For those of you complaining about officials....

[WhiteShadowHoops]

Here is the link with information on how you can sign up to become an official.

http://www.iahsaa.org/officials/

Looks like classes, clinics, and some registration fees will have you well on your way to replacing the current officials and making Iowa High School Basketball better for everyone. Just be prepared for people also to tell you how horrible you do at your job when you become one. Oh it will happen. Have you seen this board?

 

[PacificPalisadesTrojan]

Ray Charles could ref a better game than these Iowa hacks ... that Lemars vs Willie game was an embarrassement
It was awesome that Willie coach chewed those guys right off the floor They deserved it

Thanks for that website hope it gets 190k hits today and replacements are found for these hacks

This post was edited on 3/13 9:05 AM by PacificPalisadesTrojan

 

[WhiteShadowHoops]

Yawn. Coaches, parents, and players who whine about refs are hacks. You lose a game in double overtime you didn't lose it because of the officials.

 

[JonnyRae]

Hey, just becoming an official won't get you to the tournament. I know several in different sports and if you are not willing to kiss the right butt you never make it. There are plenty of great officials out there but just not in "the Boone club" that would do fantastic jobs. There needs to be an independent committee that has no affiliation with Boone to select and assign the officials. Why would a good young official stay with it if all you see is these old "good ol boys " taken care of. It doesn't matter what sport, baseball, basketball, football. The least we could require is that they are in physical condition. It is getting to be a joke.

 

[WhiteShadowHoops]

No kidding it won't get you to the tournament. I have watched almost every state tourney game. The only call I saw that could have altered the outcome of the game was the South OBrien and MVAO game with the backcourt violation. Wasn't even close.

 

[TheSeer2]

No kidding ... The wahlert big kid and Lemars stud sitting on the bench for the majority of the 1st half had little to do with the outcome of those games.ya right u r as blind as these hack
refs>That crap crew that did the North Scott vs Waukee game should not be allowed to do a 6th grade girls game let alone a 4a state tourney game but those hacks show up every year.

This post was edited on 3/13 10:05 AM by TheSeer2

 

[WhiteShadowHoops]

Adjust to the way the games being called. That is a part of the game.

 

[hawkeyetillidie]

Refs are not letting the teams play. Calling a bunch of tic tac'ers. Does it determine the out come of games? Probably not. But it's just an observation.

 

[Saywhat2]

There is no other sport that is more directly affected by officiating than basketball. You seem to want to say it has little to no effect on games. It does. What other sport eliminates the players for infractions?Players should not have to "adjust" to officiating. Call the game the way it's supposed to be called with at least some level of consistency and you eliminate the "complaining" ., to some extent. Rules are rules. Enforce them. Sure there are judgement calls. But there are too many " let them play" officials and just as many "call everything" officials. Just call the game the way the rules dictate.

 

[Ramsfor3]

Yawn to your protection of the refs White Shadow.

One missed or poor call NEVER makes a difference - especially in a close games. That is comical.

I am not sure what other conferences pay, but officials get $90+ per varsity game in the MVC plus travel expenses.
That is pretty good money for 90 minutes of work.

The reason there are fewer and fewer younger refs has nothing to do with coaches, players and crowds these days in HS. With the quick trigger ability to give technicals and the coaches siting rule, the job is so much easier than 8/12/15 years ago. And if you hear the crowd while officiating a game, you have some serious rabbit ears - and you are probably an incompetent official.

The reason there are fewer younger refs is because just like life, everyone feels entitled. None of these younger guys want to take the time to learn a craft - which is developed at the jr. high and lower levels where pay is not great and the games are brutally difficult to officiate because of the talent discrepancy of the players. Kids thinking about officiating look up and see that it will take 8+ years before they may just get a look at a varsity game and determine it isn't worth the wait.

For those young guys that stick with it and move on, they pick up some horrible habits officiating AAU ball in the summer. Officiating 15 games in a weekend where coach, player and parent behavior is HORRIBLE and will test your patience and love for the game. These AAU weekends do no one any favors as the officials see the same kids over and over and develop grudges and favoritisms that carry over into HS ball.

What is the answer? I don't know.
But if I am a young ref, I would like to see an attainable career path laid out in front of me instead of 'just do as many games as you can to gain experience' system that is in place today.

 

[WhiteShadowHoops]

I'm not protecting the refs. It just sounds like a bunch of complaining at the end of the day. There is always finger pointing. No wonder kids end up being narcissistic jerks. Look at adults blaming refs, coaches, and everything else under the son for why their kid lost. End of the day, it is not that big of a deal.

 

[TheSeer2]

Kids , crowd , coaches are fine at state it's not AAU most the jerks are long gone when they have to play real bball with real players and coaches ... everyone wants to see good basketball not a bunch of Bernie butt kissers over officiate because they are being evaluated,by other IHHSAA idiots

 

[TheSeer2]

I'm heading back to Waterloo ... Came to watch hoops but the refs have ruined every game so far , not any fun watching these stiffs try and steal the show

 

[WhiteShadowHoops]

Somebody call this guy a wahhhhmbulance.

 

[PacificPalisadesTrojan]

Save the tissue for the fans that have to watch these clowns officiate

 

[Teenage Dirtbag]

I have to side with White Shadow, how do we still find people to do this thankless job? If the money was great more people would be giving it a try. At the end of the day you are going to get at least 20 insults, or more, for every single thank you. Refs are just like coaches and players, they have good games and they have bad games. It's called being human. But no one in their right mind walks into a gym where both sides and so many parents and fans are obsessed with winning and looking for a scape goat. I'm glad we still have people willing to do it. I do think there will come a day when we won't...especially at the high school level. And going home and thinking that maybe you blew a call that decided the game can't be a good feeling either. Even with $90 or whatever in your pocket. Where is the reward?

 

[WhiteShadowHoops]

It starts at the youngest of levels. Go to watch 4th graders play basketball, baseball, etc. You have adults heckling VOLUNTEER officials for the job they put in. Youth sports are becoming more and more disgusting because of the adult onlookers, who are supposed to be the cooler heads. Way to teach the kids.

 

[Vroom_C14]

Originally posted by WhiteShadowHoops:
Adjust to the way the games being called. That is a part of the game.

How can you adjust to a traveling call that wasn't traveling and a basket that won the game, basket was then waived off and went to 2OT...

 

[WhiteShadowHoops]

Very rarely does one play decide a basketball game. Lemars should have lost that game 10 times over and didn't because they kept fighting. Get over it.

 

[cidhawkeye]

The team I watched won the game, would have won it either way but the officiating was poor both ways but the team I supported benefited more from the quick whistle.

 

[Sturod]

I wasn't really on board with all of the complaining about the refs this week, but I thought the officiating in the 3A & 4A championship games was some of the worst of the week. Hard to believe those 2 crews were the cream of the crop.

 

[cidhawkeye]

They weren't the cream of the crop, maybe back in the day. I enjoy the 'you need to be an official to complain' type mentality... Will let you know that if a pilot flys a plane into a mountain that I don't need to be a pilot to know he isn't very good at his job. I will agree that rarely will one call late change a game, the tone and style has been set long before that. 1-2 cheap calls early can change an offense/defense way you play the remainder of the game. That impacts 30 minutes rather then 10 seconds late. In closing I hope the chef burns your steak and tells you 'screw you, here are the tongs, because unless you have been the chef at this restaurant you can't complain'

 

[wolverine55]

Vroom, If your post is a reference to the Williamsburg/Le Mars game, it was a pretty obvious travel once you see the play on replay.

This post was edited on 3/15 8:33 AM by wolverine55

 

[DarkThunder#61]

I signed up to ref basketball the year before I started coaching. I still pay the dues and take the test each year just in case there's some openings if I'm needed. Though these last few years I've been too busy to ref any school games. /csb

Point being I'd like to know the rules of the game and this also gives me the advantage of knowing how both sides of the coin work so-to-speak. Although it's a little easy for me to be more critical when I see a ref make a mistake...or mistakes. I try to keep myself from making it too much of a habit to nitpick internally or otherwise about the officials because I know turnabout is fair play if and when I ref.

Outside of the standard issue missed calls which can often be easily attributed to human error as most would/should assume, my one criticism of officials that I will make is when there becomes a visible lack of awareness...or just effort on an official's or crew's part. This is evident in the memo I get when one of the recommendations for refs is to do a better job of being in their correct positions. Too often refs will work themselves out of position for whatever reason, and I'm assuming here, but it occasionally may be because they just don't feel the need to get "closer to the action".
With 3 man crews it's a bit different but this is very identifiable in two man crews when you have one ref standing behind half court and making calls on play in the lane....or missing them/expecting the baseline official to make the call. I also understand the call for refs to officiate their area but I also don't mind when officials outside an area make an obvious call that apparently wasn't so obvious to the official right by it.......those are gray areas for a lot of people in terms of criticism.

Yes it is true that officials can affect the game. Officials with a personal agenda (handing out questionable technical fouls) or those that look to control the game can influence the way it is played.
However, as a coach you learn that you have to be able to teach your kids how to adjust, as others have mentioned.

Can officials do a better job overall? Always.
Do they deserve even half the criticism they get? Usually not.

Are Pacific and his buddy trolling for comments? Absolutely.

 

[Pinehawk]

Great post.

 

[maxstabs13]

I watched the 4A semifinals games. What I noticed was the players who were most aggressive got the calls more often than not. You want fouls in high school you get into a defenders body and make it look like a foul.

ICW was not very aggressive against NS and under 3 minutes to go they continued to attack the rim and get into the bodies of the NS players. Do I think they all should have been called fouls on NS? No, but in high school basketball being the aggressor is how you get foul calls. Those fouls kept ICW in the game. Had ICW done that throughout the game they likely would have forced NS into foul trouble and depth was one of NS's biggest issues. They could go a solid 1-2 deep on the bench.

It was the same case in the Hoover/PV game. Hoover settled for outside shots most of the game and eventually Carius got his 3rd foul and Hoover gained momentum in the 3rd quarter with him sitting by getting aggressive and forcing some turnovers. After that King and others were much more aggressive to the rim and got fouls from being quicker and PV trying to swat at shots. Had they done that all game then someone like Milam might not have been able to dominate the post due to foul trouble. On the other hand if PV could have made FT's the game would have never been that close.

 

[badben44]

Originally posted by WhiteShadowHoops:
Here is the link with information on how you can sign up to become an official.

http://www.iahsaa.org/officials/

Looks like classes, clinics, and some registration fees will have you well on your way to replacing the current officials and making Iowa High School Basketball better for everyone. Just be prepared for people also to tell you how horrible you do at your job when you become one. Oh it will happen. Have you seen this board?

I would rather just see refs do their job.

 

[Vroom_C14]

Originally posted by cidhawkeye:
They weren't the cream of the crop, maybe back in the day. I enjoy the 'you need to be an official to complain' type mentality... Will let you know that if a pilot flys a plane into a mountain that I don't need to be a pilot to know he isn't very good at his job. I will agree that rarely will one call late change a game, the tone and style has been set long before that. 1-2 cheap calls early can change an offense/defense way you play the remainder of the game. That impacts 30 minutes rather then 10 seconds late. In closing I hope the chef burns your steak and tells you 'screw you, here are the tongs, because unless you have been the chef at this restaurant you can't complain'

Especially if the 1-2 calls are against one team, that changes one side of the game in favor of the other.

 

[Hawkfreak2k15]

There are some brutal refs out there and some even ref the state tourny.

 

[leiserom]

I just happened on this site. I am from DM and went to Roosevelt. However I never officiated in Iowa. Been a member of the Houston Texas BB chapter for 33 years or so. Lots more opportunity around here. Took me about 4 years to get a varsity game. At the peak in 1998 I was the 25th ranked girls official in Houston(ranked by coaches). Not too bad for a short guy from Iowa who never played, wasnt from around here and didnt get a great deal of help. I never really did boys.

This year I worked a game with a guy who is a DM North grad.

Unfortunately due to job stuff I have dialed back my career in the last 10 years.