It's Not Just a Game to Everyone

Not many people realize that officiating is a career for a lot of people. When you get to the professional levels for many referee's that is what they do. At the High School level people are under the assumption that the referee's show up at game time do the game and leave, but it actually is a lot more than that.

After getting certified to be a High School basketball official in the state of Pennsylvania you are required to attend six basketball meetings a year and also required to attend one rules interpretation meeting. If an official does not meet this requirement then they are suspended from officiating for a year until they can make the seven total meetings.

During the meetings we discuss game situations, plays, rules changes, and  pre-game and post- game responsibilities. When we go over game situations we rely heavily on videos. We watch plays and break them down, watching the play over and over again to see whether a call should be made and usually we then have a discussion about why the call should be made.

Every year the NFHS Rule Book comes out with new rule changes or new rule clarifications. This year the only real rule change that had to do with the game as it's being played is that the Head Coach of a team is allowed to come onto a court to break up a fight that is going on between the two teams on the court. Previously the coach had to be beckoned on by an official before he/she could enter. One rule clarification that was added this past season had to do with the use of leg sleeves, the rule now states that players are allowed to wear the leg sleeves for medical reasons and must be white, beige, black, or any single solid school color and must be the same color as any arm sleeves being worn. One other important note is that all the players on a team must be wearing the same color arm sleeves and leg sleeves.

An official's pregame responsibility starts the day before his/her game. It is important to confirm with your partners on what time they will be arriving to the game. It is also important to check with school to confirm the game time. After arriving and getting dressed in your uniform it is important to go over a few things with your partners about the game everyone is about to work.

Here is a list of some things that are usually discussed before a game:

The letter "L" stands for the Lead official, "C" stands for the Center official, and "T" stands for the trail official. Below you can see the areas of responsibility for officials on the court with two-person coverage on the left and three-person coverage on the right.

I find it really amazing how coaches always seem to complain to the nearest official when majority of the time the closest official to them is not making the call. Every official has an area that they are concerned with and sometimes those areas collide, specifically the middle of the lane. Usually in the middle of the lane by the foul line is where officials usually have "double whistles," this is when two officials blow their whistle at the same time.

As you can see the area's of responsibility are very different between the two and the three official game. In a two official game there is a lot of pressure on the trail official to cover more of the court with the lead official spending most of his/her time looking at the lane. In the three official game lead still pays attention to lane but can focus more on certain match-ups because the center official is on the opposite side looking at the backside of the lane.

An important note in the three official game is that the officials rotate around the court depending where the ball settles and where the key match-ups are, and all of the rotations are initialized by the lead official.