From Officiating High School Basketball. That is all. So why am I retiring? The main reason is that I’ll be taking college classes next year to work towards my teaching certification. Between those classes, Rose and my dance lessons and the long drive to school every day, I don’t have time to devote to basketball officiating the way it should be. This was an easy decision. So as I reflect on my time as an official, here is what I came up with.
What I will miss:
Officials I work with who are nice people. It is a lot of fun to get to know people you might not normally get the opportunity to spend time with.
Getting to listen to a student sing the national anthem. It is relatively rare – maybe one of out 10 games. But when a student sings the anthem alone, it is awesome
Watching some good teams and good players on the court. 99.9% of the players are respectful and fun to be around
Fans who are actually rooting for their teams. Most of the time these are the students of the school. They generally make a lot of noise and are their to cheer on their classmates or give crap to the other team.
Those coaches that actually coach the game rather than yell at officials
What I won’t miss:
The travel. Hour long drives (and sometimes longer than that) to games and then home after the games gets old
Spectators (I cannot call them fans) who yell at the officials, Most of the time, this means adults (people who are not students). These people seem to feel that they paid to get into the game so they have the right to yell at officials. Get a life.
Coaches who are disrespectful to officials. I guess coaches are accustomed to rudely interacting with their players. That carries over to officials. In real life most coaches would never speak the way they do to adults in a normal life.
Watching junior varsity games which often means I was gone five hours or more at night.
Adios officiating.