CincyHoopRef
02-26-08, 08:14 PM
OHSAA Referee tournament selection 101 (or so they tell me)
Each of the 6 District Athletic Boards assign their own tournament which includes sectionals and districts. The OHSAA assigns the Regionals and state.
Each district board's tournament assignor is given the list of officials from OHSAA that earned their way on to the State, Regional and Sectional / District and alternate lists (aka pools). The district board has a lot of leeway as to who they assign on their portion of the tournament but in general, it appears that if you are in the state pool, you are likely to work a sectional final and a district but that is not set in stone. I don't believe there are any absolute guidelines on who they use or when and how many games they are actually assigned. We have heard that OHSAA has asked that the district board assignors to try to pair up people who are for sure going to work regionals and state if possible.
The ranking process works as follows. Officials are ranked and assigned to pools by a score. This score is determined by taking the official's individual coach ratings average times the votes an official receives. The higher the score, the higher the pool an official is put in. Officials will have a score or ranking for boys and a score or ranking for girls. These are considered for both tournaments.
Officials can receive votes from ADs, their officials association, district athletic board members, assignors and I believe the state can toss in a vote (not 100% on that last part)
Officials are only rated by coaches that have them on games on a 1 (bad) to 5 (excellent) scale. Its the experience of most officials that less than half of the coaches are rating their games. It's a belief that most of the ADs are not participating (voting) either at this point. I think in general, that will change as OHSAA's online system for this process becomes more widely accepted.
Note: The ranking and pool assignment for this year's tournament is based on last year's score. The pool list is released to the public right around the start of the season. Tournament officials are typically notified they are getting games from the District Athletic Board right before the season starts as well. The State and Regional assignments come out around Christmas. Officials are assigned dates and times but who they will actually have team wise will depend on the team drawing before the tournament in early February I believe. In other words, the brackets are made out and the officials are assigned to a bracket spot. I don't believe the coaches know which officials they are drawing, they only know what bracket position they are picking.
I'm not going to say there is nothing you can do to lose a post season assignment but I will say the only people I have heard of losing games are people that lose them to weather and cant work the makeup for whatever reason.
The actual rank and number of votes for each official is not made public knowledge however, each official can look up his rating avg in both boy's and girls. When the pools are announced, they are done by pool, alphabetically so you at least know you are at a certain level.
From what I have heard, most tournament officials have a rating avg near 4 out of 5 but that is not necessarily a lock to get you tournament games.
Some factors to consider is that early on, the tournament is played every night of the week so availability of officials comes into play. Overlapping tournament schedules with the boys and girls tournament comes into play. Illness, weather, injury, work all come into play in who is actually available to work.
It's been recently communicated to the officials associations by the South West District Board that past tournament experience, the ability of the official and the level of games the official usually works are not a variable taken into consideration in the assignment of sectional and district games. These factors should have had an impact on the overall ranking the official receives from the state rating process. In other words, its assumed that if an official is on the boys state list for example, he is capable of working anything from a D4 first round game to a D1 District and anything in-between.
So, when you hear officials say "the coaches put them there", there is some truth to that but the reality is more along the lines of the ADs and assignors votes are what is really getting them there. You can be an average official but if the ADs really like you, you will score well in the rankings and therefore, should do well in getting post season assignments.
I personally think that the burdens of coaching and the work load of ADs on top of their real jobs leave them apathetic towards the ratings process. Its just one more thing to do and most feel they already have enough on their plate.
We hear it all the time that entire leagues are not voting or major programs in the south west are not rating. That may be a subject for another thread but the officiating community that wants to work tournament is starting to take a look at that. Why work a league that doesn't support it's officiating staff's post season aspirations is a question being whispered by refs around our part of the state.
Well there it is, my best guess based on what I have heard and read to date. I'm sure there are enough refs on here to fill in the blanks for me if I missed anything.
Each of the 6 District Athletic Boards assign their own tournament which includes sectionals and districts. The OHSAA assigns the Regionals and state.
Each district board's tournament assignor is given the list of officials from OHSAA that earned their way on to the State, Regional and Sectional / District and alternate lists (aka pools). The district board has a lot of leeway as to who they assign on their portion of the tournament but in general, it appears that if you are in the state pool, you are likely to work a sectional final and a district but that is not set in stone. I don't believe there are any absolute guidelines on who they use or when and how many games they are actually assigned. We have heard that OHSAA has asked that the district board assignors to try to pair up people who are for sure going to work regionals and state if possible.
The ranking process works as follows. Officials are ranked and assigned to pools by a score. This score is determined by taking the official's individual coach ratings average times the votes an official receives. The higher the score, the higher the pool an official is put in. Officials will have a score or ranking for boys and a score or ranking for girls. These are considered for both tournaments.
Officials can receive votes from ADs, their officials association, district athletic board members, assignors and I believe the state can toss in a vote (not 100% on that last part)
Officials are only rated by coaches that have them on games on a 1 (bad) to 5 (excellent) scale. Its the experience of most officials that less than half of the coaches are rating their games. It's a belief that most of the ADs are not participating (voting) either at this point. I think in general, that will change as OHSAA's online system for this process becomes more widely accepted.
Note: The ranking and pool assignment for this year's tournament is based on last year's score. The pool list is released to the public right around the start of the season. Tournament officials are typically notified they are getting games from the District Athletic Board right before the season starts as well. The State and Regional assignments come out around Christmas. Officials are assigned dates and times but who they will actually have team wise will depend on the team drawing before the tournament in early February I believe. In other words, the brackets are made out and the officials are assigned to a bracket spot. I don't believe the coaches know which officials they are drawing, they only know what bracket position they are picking.
I'm not going to say there is nothing you can do to lose a post season assignment but I will say the only people I have heard of losing games are people that lose them to weather and cant work the makeup for whatever reason.
The actual rank and number of votes for each official is not made public knowledge however, each official can look up his rating avg in both boy's and girls. When the pools are announced, they are done by pool, alphabetically so you at least know you are at a certain level.
From what I have heard, most tournament officials have a rating avg near 4 out of 5 but that is not necessarily a lock to get you tournament games.
Some factors to consider is that early on, the tournament is played every night of the week so availability of officials comes into play. Overlapping tournament schedules with the boys and girls tournament comes into play. Illness, weather, injury, work all come into play in who is actually available to work.
It's been recently communicated to the officials associations by the South West District Board that past tournament experience, the ability of the official and the level of games the official usually works are not a variable taken into consideration in the assignment of sectional and district games. These factors should have had an impact on the overall ranking the official receives from the state rating process. In other words, its assumed that if an official is on the boys state list for example, he is capable of working anything from a D4 first round game to a D1 District and anything in-between.
So, when you hear officials say "the coaches put them there", there is some truth to that but the reality is more along the lines of the ADs and assignors votes are what is really getting them there. You can be an average official but if the ADs really like you, you will score well in the rankings and therefore, should do well in getting post season assignments.
I personally think that the burdens of coaching and the work load of ADs on top of their real jobs leave them apathetic towards the ratings process. Its just one more thing to do and most feel they already have enough on their plate.
We hear it all the time that entire leagues are not voting or major programs in the south west are not rating. That may be a subject for another thread but the officiating community that wants to work tournament is starting to take a look at that. Why work a league that doesn't support it's officiating staff's post season aspirations is a question being whispered by refs around our part of the state.
Well there it is, my best guess based on what I have heard and read to date. I'm sure there are enough refs on here to fill in the blanks for me if I missed anything.