Tuesday, December 8, 2009

* ATTENTION * Rookies, 2nd & 3rd Yr Officials

Crew leaders, association officers, trainers, and assigners need some input. We need to learn from your experiences in your first few years.
We need feedback on training and recruiting issues.

Please submit your articles reviewing your trials and tribulations of learning the rules and working your way from clock assignments onto the field.

What was your most inspiring moment from the past season?
What did you learn from your peers? Did you have a mentor?
What did you learn from coaches?
What can those of us with more experience do to help you?
Did you see consistency from the different referees you worked with?
What does it take to get on the field every Friday night in your association?
How do I get a playoff game?

We're all ears! Send your article to: etierstripes@gmail.com

1 comment:

Eric the Umpire said...

I don't qualify as a 20+ vet nor do I qualify as the rookie, 2nd, or 3rd year official. However, as an official with 14 years experience here are a few things I have experienced.

1) When a new official joins our ranks they are completely overwhelmed. We all remember how we felt the first year. Confused, not sure if we were in the right place, and the rule book had to be written on Mars.

I think that taking a newer official under your wing, and do this on a one on one personal basis, this will encourage new officials to stick with us. The mentoring would be priceless as the new official would feel included in the learning process, not simply reading a rule book. Take the new official with you during games to observe. Sit down with the new official to answer their questions and discuss topics of question.

All too frequently I have witnessed the new official not getting enough guidance, other than having the rule book read to them, to stick with it.

2)We need to inform new officials that they typically cannot step foot on the field in a striped shirt and be an "expert" because they used to play the game. Football is a learning process and mostly comes from on the field experience.

3)New officials also should know what to expect when they step on the field. The need to know that they will be yelled at, cussed at, called names, noboby likes referees, etc. etc. I think too many times young officials get their rear end chewed off at a little league football game and think to themselves.."what is this going to be like at the JV/Varsity level." I have been a proponent of when someone knows what to expect, when a surprise happens, they know how to deal with it.

Official retention is the key. My association is filled with white hats (I mean grey hairs) and we need to pull from a younger talent pool. Just a few thoughts I wanted to share. Eric