You know, across sports, people talk about the shortage of referees. I get that. So–my logic was, I’ll become a ref. Easy-peasy. I’ve done it in club in my region as a coach for 20 years, did JH/HS a couple years in the ’90s, and have coached high-level VB for 30+ years.
And then reality set in. There may be a shortage, but the powers-that-be aren’t really interested in solving the issues.
#1: We need younger officials. Why aren’t there younger officials.
- Cost. To officiate for schools, you’ll need black slacks and all black shoes. There’s $130 or so. You have to PAY to register with a state institution. That’s $85 more…then you have to buy the specific three colored shirts–$30 each, another $90. That’s $305 and the person hasn’t been paid yet. Do you know many 21-30 year olds who have $300 sitting around to sink into the paperwork of a job they haven’t been paid for yet (and won’t pay THAT much anyways)?…now think about the gear a baseball/softball ump has to have…
- Paperwork. USAV, AAU, NFHSA…three different registrations (you’ll actually pay for all of them, so keep adding to that $300 above…)–and wait, wanna do college? Now you’ve got to do PAVO. Now you have to apply for each, go through a number of steps, authorize the background checks (because they are ALL separate) and then, you get to try and figure out how to find places to ref–because you’re not going to get effective hints from the governing bodies.
So–you’re 23-24. Are you going to do all this? For school ball, you’re giving up your weeknights after working a day job. Those club gigs–they’re taking away your weekend (social life). Or think of the other sports–it’s not different. Why am I doing this to make my $60 umping or run up and down a court to be screamed at by parents in the stands of AAU basketball? You may not like the younger generation and complain about them–but they aren’t dumb and so this deters them from officiating.
#2: The Old Boys Network
This is alive and well. For basketball (recently if not currently), assignors keep the good jobs for themselves and their friends. Newer, younger refs, ones who aren’t in that drinking buddy circle, they’re going to get the Jr High games of Smellypits Tech vs. Sister Mary for the Blind. At a former school, the bball coach talked about a 22yo ref who played in college, spent time at HS summer tourneys reffing to get better–that he was spectacular, but couldn’t get assignments for anything other than college JV vs. juco games, so he stopped reffing. He moved to a different part of the country and started reffing again–and suddenly was getting assigned bigger/better games, the better he did, the better his assignments…and he’s now on ESPN regularly as an official working D1 games.
This goes on with other sports and absolutely goes on within volleyball. I’ve been told I need to hang out with an assignor/go drinking after working a club tourney if I want to be given college matches. I’ve been told that it doesn’t matter if I am good or not, “you have to pay your dues” and accept bad matches, travel to matches at places far away/no one else wants to do and that “after four or five years, then you’ll start getting better assignments.” –Does that sound appealing? Edited in: I’ve also been told that I’ll need to make sure to be available last-minute as a ‘sub official’ so that I curry favor with assignors.
To be fair–I understand getting seen enough to know if someone’s competent. 4-5 years to figure that out? No, sorry. When recruiting, I can tell within 10 minutes if a kid’s got skills and what level they are appropriate for. As a coach, I knew within 10 points of watching an official if they were going to be solid or not regardless of how old they were or their years as a ref. Why do officials evaluators need ‘four or five years’ to permit someone to get a ‘better assignment’?
There’s also the reverse of this–swhy do bad officials get multiple games then? You’ve had the 4-5 years to evaluate…yet they get regular work and non-sucky contests. Simple answer and you know it, too: It’s not what you know–it’s who you know.
And be available on a couple hours’ notice to sub? Life exists, planning is required. I don’t know many people willing to sit by a phone waiting for a call like that–or willing to disrupt their personal or work lives to do this.
#3: There’s a Shortage?
Is there? I’ve been to one club location where they’ve been stretched thin/can’t always get enough officials, but with others officials received scheduled breaks one to three times throughout the day. With a couple tourneys, I reached out and was specifically told in one case “Thanks, but we have more than enough.” Good–but then don’t post on your social media regularly, reposting calls for officials/that there are shortages!
#4: The Left and Right Hands don’t cooperate
The IHSA here tells new officials that they should contact assignors regarding availability….the problem is, there are no VB assignors south of Champaign or outside the St. Louis east metro area–but they don’t tell you then that you have to contact school athletic directors directly OR how to contact them/find their email addresses. And when you do that–you’ll get told sometimes “We use an assigner. Contact _____________.” Reasonable answer–though that assigner isn’t on the state list. You’ve also just wasted time contacting that AD as one of several hundred emails to schools that you thought weren’t using assigners!
It’s no different with college. With college officiating, I had one assigner tell me that I can’t be assigned until I’m a PAVO member. A different one said not to waste money registering with PAVO until July when it becomes a ‘new year’ (because memberships expire then and paying before that point is useless since there are no matches MAY-JUL)–and that that will be fine and I can get scheduled as long as I acknowledge I’ll need to join PAVO/go to a clinic before the season starts and another said PAVO’s just recommended if you’re only planning to do NJCAA matches
Which is it? I dunno. 30+ years in volleyball and all I know from it is: it can’t be all three.
Does all this make you excited to officiate and go thru the process? And if you’re thinking about volleyball, think about baseball and softball…because those officials get paid way less per hour than a VB ref *AND* get assigned some outrageous hours–you know, like games starting at 6am or 1130pm. Wheeeee!!!!
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Jim, I wish I could publicly say what you just said! Being at the national level I’ll be put in a bad situation assignment wise. I’m getting closer to coaching retirement. I plan on filling my time with officiating, with me coming back from reffing retirement.
What you noted, especially the GOBs club, is a fact. You stated, ‘It’s not what you know, but who you know.’ Actually, it’s who knows you in my experience. (The reason for the snoozing you mentioned in this piece.) I was fortunate to end up snoozing with the administration level officials in my early days. By accident, in full disclosure. Word got passed down and I got great assignments at qualifiers and nationals. So it must have been who knew me. I got assigned as a line judge for a USA vs Italy match. Then two days later was assigned R1 for the 18 open finals. Got 17 Open finals R1 the following year.
While in Ohio, one of the powers that be asked me to choose between coaching and reffing. I selected the wrong profession in his opinion. I ended up on the outside of the GOBs, club and got shit assignments. At nationals where I was doing mostly open, national and USA, I got the bottom of these divisions and on the last day assigned the ‘jewelry’ divisions. So I retired after two nationals and qualifiers of this treatment. In March I saw an administration official that put me on my path at the national level. She asked me what happened to me. I told her about my cancer situation. She pulled me aside and said, you fell off the scene way before getting sick. I told her what I just told you. She responded, “You are way better than that. You should have reached out to me or Joan.” (The other administration level ref who got me started. These two were my mentors when I got started.) I told her I’m coming back soon. She said reach out when I do. The following day I saw her sitting on my court where my team was working the match and I was R2. She pulled me aside after the match and said, ‘we need you back. You would have scored high 90s if being rated. Your line judges were spectacular. You had control of the bench. You even told the R1 you had the net when she blew the call.’ I called over my line judges who were heading to break. Introduces them to her. She complimented them and said I was one of the best referees in the country. He coaches pretty good too. (Laughing) One of them said, Koach knows everybody. She replied because he tried to be the best he can and that’s what people like about him.
I wasted all your time to say, it is about who knows you when it comes to officiating at the top level, and having your career demolished because they no longer see you as you are. You are completely correct that our youth has to invest way too much to get into officiating. On top of that make sacrifices to get the top level matches. It is a slow grind the regular way (“after four or five years, then you’ll start getting better assignments.”). I was just fortunate to be in the right place at the right time with support around me at the national level and I started in my late 30s. We both know that it’s rare for our youth to commit the way you and I committed back in the day. We don’t have replacing reffing youth due to your comments, but they honestly don’t want to really commit as we did. That is a factor as well.
BTW…You mentioned being called at the last minute. That happened to me a lot in Ohio. Once I got a call early in the morning that a match 3.5 hrs away needed a referee. Apparently the assigned official was in an accident the evening before. The assignor had all his officials assigned or others couldn’t fill in. The assignor told the AD to contact my assignor. I took the assignment. I found out later the AD knew of me from the opposing coach. The AD paid me twice the match fee for taking the assignment. Situations like this give me evidence of who knows you over who you know philosophy. (Big Smile)
Sorry for the long post, but this cut to my heart as to why I am not reffing at this time. I have mentored quite a few young officials, but all of them were at least 30+. The younger officials in my experience are following in their parents/family member footsteps.
I learned one lesson from my mom as a youth. ‘Don’t complain without providing some kind of resolution.’ The pay at the USAV national level is around $48-$52, whether one is a JrNat or National. I think for those under the national level it is around $38-40. I don’t know any longer what the pay is at the collegiate or HS level. But this should give incentive to go through the process. How many young adults make this amount an hour? When I retired, line judges in HS in Ohio were making $25-$30. I sell to those who show promise as an official, that the process is an INVESTMENT in oneself. Secondly, the national administration level, regardless of governing body, needs a mentorship program. I complained to USAV when I failed my first national rating that I wasn’t prepared because no one taught me what is to be expected. The following year, HOA started a mentorship program. I am sure that there are USAV regional mentorship programs, but I know first hand there are quite a few that do not. I know more that do not have a regional mentorship program than do. If the program starts at the top and is encouraged at the local levels, we’ll start filling those empty ranks.
Have an outstanding day, my friend.
Kelly…
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Kelly, I think you *can* say what I said publicly. I think you SHOULD–more so because you have those connections. I don’t think people at the top really see what happens 2+ levels of bureaucracy below where they are at. I wish more people would point out problems AND solutions rather than just ignore what’s going on.
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