently never picked up the book before

either. Very few lasted past the first year, either by their own choice or

because most guys didn't want to work with someone unwilling to learn.

Everybody in the state of Tennessee knows there is a shortage of refs/umps, but I didn't believe that would be the case for the whole USA. Get it? There's a difference.

 

Second thing is this, I don't look at articles on if there is a shortage of umpires and referees in the U.S. Why would I do that? It's a waste of time and it's something that's not in my control. Besides, they always say "don't believe everything you see off the internet."

 

Third thing is that I relate to the players. I talk to them during games. For the ones that makes a valid argument, you have to tell them your explanation on why you made the call. They know the game. To sit here and act like players can't have a little argument is absurd, especially if there argument is really valid.

 

There is a younger generation of citizens that are workable. I don't know why someone would believe the younger generation are completely 'unteachable' just because there are a certain percent of our younger generation are not 'unteachable.' But a younger generation person may not want to be an official, that's their decision.

 

And to think the younger generation of umps/refs are running off because the 'most guys don't want to work with someone who's unwilling to learn' is clearly what I was referring to my first argument. There's a point where the older guys of refs have to nick-pick and criticize every little mistake the younger guy made. That's probably one of the reasons why they run off. We have to let these guys go and ref, and then tell them what happened when there's a right time to do it. 

 

But to sit there and believe that the shortage of refs in the state of Tennessee is blamed by coaches, fans, a few players, and the younger generation is pretty naive.

Edited by TryNotToSuck
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There is a shortage of umpires in the state of Tennessee.  That is a fact.

 

The average age of umpires in the state of Tennessee is increasing.  That is a fact.  The reason for this fact is that younger people do not want to umpire, for whatever reason.

 

Within the next 5 years, we will see varsity games being called by 1 umpire due to fact #1.  It has been happening in other parts of the country already.  Don't be surprised when it happens here.

 

The problem is trying to figure out why the shortage is occurring and do something to change the trend.

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  • 4 weeks later...

This is simple:

 

Younger adults are not getting out and doing extra jobs such as umpiring to make extra money.  Most umpires are older now, and getting older by the day. This part is a society problem, young people do not get out and enjoy sports like they did 20-80 years ago.

 

Supply and Demand:

Time is a commodity, some people's time is worth $20 hour, some $40 hour, they have to raise prices in order to attract more people.  There needs to be a push by TSSAA to get more young people involved in officiating, not just softball, but ALL SPORTS.

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  • 2 weeks later...

There is a shortage of high school officials, not just in Tennessee but across the country; not only in softball/baseball, but all sports.

 

Biggest challenges to keeping good, young officials?

1) Colleges, from junior college to mid-majors.  They all pay much better.  Would you rather make $95 to go to Unaka for a boys/girls basketball game or make $200+ to go to Carson-Newman?  If you're really good, that Carson-Newman level gig can lead to bigger things.

 

2)  Associations-the long standing operating procedure of it's-who-you-know is coming home to roost.  There was little planning for succession and as the "good ole boy" network has aged, there is no one to take their place because the top of the organization was a closed shop.  And each association, like it or not, interprets some rules their own way.  You see it especially in regional and sectional events in all sports leading to championship games.

3)  Assigners-Assigners can make or break new or old officials by giving them work, not giving them work, sending them consistently to bad places, putting them consistently with bad officials or folks that they just don't get along with.  And don't think there is not a pecking order (again, who you know).  Most however try very hard to be fair and reward the good ones to keep them.

​One side note:  if you think assigners are in it for the pure love of the job, think again.  There is a pretty penny that can be made assigning officials.  If you think they are in it purely for the money, think again.  There ain't THAT much money to be made.

 

4)  Why are we paying so much?  Consider this...by the time an official steps on the court, depending on sport, they may have as much as $1,000 invested in fees, camps, uniforms, shoes, equipment, etc.  So for two basketball games, I'm gonna get, say, $100 bucks.  I have to drive 40 miles one-way, an 80-mile round-trip.  Standard deduction is a little more than $40 bucks.  Will need to get something to eat on the road, so let's call that $10 bucks, even for a heart attack in a sack.  As an independent contractor, I'll need to withhold 35% of the remaining $50 for taxes at the end of the year. Don't forget I have to pay for Arbiter and the assigner ($3 a game, I think).  That means for the six total hours I have invested, I'm going to net about $29.50, or about $4.92  an hour.  And I've got to get 30 assignments to even come close to breaking even on my investment for uniforms and equipment.

 

Yeah, they're paid too much...no financial reason for a new official to run away.

​5)  Parents and fans-I am continually amazed at how brazen and uncivil crowds have become over the last twenty years.  And the student sections have followed that example.  I've been to many contests where the officials put up with much more than I would have wearing stripes or blue.  There comes a point where it's just not worth it.

Sorry for the verbosity.

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Here is some great plays by Mid-State umpires......maybe we should have a shortage??

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfLWYxWtKmI

 

At least the umpire in the field did look at the video after the game and said he made some mistakes BUT the umpire behind the plate wouldn't even look at them. He say why would I want to see that stuff.....well it may help you to become a better umpire....I wonder why NCAA, NFL, MLB, and uses them? Why do police use cam recorders to prove what really happen. I give the umpire in the field a positive remarks because he said I want to get better the umpire behind the plate said it was stupid to look at the video....maybe we should show more of these stupid calls and the TSSAA will see what coaches see? I will NEVER use a person's name who made the mistake but these aren't close calls?

 

If you have more of these types of video please share but don't use names of umpires lets show class. But let folks know what coaches are seeing from these umpires and MAYBE T$$AA will give them more training.

Edited by INoLosers
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