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Does anyone officiate another sport?


mac266
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I've been invited to begin officiating HS football this year.  The pay is about the same as baseball, and the district president said there are more slots than referees, so moving up to varsity would happen rather quickly.  

I'm wondering if anyone else officiates more than just baseball?  What else do you do?

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Yes. 

Soccer and Hockey. Soccer is quite beneficial (to me, at least) because I get paid to run, blow a whistle on a few rather obvious calls, and I generally don't have anyone griping or calling Time so as to walk out and complain. My personal safety isn't in nowhere as much peril, where I'm dependent upon my gear choices and the (questionable) skill level some kid / guy in front of me.

Hockey is something I'm toying with, and am attempting to get more involved in. Sure, you gotta be deft on skates, and there's a puck careening at ya, but really... it sure is a welcome change from standing in the beating sun, then jog 45 feet to go hands on knees for another 4 minutes, to then briskly walk 10-15 feet to go hands on knees for another 8-10 minutes, then possibly run 20 feet as fast as possible, then throw on the brakes to make sure you've come to a complete stop, make a mechanic, and then repeat this all over again, 13 more times... 

Or worse, have a ball thrown at you around 200 times, any one of which is going to hit you in some way... and you can't move. Being tied to a railroad track is actually more athletically engaging. 

2 hours ago, Matt said:

No.

Figures.

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I've been working HS football for about 70% as long as HS baseball. At this point, not least because of the pandemic, I'm working more football than baseball.

The officiating experience is rather different from baseball, in many dimensions. Some of what I'm about to report is surely regional, and might not apply everywhere. But here are some of the differences I see.

  • There's still an old-school formality to the relationship between various participants and officials. Some of that disappears in the heat of battle. Nearly all coaches ask that we send their players off if they're disrespectful on the field. Disciplined teenagers—who knew?
  • Friday nights are longer than a baseball game—in some cases, closer to the length of a double header, once pre-game is factored in (my state requires that we arrive at least 90 minutes before kickoff).
  • Game clock, play clock.
  • The officiating experience is far more social. In baseball, done properly, partners might not interact the entire game beyond signals. For football, there are 5 of us, and we're talking all the time (in pre-game, on the field, on radio). We usually enjoy an adult beverage post-game (or did prior to the pandemic).
  • Eye discipline is more challenging. We have 22 players to watch, and everyone needs eyes on. There's a reason NCAA has gone to 8 + 1 officials (at least 2 of the power 5 conferences station their alternate, 9th, official on the sideline to rule on ineligible man downfield; he tells the wing on that side, who drops his flag). In baseball, we watch the ball, glance at runners. Nothing much happens away from the ball, unless fielders get in the way (and we mostly know exactly where the runners will be). None of that is true in football: for most of most plays, I can't watch the ball or ball-carrier (properly called the 'runner' in HS football).
  • The feeling on the field is electric: Friday night lights, baby! For most of the schools I work, not including this season, the smallest crowds are over 1000 people, most are 5-6000. We did a huge rivalry game a few years ago in a local university stadium that was on radio, TV, and had 15,000 fans in the stands. It can be thrilling.
  • The rules of football are, believe it or not, more complex than baseball. Sure, folks struggle to master balks, batter INT, RLI, OBS, INT. But in football, we have even more infractions, some seldom committed, and I have to remember the damn signal for the thing. (That's an in-crew joke; rules and enforcements are my superpower. I miss 1 per season to prove I'm human. Irony is my other superpower.) 
  • Did I mention being on TV? My crew will be on again this Friday night, round 2 in my state's weird pandemic hunger games state tournament, hosted by perennial state champions (who play like a small college team).

 

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I almost started doing football last year as they're really short of guys.... but due to the some of the stuff OH requires that @maven talked about like being there at least 90 minutes pre-game, 1 hour drives to games, etc. for my area I decided to pass as not financially rewarding to me.  I like football, but not that much.

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HS basketball and soccer. Each has its challenges, particularly about where to draw the line for permissible contact, and coverage of off-the-ball play by "outnumbered" officials.

Both sports require a lot of running and physical conditioning, but we here are faced with an aging officiating population, too many officials hanging on, and good, younger officials moving into the college ranks. Imo, you can work baseball decently (angle over proximity) past your prime, when you should have long retired from basketball and soccer. But if everyone who should retire did so, we would not have enough officials to cover our schedules.

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Baseball, football, wrestling and basketball. Love to stay busy in the evenings and afternoons and this is the perfect way to get some exercise and keep me off the couch.

Football around here (Alabama) is king of the sports. With middles school, JV and varsity we get in 3-4 games a week. 

My advice to you as an umpire in football.....  Back judge or umpire are the positions you want (although most new guys usually start on the line).  Why.... Keeps you away from the screaming coaches. After 2 hours of hearing "That's holding!!!" and saying "get back guys" on every play you'll understand and thank me.:lol:

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Track & Field[1] and Volleyball[2]

[1] I started doing this because my day-job employer (a D1 Power-5 university) put something out they they needed officials. I was working D1 about 6 weeks later.
Positives:

  • You get to see some world-class athletes do their thing. I got to see an NCAA record get set, and it was a thing of beauty
  • Getting certified is really easy. One test, open book, no trick questions, no weird interps to deal with.
  • The work itself is also pretty easy. (e.g.: raise this flag if the bar is still on the standard, raise this other one if it's not)
  • T&F is a bizarre beast in the college world. Everybody roots for everybody else. They want to do better than their competitors, but they want their competitors to do well, also. And in that vein, you might get asked a question, but nobody (well, *very* rarely) pushes the boundaries. They know what they have to do, and they do it.

Negatives:

  • Pay is crap. The most I've heard of anybody getting at any level below Olympics is $100/day + travel
  • The outdoor season is at the same time as baseball season

[2] I really enjoy volleyball. No rainouts. Fairly predictable schedules. And you only need to know how to count to 3 :wacko:. This is my 5th year (with my first 2 years being while my daughter was still playing, so I didn't get to work much), and I'm finally feeling like I'm seeing all those little things you should be seeing as a referee. But still, I'd give it up if there was baseball around here during the same time frame.

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It's a little off topic, but I did post this a week or so ago in the "other sports" portion of this site:

A group has been putting questions of the week (well, they come out 2x / week; about 4 questions per submission)for HS VB

Here's a link to the most recent Qs and As and information on signing up

https://wp.me/pci27J-8N
 
I participate in the twice-weekly quizzes and find them very helpful.
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I've officiated 8 years of basketball and 3 years of softball. Depending on my work situation next year and any feedback I get this year from partners that also work the sport, I might consider adding cross country for next fall.

 

 

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5 hours ago, Matt said:

Blue font=sarcasm.

 

Ok, now I'm even more confused.  I've been participating in online forums for over 20 years, ever since they were invented.  I'm on forums for everything in which I'm interested -- guns (a few dozen of these!), hunting, baseball, coin collecting, camping, etc., and I've never seen or heard that blue = sarcasm.  

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MY GOD! @mavenhit all of that SQUARE on the nail head. Football isn't as big here in Washington State. But damn that was all spot on!

The only difference for my experience of 4 years of football, was the arrival time for a varsity game. We were a minimum of 60 minutes ahead. Which is nothing new since that is the goal for baseball games for me.

But seriously... the hardest part for me was working the clock as a Line Judge and NOT WATCHING THE DAMN BALL!!!

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  • 1 month later...

To refresh your collective memories, I started the thread.  Football is still a possibility; most of the teams played the regular fall season, but some are going to do a special spring season due to COVID (although hindsight is making that look stupid, as COVID cases are on the rise).  Training is in January for football, February for baseball.

Baseball is my priority.  I did travel ball and a rec league this year, which was my rookie year, and went from doing 8 year-olds to high school in my first season.  I'm joining the high school association this year and will make that my focus.  Training is in February, so it will not conflict with football -- *IF* the spring football season still goes.

But I'm definitely adding a different sport to my repertoire -- boxing.  I spent six years boxing as a youth, and I miss it greatly.  I still work out regularly, have a gym in my basement, and it includes a heavy bag and double end bag.  I still wrap up and glove up and work the bags as part of my workout routine.  Truth be told, I look like the nerdy white boy that I am, but I can fight like a cornered wolverine.  When I was a cop, gangbangers used to misjudge me all the time and pick a fight that generally ended in four seconds or less :):):).  After working a neighborhood for a while, they all learned who I am and told their buddies not to fight me; appearances be damned.  My use of force numbers would go way down for a year or two until I was moved to a different neighborhood and had to start over :)My wife and I had been married for over 20 years the first time she saw me hit a punching bag, and she got scared.  She has never seen me apply violence before, but both of my professions have been wholly devoted to it.  She had no idea I could be that brutal, because I believe in the judicious use of force, not "might makes right," so she has never needed to see it.  

USA Boxing is the sanctioning body for amateur boxing throughout the US, from 8 year-olds through the olympics.  Although they have a division for people over 40, competing again is not an option.  I've had several injuries over the years--including about 40 concussions--that would make getting hit on the head on purpose insanely stupid. 

Their officials certification is a nationwide program, and they have asked me to get certified.  Officials include the timekeeper, equipment manager, weigh master, judges, and referees.  The first three of those positions is one certification, and judges and referees are a follow-on.  You have to work the first one to get to the judge / referee level, which would definitely be my goal.  Each of those certifications is level 1, 2, or 3, which roughly equates to club-state level tournaments, regional-national, and international.  

Wouldn't it be awesome to referee the olympic gold medal match??  Let's see how far I go.

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I have officiated basketball, soccer and volleyball. 
 

I brought up the idea of getting back into working basketball to help stay/get in shape... she asked, “When is that season?”  When I said November to March/April... she quickly shut that down. 

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2 hours ago, JSam21 said:

I have officiated basketball, soccer and volleyball. 
 

I brought up the idea of getting back into working basketball to help stay/get in shape... she asked, “When is that season?”  When I said November to March/April... she quickly shut that down. 

Lol. I ran into a bit of the same with football a few years back. Also, March/April would interfere with the start of college ball.

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