Football officials assigned to home town teams.

[Jumper_Dad]

I know on the surface most of us would love to have officials that were from our home towns, or even better, those that played for our school assigned to calling our games.

 

I DO NOT, I know there are some homer refs out there. Our area has plenty of football officials from this local area. The problem is, that a few go out of their way not to give a decision to the local schools for fear of being called a homer by the other team. I have seen on numerous occasions where a local grad, that played football for a local school has gone out of his way to ensure that judgement calls went against the home team.

 

I think that it is too much pressure on refs to have to call games involving there own school. I have a couple of questions for the rest of the state.

Does this go on all over the state?

Is there a rule aganst it?

Have you had issues like this?

[Freebird23]

My dad officiated football for more than 20 years. He was consistenly ranked as one of the top officials in the state of Kentucky. He eventually went on to do pro football for a few years and then gave it up when I played.

 

He would not take the highschool I attended and the one he attended for highschool football. Too much pressure on him and I think it would take away from the simple pleasure it gave him to officiate highschool football.

 

I know of several local officials that officiate games of schools they attended... so it must not be a rule. In our area, they are so short on officials and crews that I think there is probably not much of a choice to avoid the conflict.

[IM4THEHOUNDS]

I know on the surface most of us would love to have officials that were from our home towns, or even better, those that played for our school assigned to calling our games.

 

I DO NOT, I know there are some homer refs out there. Our area has plenty of football officials from this local area. The problem is, that a few go out of their way not to give a decision to the local schools for fear of being called a homer by the other team. I have seen on numerous occasions where a local grad, that played football for a local school has gone out of his way to ensure that judgement calls went against the home team.

 

I think that it is too much pressure on refs to have to call games involving there own school. I have a couple of questions for the rest of the state.

Does this go on all over the state?

Is there a rule aganst it?

Have you had issues like this?

I have also seen the home town boys go the other way to avoid being called a homer. I think it is best to have officials that don't have a dog in the fight. Less pressure. More likely to be fair both ways.

[Ram]

I have to give the officials credit in our area, we have very few from Raceland, most of them attended Russell, Greenup Co, et al, but they always seem to give us, as well as the other schools, a fair shake. I do not recall seeing a Raceland game where I thought that the officials were slanting one way or the other. Sure I have seen calls that I thought the officials missed, but never did I think that they were intentionally slanting the game.

 

On a side note, have you noticed how officials from different regions officiate differently. Every time a crew from a different region comes to our area they tend to focus on certain things, that the officials from our area do not. Just hard to get used to.

 

Last year I really learned to appreciate the officials from our area. During a Raceland game against another area opponent, we had a officiating crew from another area, they had never officiated a varsity game before (told to me by the umpire). They had no clue about football officiating. They would mark off penalties then say that they made a mistake and put the ball at the original spot and mark it for play. The coaches from both teams were fit to be tied, they could not figure out what they were doing. But, again they were not slanting the game one way or the other, they were equally as bad for both teams.

[offside]

Most of us (officials) work games at our alma mater simply because most of us attended a local high school. It's impossible to avoid this fact and would be very impractical to eliminate assignment to one's alma mater as policy for regular season games. But, we are rarely assigned to playoff games involving schools in our own region.

 

So, yes I have officiated many games at my alma mater. I graduated from high school nearly 25 years ago. I still get a nostalgic rush out of walking on that particular field, but my loyalty has changed: I just try to be equally as bad for both teams.

 

offside

[offside]

By the way, that was meant as tongue in cheek humor.

[Ram]

By the way, that was meant as tongue in cheek humor.

 

:thumb: As long as you are equally bad to both teams, I have no problem with that. All we can ask for is equality. Besides, what would us armchair quarterbacks have to talk about if officials were perfect, then we would just have to admit that the better team won, what fun would that be?

[jahearme]

A lot of things are about to change as far as the assigning of officials across the state in ALL sports. I heard Larry Boucher speak about what is going on across the state the other day and it is unreal what some assigning secretarties are doing in their associations. This is not just in football or basketball, but every sport. Here are a couple of things he said was going on: Assigners were assigning themselves games, there are assigners who have never visited schools in their region, there are assigners who didn't attend the rules clinic in their area. The list went on and on. He didn't say where exactly this was going on, but he did say he and the KHSAA were going to put a stop to it. They have implemented a new plan where assigners have to meet certain criteria throughout the year in order to keep their jobs.

I hate that 2-3 bad apples are causing the KHSAA to stick their noses in at the local level, but something had to be done.

I'd say the days of officials being assigned to their alma maters are pretty much over. I know sometimes it just can't be avoided, but I'm sure the KHSAA will try their hardest for this not to happen.

[dogman]

I for one are glad to see a change in the 13th.

[Hey-Ref]

Officials work very hard to learn the rules and proper mechanics of officiating games. We also spend a good deal of time at meetings discussing professional demeanor and proper appearance. We take our jobs seriously. There is no policy stating officials cannot work games for their alma mater. Rather, it is up to each official to scratch schools he or she feels appropriate if they have a conflict of interest. Such a conflict is hard to define and is left up to each official. I, for example, always scratched my own high school, and my child's school while he attended it. After he graduated I began working those games. I no longer scratch my alma mater, but since it is in another state, it won't be an issue.

[NEERSBlueNation]

Here local refs call games harder against the home team. I think it is either to overcompensate for the home field advantage, or to keep ones for thinking that they are pulling for their old team. I think that you can have a local ref if they are unbias. But if not then it's not good for either team. But that is just my opinion.

 

 

TRAMPLE the WEAK and HURDLE the DEAD.

[Shiloh]

I personally do not. mainly b/c alot of the current coach's at my alma mater were my coaches when I played. Plus with my luck I'd end up in a bad situation if i did ref one of their games. I would not show favoritism towards my old school but I don't want any possibility of anyone questioning my intnetions in any game.

[MEDICINEMAN]

A lot of things are about to change as far as the assigning of officials across the state in ALL sports. I heard Larry Boucher speak about what is going on across the state the other day and it is unreal what some assigning secretarties are doing in their associations. This is not just in football or basketball, but every sport. Here are a couple of things he said was going on: Assigners were assigning themselves games, there are assigners who have never visited schools in their region, there are assigners who didn't attend the rules clinic in their area. The list went on and on. He didn't say where exactly this was going on, but he did say he and the KHSAA were going to put a stop to it. They have implemented a new plan where assigners have to meet certain criteria throughout the year in order to keep their jobs.

I hate that 2-3 bad apples are causing the KHSAA to stick their noses in at the local level, but something had to be done.

I'd say the days of officials being assigned to their alma maters are pretty much over. I know sometimes it just can't be avoided, but I'm sure the KHSAA will try their hardest for this not to happen.

I have seen those 2 or 3 bad apples you referred to here in Southern Ky. I have seen "Home Cooking" served up several times. Most refs do a fair job here, but the problem does exists...:thumb:

[mountainmojo68]

At Pikeville it seems the local refs who arent from Pikeville hate us and hold it against us cause we beat him 30 years ago. Or they are from Pikeville and call everything they can against us out of fear of being biased. We dont want refs to give us calls we dont deserve but at least call the game fairly down the middle and not worry about what everyone thinks.