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Yet another response saying "everyone who has an issue with officials should become one." It's quite a silly suggestion. Some probably have an issue with the window person at McDonald's getting their order wrong all the time. Does that mean they should go work part-time at McDonald's to correct the issue? Maybe a part-time gig at Academy because you can never get help there when needed? How about going to work at your local grocery store part-time because the check out lines are slow?

Curtis Barbay won two state titles in 36 years. That's a lot of "7 year windows" that he didn't get it done. Maybe they should just leave him alone.

I hope every company, corporation, and media institution that mandated the “Vaccine” gets sued into Bankruptcy.

If I’m not mistaken. The varsity coaches do approve the officials well before the game. They know who and what they are getting and can turn down any official they don’t want. And as far as the experience surely they are required more than a year of before hitting varsity level. I’ll let one of these officials weigh in on that though

Open letter to: Fans, parents; players, coaches and AD’s. Keep It Positive! You may or may not know we are having a shortage of officials. Veteran officials are leaving the game and younger officials are hard to recruit. There are many reasons but one of the biggest concerns is, in game behavior towards officials. As a reminder, this is not our job. We do it for the game, we do it for the players; we do it for your children. Yes, we get paid, but for $45 to $70 would you leave work at 5PM, drive an hour away, do a 7:30 game and get home between 9:00 and 10:30, 4 to 5 nights a week? And, have people you never met, yell when you make a call or don’t make a call. Did I mention we have to pay annual fees and dues to the state and local associations? Did I mention we must also attend a number of on-line and local association meetings? And of course, buy uniforms. Would you give up your Friday and Saturday nights for four months for my child? Yes, some officials are not the most fleet of foot, some are still learning, and some are just not that good, but they are still out there so your children can play. You’re not going to get NCAA officials for your junior high school game. What you get, is a dedicated; passionate person who loves the game. Shooters don’t make every shot. Football players miss tackles and hold. In MLB baseball the three statistics always shown are Runs, Hits and ERRORS. Yes Errors. The best athletes in the world make mistakes. And so do officials, we are human. The world will not end because of a missed travel. Imagine doing your job and every 3 minutes, a stranger looks over your shoulder and tells you “You’re horrible”. “You’re doing it wrong”. They may be right, but could you work under those conditions? Would you want to? And it’s become more physical. Just last week alone, there were two incidents where parent fans attacked officials. One was a Tennessee senator! What makes it worse, is when those people yelling at you have no idea what your job is. The reason for this letter is to ask for a commitment. If we don’t make changes, youth sports may be in serious trouble. The average high school official is 58 years old. Many games had to be cancelled the last two years due to shortage of officials. If you’re a parent or a fan, support the players, cheer for them. Just because you paid your $6.00 doesn’t give you the right to scream and yell obscenities to the officials. Cheer for your team. Keep it positive. If you’re a player, ask your parents to behave, have better social skills. It’s embarrassing to the child when we have to remove a player’s parent. If you want to make a difference, when you’re done with school, become an official we need them. If you’re a coach or AD, lead by example. Respect the officials, give feedback to your assignors we will work on improving their skills. Demand your parents sign a Code of Conduct at your parent’s meetings. As simple as, “We understand if anyone is anything but positive, to opposing teams, fans or officials, they will be removed from the event. The second time they will be banned for the season”. Remind them every pre-game. Then please enforce it. Zero tolerance. We hear all the time, “the gym and athletics are an extension of the classroom”. Would you let these things happen in “your” class? We can’t allow it to continue. We have 15 minutes of warm up, make the announcement. AT EVERY GAME. I know no one wants to be the bad guy but their behavior is what caused it. By letting this behavior continue it’s only going to get worse. Set the example. I am committed to you, to continue to educate officials. I am asking you to commit to helping us keep them on the court. One of the many reasons fans and even coaches yell and scream, is that they don’t understand NFHS rules. What you see on TV is not National Federation High School rules. There are at least 5 sets of different rules, between the pro and high school levels. So let me start with a few simple top 10 rules that many people don’t understand, and we hear them every night. Feel free to share these at your parent meetings or send home or give to your players. 1) Over the Back- There is no foul for “over the back”. Over the back means a taller player reached over and secured the ball. Over the back is legal. On the back or pushing through the back to get a ball is illegal. It’s a push. 2) A player, while dribbling can fumble the ball all the way down the court legally. As long as it’s not intentional. It is impossible to travel if you don’t have control of the ball. It’s ugly but we have no call for ugly. 3) A dribbler who lets the ball bounce high, even over their head has not “carried” the ball. It is a high dribble. As long as the hand doesn’t go under to “carry” or come to rest in the hand, the dribble is legal. 4) Three seconds in the key. This only applies while the ball is in the front court. “If a player has been in for less than three seconds and dribbles in or attempts a goal no call should be made”. The three second count restarts on every shot attempt and doesn’t start until the team has control of the rebound. So yes, a player could be in the key for 10 or more seconds if attempts are being made to score. 5) A player diving for a lose-ball, even once securing the ball, can slide any distance without traveling. It is only if the player rolls over to avoid a defender or attempts to get up without dribbling that a violation occurs. 6) A “box out” is securing a position on the floor. Displacement is pushing somebody off a position and is illegal. A player can not crash into an opponent as a box out. That is a foul. 7) A kick violation was changed to an intentional act, so if a player throws the ball off a foot or a leg it is not a violation. Only an intentional kick is a violation. 😎 The definition of a foul is: Illegal contact, on an opponent, during a live ball, that hinders their ability to make an offensive or defensive play. Therefore: 1) A moving screen with no contact is not illegal. An illegal screen is when a player does not set a legal screen and makes contact or once contact is made, then makes illegal contact. 2) Not all contact is a foul. There can be contact that doesn’t “hinder” a player’s ability to make the play. High school athletes can play through some contact. 9) A player does not have to be “set” to take a charge. Once “legal guarding position” is established, the defender can move sideways, backwards and even jump and still be legal. (Legal Guarding Position = both feet on the floor facing their opponent) 10) All four sides of the backboard are in bounds (on a square backboard). The ball can legally bounce on the top of the backboard, roll on the top and fall into the basket and be a good goal. Over the backboard from either side or touching any of the support straps, springs or cables cause the ball to be out of bounds These are the top 10 rules that are misunderstood. There are plenty more, but this is a good start Let’s all make an effort to keep the kids playing. We need your help. Keep It Positive! Please.

I'm recruiting you not throwing you under the bus.

I think you'd be surprised with how few schools are willing to shell out extra cash for stuff like this. They're businesses that lose money, and they're always trying to find ways to save, not to increase expenses.

I do agree. But I don’t think that’s a competency issue. I believe that’s a grown man tired of getting beat on and wasn’t going to change that call. Which shouldn’t happen but as far as the complaint about getting consistency it’s going to take time right now. I think that’s all anybody is trying to say. We lost a lot of good guys and keep losing more because of the treatment they receive. That’s my point

I've seen a lot of things you want, but not really any suggestions from you to remedy the problem. In fact, not only do you not want to help in any way, you've also made it pretty clear that you don't care about the fact that these guys are doing this for next to no compensation for the kids and a love of the game. So apart from having these great officials magically appear that will be willing to put up with the nonsense from players, coaches, and fans while traveling extensively for minimal compensation, what do you propose should happen?

Doesn't matter.. even if you're correct. State title or bust, right? 7 years to get it done or you're fired.

SETX Officiating - A Victim of an Official Shortage or an Epidemic of Incompetence In a nutshell the answer to your question is Both. The shortage leads to less experience officials calling those varsity games you are referring to (nationwide issue). I guarantee if you had the equivalent opportunities to view other chapters games you will have the opinion about all officials chapters (They're ALL horrible) and I'm okay with that but I do know you can't out officiate me. That's the mentality I have when the fans start yelling at me... Not out arrogants but out of confident because I put in the work to be that decent official I mention earlier * (I can't say that for others... they must take pride in themselves)

Don’t know why it’s so hard to understand what Gogo wants…. Highly trained great officials at every 3-4a game across the state of texas. It’s a very simple request.

I don't care that it's their part time job. I should have been more clear.

I've been to alot of games this year. The worst officiated game I have seen, by far, was called by the Houston Chapter. But, could be a matter of perspective as the team I pull for was on the wrong side of 90% of the calls. I assume the team we were playing against thought it was a well officiated game and would probably welcome that particular crew back with open arms. Officials have gotten worse, parents have gotten worse, kids have gotten worse, and coaches have gotten worse. I have been embarrassed of some of the crap I hear from our own fans. More than a handful of coaches that spend more time with their hands up and begging for calls than they do coaching their kids. Kids with zero respect for any type of adult or authority figure. Officials that get offended and use the whistle or lack thereof as a tool to get back and the people that are yelling and screaming at them. I would say the vast majority of the "bad calls" I have seen this year isn't a matter of knowing the rules. It feels like they know full well what the rules are, but you wanna yell and scream and act like a fool and disparage my every move, watch this call not go your way again the rest of the game. It's not right, but that's typically what a "poorly officiated game" is the result of, from what I have seen. You also get what you pay for. $15 an hour for 3-4 hours on a Friday night is dirt cheap. My solution for the quality official shortage, would be to offer quality compensation. $75 a night is not getting high level officials in the door, and it definitely isn't going to keep them there long.

Agree. I think there are teams that have some skill players but need a QB where he could have a decent season for. But he's way past prime at this point. Dallas pressured him well, but he was missing a lot of those passes BADLY last night.

If you don't care why are you on here bashing officials... I will say there are just as many incompetent/horrible officials in other areas of the state/nation by percentage as there are in SETX, you just don't get the pleasure of seeing them on a regular basis to form an opinion that there are better officials outside SETX. I've seen them even worked with them. Gogo I agree officials should be knowledgeable of the rules and be able to apply those rules correctly. Officials should take some pride in themselves to want and be able to call a near perfect game, because if ever as an official call that elusive perfect game she/he should hang up that whistle. Many officials put up the effort to become a decent official but there is a segment that just out there for the $$ and they are just like you THEY DON'T CARE! Every season we have you or guys like you to point out how bad the officiating is here in SETX, but again like the other poster mentioned ( where is your solution?) .... I have one if hyou will take me up on it, maybe you with all your basketball officiating rules knowledge come join one of the two local chapters to JUST train/teach the officials (seriously), you don't have to get on the court to call any games JUST HELP US GET TO LEVEL of officiating you so desire! Thank in advance

Know what post I've never seen? I've never seen someone say, "I decided to become an official and help. I've heard there's a shortage and I'm not satisfied with the product I've seen during games when it comes to officiating... So I'm going to be proactive." What I HAVE SEEN... is a seemingly endless amount of whining and complaining. I suppose it's easier to be an expert from the bleachers.

By the letter of the law it appears that the shooter might have broken a couple of laws. On an emotional basis I think a majority of the public would think that there is no issue with the robber causing his own death therefore any actions by the shooter to be justified. I think that the grand jury, being made up from the public, might no bill this case for that reason in a form of jury nullification. Kind of like, technically he should not have fired that last shot but…… The “other side” wants to letter of the law upheld regardless. Well…. at least for this instance. When the shoe is on the other foot, they will likely want discretion. Imagine if a Black guy shot and killed a White guy in the same situation. I am sure that some of the same people who want the shooter in this current case to be indicted, would want the case dismissed if the rolls were reversed. In many respects it is much like the political discussions on this website. “I want THE LAW FOLLOWED!”…. unless. Such as, Trump had classified documents in his home that the FBI was aware of but he refused to turn them in under executive privilege but was negotiating for return anyway. The left including people in this forum, demanded that Trump be held accountable, probably even with jail time. When it turns out that the current Democratic president had the same kinds of files in three locations, some of which were likely not secured and the FBI did not know about it… nothing to see here, move along. I have said it many times in these discussions. When someone wants to make an example of a person from the other side, he better get ready because someone on his side will soon be found doing something worse. So in this case, should the grand jury go by the letter of the law of “immediately necessary” or should the grand jury go by the old Texas saying, some people need killin’? I believe that the people supporting this guy either have a misunderstanding of the law and think you can shoot to your heart’s content or they know that technically the guy violated the law but the robber caused his own death so, oh well. Then I think people on the other side demand absolutely the letter of the law be upheld, because…. a White guy killed a minority. I suspect that if you swap the circumstances, both opinions would change. I believe that it will be hard to get an indictment from a Texas grand jury, even in Harris County. A lot will likely depend on how the DA presents the case.

Had to post this somewhere. It will fit here….

You can’t get officials to stay around long enough to be good anymore. People start bashing them and threatening officials as young as little dribblers all the way up to jv level. Those guys can only handle so much crap before they get to the point of handing over the whistle as you say. I’m assuming in your years of watching basketball you have made all the correct calls from the stands and never missed one? If any fan thinks the officials cost them the game they are truly an idiot and were probably brought up around someone who blamed officials. Teach these kids to take responsibility and that one call didn’t cost them the 5 prior turnovers or bad shot selection cost them. Them not getting back on defense cost them. Not the “over the back” call you thought he missed. I’m going to assume Gogo has never volunteered to officiate even at the youngest stages of the game and doesn’t realize how hard of a job those guys have out there and grew up blaming his failed basketball career on bad coaching and the officials. Otherwise would have gone pro.

Your earlier post was wrong as well. Buna lost 3 starters from last year, not 4.

Typical non answer without any solution to the problem at hand. Let's blame everyone else for the poor officiating and try to hand them our whistle when we hear about it. Sounds like you guys do a lot of training and testing. Is it possible the training and testing should be reviewed and updated? That's not a rhetorical question. If there's that much training and testing before you can officiate, then why do so many officials not know the rules? Again, I'm not talking about all officials, but only SETX officials. You go to Houston or Dallas and its completely different.

DING DING DING BU lost to Booker T Washington. While BTW is a good team ive seen BU beat better. No way that happens if they play agin, but again Basketball is all about match-ups

That’s like saying you shouldn’t be able to criticize a car salesman if you aren’t willing to become one. It’s just silly. I and many others don’t care if officials have another day job. We care about the job they’re doing as officials. I’m not a yeller and screamer at officials during a game. That’s the coach’s job. However, I leave games now more often than ever frustrated at the way a game is officiated. There’s no longer any consistency whatsoever. The post above talked about several rules we should all know. I couldn’t agree more with that part of his post. Although, the officials all call games according to the same rule book, you even see some of the simplest of calls officially drastically different from game to game. It shouldn’t be that way.

No one asked for NCAA officials for Jr high basketball games. My original post is only speaking on high school varsity basketball games. It’s not too much to ask for officials in a varsity game to be competent. As far as “respect” goes we had an official who approached a fan who he thought had been complaining (he had not but it was someone close by this particular man). The official told the man, “If you don’t shut the hell up I’m going to throw your fat ass out of here.” The man told the official, “it wasn’t me” and he was promptly thrown out of the gym. This was a 70+ year old man who was ejected from the gym for nothing. Officials laughing in the face of coaches and refusing to have a discussion with a coach about a call. That’s unprofessional and disrespectful. These things go both ways. Your attitude that any and every official should be able to do an extremely poor job without being questioned is absurd. If I was as poor at my job as some of these guys I’d have been fired years ago.

Waiting on the mainstream media to put a ticker up for deaths from cardiac events. They were fascinated by the death toll when it was COVID. Apparently lives only matter when it serves an ideological purpose.

The community already ran off the kid who was starting for Allen if you keep up with the news.

It has been questioned a ton,he will have 25 years to produce(retirement),the tradition is over due to politics!

I think 5AD2 is pretty weak on our side of the state right now. I'd take FB Marshall or PNG to put that district back in the state title game.