If you are involved in any manner in the USTA or ITA you know that we are in a severe drought when it comes to enlisting and training new officials--and it seems very few are doing anything about it...
There is nothing being done in Texas when it comes to recruitment and training of USTA officials and its beginning to take a toll. Just look at some of the inexperienced, untrained, and unqualified people that we are using to staff USTA tournaments and that should tell you all you need to know. Check out the fact that to be certified you no longer have to study and take an exam. All you have to do is pass a background check and spend some useless time watching a video. That ain't gonna cut it...
The ITA world is not much better. There is not an organized enlistment plan in Texas much less an organized training program. The only training done in the DFW area is the training we do at Highland Park HS and then we are fortunate enough to have coaches at SMU, UTA, and UNT that will let us do "on the job" training at their dual matches.
The bottom line is that I'm tired of doing all the training up here and its time for some others to start stepping up and helping out--or the drought is going to get us! Our leaders (paid and unpaid) need to step up and do their jobs...
2 comments:
I just started officiating (roving umpire) a few months ago. I decided to try it out after seeing one of my fellow players officiating at a District Championship. I figured it would force me to become more knowledgeable of the rules and the Code for when I play and keep me active in the sport aside from being a player.
Initial communications after I expressed interest were delayed. I was then delayed in being able to complete the online courses due to work and other life events so I didn't actually get started out on the courts until mid-summer or so.
I think the online courses are a good starting point for a new recruit, but agree fully that they are not nearly enough. There's also a 12 hour on court "training" period. There wasn't really any training going on (like shadowing one of the experienced umpires). As understaffed as the local events seem to be (2 to 3 umpires to cover 19 courts), "training" was basically being turned loose on a section of courts on my own. I did my unpaid on court training time and then managed to get my three additional paid days completed to fulfill the Foundation 2 Rover certification by the end of this month. It didn't seem too bad until I worked my last day on a Sunday afternoon of a BG14 tournament. That's when it became very apparent that more umpires are needed at events and that my "training" did not prepare me for some of the stuff we have to deal with. (At one point when there were only two of us working to cover those 19 courts, the other umpire went missing briefly, leaving me on the courts alone as far as I could tell. And, of course, that's when trying to deal with arguing players on one court was interrupted by a medical timeout on another and that was promptly followed by another signal for an official on another court.)
We have a total of 20 umpires in the local officials organization. That's it. Given how involved most are (being on the board and the amount they work) this seems to be their primary job so they are already very experienced, but they are spread too thin. A few of those on the roster, I haven't seen signed up for any events in the few months I've been doing it. So it shouldn't be a surprise that actual real world training to prepare new recruits better is lacking. It seems to be a vicious cycle... there aren't enough officials to cover events adequately so there sure aren't enough to do proper training. In person training for even Foundation 2 Rover would be beneficial. I was looking at the requirement for an in-person workshop to get USTA Rover certified, but the closest workshop for that is 5 hours away. For someone who is only in this part-time as a side gig from my actual career, that is not likely to happen.
I don't know what the answer is. I can tell you it's not just Texas with problems, however.
I'm leaving officiating after many years because the focus does not include appreciating the good work done by experienced officials, especially those of us with the time and passion to commit without having a regular job to juggle. I'm all for recruiting, but not at the expense of those of us who know what we're doing.
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