One can learn many things in the officiating world by simply WATCHING and LISTENING.
Here are some tidbits we recently picked up from tennis officials:
* The referee at a recent large tournament in the Metroplex said, "when we rove, we only rove from the sidewalks. We never go on the court."
* A tournament director said at a recent 12's tournament, "They are only 12 so their eyes aren't capable of seeing the lines."
* A roving official said when questioned about footfaults, "I never call footfaults if they aren't going to the net behind their serve."
* An experienced ITA official was questioned about her ability to call footfaults when upon observation it was noted that when the player prepared to serve, the official would immediately focus her attention on the service box--never even looking at the server!
* An experienced ITA official informed new trainees that "you are never to have a pencil with an eraser on it when you are in chair." And the rest of this story is well documented history...
* An experienced female ITA official recently stated, "I never have trouble in my matches." I just wonder where she has been officiating...
* A chair official recently told an ITA player that "most of the ball missed the line" when upholding an erroneous out call.
* One of the best was when a Metroplex official said when we work from 7:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. we don't need lunch or supper. I know some tournament directors that would love to hire this official.
* After coding a player for emphatically saying "Jesus" after a lost point, the official was told that "Jesus has to have a last name before you can code it." I'll be taking a survey on what people think was Jesus' last name... This should be great!
* An official said, "I'm going to go work on the pro circuit calling lines--and make my living doing so." She should be home on welfare by now if she actually believes that can happen.
* An official bragged, "I had eye surgery so I can go call lines on the pro circuit." There aren't even words to adequately describe this one...
These are just a few that I've heard. We'd welcome your anecdotes from around the world.
10 comments:
My favorite is ANYTHING BERNIE WEST (AKA. GOD) says!!!
First time I ever met Bernie was in Dallas at a pro tournament. He was sitting at the back fence calling Sammie Poulsen the "b-word" through the fence...
My two most memorable experiences come from female officials at the pro ranks. One was complaining she never gets enough chairs so the chief umpire assigned her to a semifinals match. I later found out she had chaired over 200 pro matches for the year.
The other was from a well recognized female official who would sit in the stands with the parents of one of the pro female players before her match and then during her match, if the player complained about a bad call, she would overrule in her favor on the next big point, regardless if the ball was in or out.
One more tidbit. This "well recognized" official got caught tampering with her credentials badge at the Greek Olympics and got sent home. You would think she would have gotten banned from working any more pro matches, but apparently not. I guess it's true - it's all about who you know and NOT how ethical you are.
A certain official from Oklahoma really gets bent out of shape if you mess with his balls before a dual match. Next time you work an ITA match, just watch the officials going after the case of balls so they can show everybody how good they are at pre-match preparations. Who cares...
I got to work the NCAA Div I Nationals one year and I couldn't believe the racist jokes the "good ole boy" southerner Head of Officials would tell us every morning before match play started. I wish I would have recorded some of them. They weren't very complimentary of a certain minority group.
Hello Randy:
I'm glad all thes tidbits came from officials within the Texas section. As I recall a recenyly blog, it was stated that "TEXAS" had all the great officials. Looks like "TEXAS" plays second fiddle to OKLAHOMA both in the BEST OFFICIALS {maybe one exception} and FOOTBALL. Look what Bradford received compared to COLT>
I should have known a Boomer Sooner would be lurking out there.
However, at least in Texas we do not mess with another official's balls before the match as before mentioned.
We do on the other hand, have some female officials who sometimes think they have those appendages.
Say Sambo, my favorite good ole boy story was about firecrackers & Leroy. Ya remember that one don't you?
Since you only got to work that event one year, you missed most of the really good ones.
One of my favorites was the long term official from a state north and west of Texas who insisted she had the entire Friend at Court memorized. When asked about specific rules her "memory" was wrong on each instance.
Then their was the guy from another state north of Texas who insisted he never had to read the FAC because, according to him as he tapped his noggin,"It's all right here".
The sad part is they believe they are correct and are probably training new officials.
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