Another thread implies that their district had officials who were working their first meet. I seriously doubt that. The poster may have never seen the official work but that doesn't mean he hadn't met the qualifications. Although I no longer am an active official I still go the rules meeting nearly every year. The presenter usually goes over what requirements officials must meet before they can apply to work districts and state. I don't remember all of the criteria but it seems that it is: 1. Having attended a rules meeting this year. 2. Being current with the closed book test which must be taken every 3-4??? years. 3. Have worked x???? number of varsity meets this year. I hope some of you zebras will jump in here with the exact requirements.

Now, let's do the math. At Gretna we had 4 officials, which I assume was standard for all districts. 16 districts times 4 officials means 64 officials were working this last weekend. I don't know the exact numbers but it seems to me that last spring an experienced official told me that we had about 75 officials that met the requirements for the 2007-08 season and some of them would be retiring. So if we have a pool of 75 officials with various amounts of experience to fill 64 slots there have to be some very inexperienced officials assigned to district tournaments. Coaches, jump in here and tell how many officials were on the ballot that was used to elect atate tournament officials.
There is no quick fix but we must do something to build up the pool of qualified officials.
1. Encourage the young people in your community to start officiating.
2. Coaches and fans alike, let them learn. A young official will make mistakes, just like young coaches, young wrestlers, experienced officials, experienced coaches, and experienced wrestlers make mistakes. Don't scream at them and chase them out of the sport. If they have worked for several years and continually make the same mistakes that show they haven't studied the rules or are too lazy to hustle into position then run them out of the sport. We don't need them.
3. Encourage NSAA to bring more hands on experience into rules meetings. The rules meetings are usually scheduled for 7:00 PM and we are out by 8:00 PM. They are held in a classroom or auditorium and 95% of the time is spent on administrative situations that usually don't involve the official. If an official ejects a wrestler or coach it should be his duty to notify NSAA, give the details, and move on. It's not up to the official to determine or enforce the punishments. So there is no reason to waste that time in the rules meeting. That time should be spent on interpetation of rules and discussing proper technique and positioning.
Currently, I believe the only place where this takes place is in the officials asssociation meetings. It's great that we have officials association but the problem occurs when each association gradually developes their own interpretations. Now a wrestler from the panhandle comes to state and has an official from the Lincoln Officials Association. The official makes a call the way the Lincoln Association has morphed the rules, which is much different that the way the Panhandle Association has morphed the rules. The coach and wrestler go ballistic and think the official is terrible. No, the system is terrible. There should be one strong voice that is telling all officials and associations, "This is how we will call this situation". Dave Harty conducted all rules meetings in Iowa. He had been a college wrestler, a high school coach, and an official before he joined the Iowa High School Athletic Association. He held all meeting in a gym with 2 high school wrestlers from that school in workout gear. Dave was in workout gear. We went over rules changes and things that seemed to presenting problems. Dave would often say, Iowa State (or Iowa) is starting to do this. We are going to call it this way." By the time the meeting ended, usually when the custodians threw us out at 10:30 PM, we were all down on the mat discussing, arguing, etc.
4. Encourage NFHS to develop meaningful testing materials and training materials. With the technology we have today it would be relatively easy for them to create tutorials shot from a camera mounted on an experienced official's head. As the official makes a tough call in the actual match being filmed the tutorial could go back and point out why the offical called it as he/she did, or point out the mistake because he/she missed seeing this_______.
The closed book tests are a joke. Any reasonably intelligent person who has never seen a wrestling meet could study the rules book for a few hours and pass the test. I hope it has changed but the last one I took had a lot of extremely important questions like, how far from the mat should the scorer's table be located? Raise your hand if you've ever seen a coach get penalized or ejected for arguing how far away the scorer's table should be. I don't see any hands. The test should be a series of film clips. These 10 clips are going to be about stalling. Press 1 on your keyboard when you would call the red wrestler for stalling. Press 2 when you would call green. The next 10 clips are about takedowns. Press 1 on your keyboard when you would award a takedown to red, 2 when you would award a takedown to green, and 3 when you would call them out of bounds. The next 10 clips are about escapes and reversals, etc. When you have completed the test it will give you your score and then go over your errors. In question 4 you signalled takedown for the green wrestler but as you review the film you will see that green has one foot out of bounds and red has both feet inbounds. Wrestling continues as long as either wrestler's supporting points are in bounds. Red's supporting points are inbounds so wrestling continues even though green has one foot out of bounds. But when green does a double leg drop and lifts red off the mat he has one foot out of bounds so neither wrestler has all of the supporting points in bounds. This type of test would tell us what kind of judgement the official has, not how well he/she has memorized a series of distances, etc.
We have the makings of a serious official shortage and we need to start correcting it NOW.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Frank Ryan,

I know the district I was at watching we had 4 refs that I had seen numerous times throughout the year. Some iffy calls but no complaints. Great work I thought.

You make some great points Frank.
I agree that we need to encourage more people to try officiating in order to add more diversity and replace retiring officials.
What do you think the odds are of changing the band colors so red/green colorblind guys like me could referee without messing up too often?

quote:

Originally posted by Antlerfan:
You make some great points Frank.
I agree that we need to encourage more people to try officiating in order to add more diversity and replace retiring officials.
What do you think the odds are of changing the band colors so red/green colorblind guys like me could referee without messing up too often?

I suspected you were red/green colorblind when I saw you rooting for the red team instead of the green team at the conference tournament.

If you want to know what the number one cause of the decline in the number of young officials is, you need look no further than the majority of area little kids tournaments and the way the parents and coaches of these "life hangs in the balance" important kids clubs treat new officials who are encouraged to take it up. They are screamed at, cursed at, paid miserably, cramped into a quarter of a mat (half if they are lucky) and we expect them to stick it out? Why should they? They get started becuase they love the sport and want to stay active in wrestling and the thanks they usually end up getting is some idiot who couldn't tell you what color the rule book is, what near fall criteria means, yet they have no problem telling these KIDS that they are the worst official they have ever seen, or worse yet - and I have personally witnessed this on at least half a dozen occasions - threaten to fight the official for "screwing their kid", who happens to be all of 7 or 8 years old!

It's a joke, and just like anyone wanting to build a healthy, strong foundation for their high school wrestling program, the right pieces must be in place to ensure continuity and growth to ensure a standard of excellence. When tournament organizers allow this type of behavior to occur at their tournaments, they are contributing to a much larger problem down the road.

I know we'd have a hell of a pool of officials to work with if some of those in the stands who paid $6 at the door for their "credentials" were to actually pay the extra cost for taking the test, getting the gear and getting off their butts and actually work in that capacity.

I think those people are part of the reason why we don't have a bigger pool of younger officials to work with. I know there are a lot of younger wrestlers out there who would be great officials, and I've talked to some who, quite honestly, aren't interested in putting up with the crap they get from fans, some coaches and some administrators who are either incapable, or unwilling, to rein in some of the loudmouths in the stands.

Two of the best posts of the day (maybe even week!!!)

quote:

Originally posted by SayWhatWillis?:
If you want to know what the number one cause of the decline in the number of young officials is, you need look no further than the majority of area little kids tournaments and the way the parents and coaches of these "life hangs in the balance" important kids clubs treat new officials who are encouraged to take it up. They are screamed at, cursed at, paid miserably, cramped into a quarter of a mat (half if they are lucky) and we expect them to stick it out? Why should they? They get started becuase they love the sport and want to stay active in wrestling and the thanks they usually end up getting is some idiot who couldn't tell you what color the rule book is, what near fall criteria means, yet they have no problem telling these KIDS that they are the worst official they have ever seen, or worse yet - and I have personally witnessed this on at least half a dozen occasions - threaten to fight the official for "screwing their kid", who happens to be all of 7 or 8 years old!

It's a joke, and just like anyone wanting to build a healthy, strong foundation for their high school wrestling program, the right pieces must be in place to ensure continuity and growth to ensure a standard of excellence. When tournament organizers allow this type of behavior to occur at their tournaments, they are contributing to a much larger problem down the road.

quote:

Originally posted by NWI:
I know we'd have a hell of a pool of officials to work with if some of those in the stands who paid $6 at the door for their "credentials" were to actually pay the extra cost for taking the test, getting the gear and getting off their butts and actually work in that capacity.

I think those people are part of the reason why we don't have a bigger pool of younger officials to work with. I know there are a lot of younger wrestlers out there who would be great officials, and I've talked to some who, quite honestly, aren't interested in putting up with the crap they get from fans, some coaches and some administrators who are either incapable, or unwilling, to rein in some of the loudmouths in the stands.

Nice post Willis, I've refereed at junior tournaments put on by my school. Parents get angry at ridiculously small calls. I had a parent at my throat for not calling lock hands on a first grader. We weren't supposed to call this, just correct it to provide a LEARNING EXPERIENCE.

More and more each day, I'm becoming convinced that if we could keep the parents out of youth sports, we might find that not only would the kids ENJOY it more, but they would actually get more out of it.

The limited experience I've had in coaching, I have found the kids who enjoyed practices and playing the most were the ones whose parents were visible only at the games, and even then were seen in the stands and not heard yelling at me, the refs or the other team. The parents who meddled in practice, tried to tell me how much time their kid played, and/or acted like a jackass in the stands or on the sidelines were usually the ones whose kids didn't enjoy the experience.

I helped coach youth football for four years, and it was a blast coaching those kids. One parent, even 25 years later, still calls me "coach" even though his kid was on the team for just one season. I got as much out of coaching those kids as they did learning from the coaches, and the parents were a blast to deal with all season long...mainly because the only time we saw them was when they dropped their kids off for practice or a game and then at the game on Sunday afternoons. Didn't hear a peep out of them before, during or after practices or games.

Now, obviously, there are a ton of great parents out there who have this sports thing put in the proper perspective and, for the most part, don't meddle in their kids' athletic endeavors. Those that do coach or help their kids' teams, for the most part, keep it reined in. It's that vocal, obnoxious minority that's causing the problem, though, and they are the ones we need to weed out somehow.

Another problem with young officials is it is very hard to get your name out there and when one of the old guys retires usually the regulars step in to fill the spots. I have been a registered official for 5 years and have done all of 1 varsity event. I know some people would say if you are good enough you will move on but this just really doesn't seem to be the case. You need to have one of the older refs take you under their wing and give you some of those matches they are getting. Although I have done very little officiating on the varsity level I have done over 30 events over the last 5 years counting junior high and junior varsity.

Years back I was once an official in NE. I got my start in central NE, with the help of Dave Saylor. Thanks to him I was able to get in some varsity events and other events. The only thing that I had done prior to that was little kids and Huskerland. Huskerland was not the best place to be as an early official, but it did pay me a little money. Here are some of the downfalls from being a biginning official.

1. Older officials always get the call and no one takes notice of a younger official.
2. Huskerland events do not pay squat. I don't know what they pay now, but I officiated from 8 AM to 12 AM pretty much straight and only got paid I think $125, and non-certified got like $75. Not much pay for all that work.
3. Parent...need I say more.
4. A corrupt central office that plays on the good ol'boy network. For example; how does Craig Hellwege get to do districts and state. I have seen this guy ref, man he sucks!!! He's only been officiating for about 2-3 years. He is a flat out joke.

I know it is tough to get your foot in the door, but keep going at it. You'll have your moments of doubt, just learn from them. Remember it's a whole lot easier being an armchair official than a mat official.

I love your post mcrib! #4, was awesome. Bout time someone called out an adult or Ref on this site rather baggin on some kid!

Well thank you. I have been an official for about 12 years now and like I said I started out when I was in Kearney and have since move on to another state. It's the same here. Good ol'boy network and not enough exposure for young ref's, or they are overshadowed by older ref's who get away with everything.

Like McRib has stated you really need to have someone take you under there wing. The officials that have been doing it for a long time get calls all the time to do events. I know this because sometimes it makes its way down to me. In Lincoln I feel a very good job is done on getting young officials junior varsity matches. The problem is really moving on to varsity. I can tell you for a fact that if you can officiate JV well you will be even better as a varsity official. There is alot of presure to be an official and I have much more respect now that I have been doing it.

I just wanted to say that I was at the C-1 District this year. We had several young refs. I thought they did a very, VERY good job. There were some calls that could have gone either way, we got some, we didn't get some. One of the problems is that coaches get all over these guys for judgement calls. We almost lost a quilifier because of 2 cautions in a row. However, the ref was right on both of them. I think the refs at the C1 district were among the best I saw all year. Nice work!