In slang jargon, "home cooking" means that the officials regularly make calls that favor the home team. After the recent incidents in Virginia (Baylor vs Virginia women's match) and Tulsa (Tulsa vs TCU men's match), the issue has come to forefront among officials both on and off the blog.
Home cooking is a very serious issue for officials and one that needs to be confronted quickly and decisively. Personally, I have had a coach tell me that he "expects to get good calls when we are home" and have heard of another coach saying, "you need to remember who pays you," so it happens--and it happens right here in Texas and Oklahoma.
The question is: what do you do about it?
Here are some suggestions (and I'm sure you have more):
* Immediately suspend or de-certify any official who has been found guilty of home cooking. There is no tolerance for error on this issue.
* If a coach asks for or demands home cooking, immediately inform him that that isn't an option for you as an official. When the above-mentioned coach told me he expected good calls when they were at home I told him that if that was what he expected, then he needed to hire someone else.
* If the problem gets out of hand, inform the school's athletic director and the conference director if the school is in a conference.
* If you're a referee and know an official is known for home cooking, don't hire them! If they don't work, they can't cook.
* Remember that there is a difference between making a bad call or ruling and home cooking. Home cooking smells different and permeates the air all around the place! You'll know it when you see it and smell it...
The saddest part of all is that if an official and/or coach is guilty of home cooking, the PLAYERS THEMSELVES will know you have cheated on their behalf. They might like the moment of instant gratification but in the long run, you will be treated with contempt (which you so richly deserve.)
Just make the right calls as best you can, and go by the book regardless of where you are working and home cooking will disappear...
9 comments:
The problem in Tulsa is the the REFEREE is the home cooked official and only hires support staff that he knows will rule in favor of the home team. How do you handle this type of situation?
Rumor has it he is under a great amount of pressure from the coach to assign "select" officials to specific matches. If he doesn't follow the coach's mandates, then he will be cut loose like the other seasoned officials who refuse to rule in favor of the home team, whenever possible.
Based on your picture from your previous post, looks like there's lots of home cooking going on at Baylor cause the officials aren't lacking from getting a good meal.
As an experienced official, I refuse to work at those venues that encourage ruling in favor of the home team. That sets a very bad example for the rest of us. Remember, it only takes one bad apple to make the entire bunch appear bad.
I personally don't know of any officials that favor certain teams and/or players. Those that do are usually wheened and we never see them agani.
Slim Jim has a good point. If the Referee is the route of all evil, the only ethical thing to do is refuse to work in those situations.
There are two things I think might be helpful in this issue.
1. Remove coaches from influence in assigning officials to work thier matches. Leagues should establish a coordinator for tennis and have officials assigned from there.
2.Incorporate an ethics course as a requirement for certification. This could be done online and tested online and results discussed at the annual workshop. Such a change could only make the workshops more worthwhile.
Before you quibble about the need for ethics courses for adults note this. I teach at a graduate level. One year we decided to see if entering grad students- presumably adults, at least for our study! would subscribe to the need. The first year they said no, that if adults didn't know ethics by that time no course was going to change their opinions. By the time that group reached graduation all said the ethics course had been a most valuable asset for their work and they were glad to have had the opportunity.
When you're getting fed before a match (or after), would that not be considered "Home Cooking"?
Just Wondering!!
Sometimes I think there is a thing called reverse home-cookin'. This is very similar to reverse discrimination. One becomes so intent NOT to be a home-cookin' chef that they err in their rulings, which appear to be FOR the other side of the kitchen (team as it were).
Ethics course might be a fine idea...perhaps it would reinforce that we SUPPORT one another instead of throwing us under the bus such as was done at Texas vs. Virginia men.
I've seen home cooking in the SEC, The Big XII, and the WAC, but nowhere as bas as it is in Tulsa. Every coach wants calls, and I believe the TU coach is no different; however I also believe that the "homies" at TU are a result of two things which only indirectly are attributable to the TU coaching staff: 1) in order to save money they hire cheap officials (locals who don't claim travel). Many of these officials are connected directly to TU (either alums, or former staff). It clearly affects their judgement, 2) the REF is so afraid of losing his job to another OK official that he is "blind" to what is happening. How you correct this I simply don't know.
I'm conflicted on this comment but, what the heck. With all the excellent officials in the DFW area, why is it that some Oklahoma officials always get assigned to matches involving the metroplex teams and Oklahoma schools? And why is it that "home town" (notice I did not say, nor imply "home cooking") officials from other cities around the state get assigned to matches when the schools from their "home towns" come to the metroplex? Could these situations be considered reverse home cooking to appease out of town coaches? Or are these situations merely coordinators scratching each other's backs?
BTW, do other officials see this practice occuring in their "home towns"?
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