There is nothing more devastating in football than to have your team fumble and lose the ball--and there is nothing more devastating in life than to fumble away opportunities. Seems like we're seeing that on a regular basis here in Texas...
Here are some areas of concern that we hear about regularly:
* When you check the Texas Section Officials Site you notice there is nothing printed on the home page at all. Totally blank...
* When you check the Texas Section Officials Site for our "Officials Newsletters" you find the last one posted was summer 2006.
* Our certification schools begin in January, 2009, and yet we have received nothing from our leadership. I am still contacted weekly by someone wanting to know if and when and where they are going to have their schools.
* We have no developed state wide program to develop and further train our officials. The only two events that even begin to address this issue are the Chair Academy in Plano and the Grand Slam in College Station.
* We have no central source we can turn to for information about Texas officiating. There is no address given to be able to contact anyone.
* There is no state wide enlistment program being implemented or even being developed. Our numbers have been declining since Cheryl Jones resigned as Sectional Chairman and no great solutions in sight.
* We have no viable plan for keeping our current officials or seeking to reclaim those officials that we have lost.
Seems like we have some serious problems confronting officiating in Texas. Perhaps it is time to hear some reality from our leadership...
We would welcome your comments and suggestions about how to improve officiating here in Texas. Making things better and more effective should be everyone's goal...
Let us hear from you...
14 comments:
In football when the team fumbles its the coach's fault.
In our case its the fault of our Sectional Chairman. He's the coach (albeit absent most of the time.)
Maybe it is time for our officials committee to have a sub committee that establishes a sub committee to study the feasability of training officials. We would probably get more results than we are seeing from the current committee. It appears that they meet frequently but we are not seeing any product.
The last I heard, these were the people in charge of these areas:
Sectional Chairman: Bruce Sampley
Committee Member in charge of newsletter: Jim Robinson
Committee member in charge of officials home page: Noone
Who would be in charge of the officiating schools and how would I contact them?
I have no idea. When I was supervising the schools my name, phone number, and email were posted on the Texas Section website. I usually received about 5 calls a week during January of each year wanting to know where and when the schools were being held.
I'm not sure what is happening now.
You need to do a post on dogs that have been neutered. Seems we have a lot of them running around without you know whats.
RE:Training
Each of us in a position to hire officials should work with our
"customers" ie: Coaches/AD's,
Facilities managers,etc. to seek funding and support for training.
After all,we should ALL be committed to the future of the game.
Just a couple of hundred dollars extra at a USTA tournament for new people to shadow the Referee(an excellent training exercise in my opinion) would work wonders at the grass roots level.
ITA coordinators should work with the athletic departments to secure funding for training as well.
This year at Baylor we were able to obtain funding for the "Live Fire Chair workshop" which allowed us to bring 11 selected people, recommened by ITA coordinators,in to work 2 days and chair as many as 8 matches with direct supervision.I have received nothing but positive feedback from this school.
The total cost for the participants pay,hotels,and travel was provided by Baylor and many of the visiting coaches were thrilled to have chair umpires and see trainees from their own areas.
Everyone knows this is a problem for the future(and in some areas now)but unless we are willing to either ask for help from the customer base or personally provide subsidy, we are going to lose this battle.
If you want to discuss how to approach this I'll be glad to share what has worked,and not worked,for me.
Chuck Scott haymuncher@yahoo.com
Maybe Obama had it right all along. It would appear we are ripe for CHANGE!
I believe you hit the nail directly squarely on the head (Bruce Sampley and Jim Robinson pretty much says it all). Now I'm no longer confused why absolutely nothing has been accomplished in over three years.
Like the 10:30am mr or mrs or ms anonymous, the best way to fix the problem is for the officials committee to have a subcommittee establish a subcommittee to form a subcommittee so a subcommittee can assign a subcommittee to investigate the problem and then get a subcommittee to establish a subcommittee to identify corrective actions so a subcommittee can delegate the task to a subcommittee to communicate each of the subcommittees findings back up through the food change from the myriad of subcommittees to the officials committee.
Simply put, we can all save the day if only the two persons listed in my first paragraph above would see the candlepower outputted from the sun and do the right thing – RESIGN and RESIGN NOW!!!!!
Hey Stinkey - nice to hear from you again. It's been a while.
Let us know what you really think.
I ditto your response ten fold....
Come to my birthday party next year. It will be lots of fun.
I think someone dropped the soap bar and needs to pick it up... if you know what I mean...
...and you Texas officials are the ones getting %&*#%@$!
Well someone who isn't dropping the ball is the OU SOONERS.
Watch the BIG 12 Championship game on Saturday, 12/06/2008, on ABC at 7:15 in Kansas City Arrowhead Stadium.
OU SOONERS vs. MISSOURI TIGERS.
GO SOONERS!!!!!!
Poor 'horns are still whining about getting left behind. It appears their football team has taken notes from their baseball team about boo-hooing when they don't get their way, like a bunch of cry-babies.
You don't see us Red Raiders cry or whine about being left out of the big game although we beat those low-life 'horns.
Yep,
I heard there is a huge 75% discount on all 'horns merchandise. Typical fickle horn fans. They are more than happy to were that God awful color when they are winning, but when the whining begins, they throw all that crap into the back of their closets...
It just makes me laugh thinking about it.
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