[EricH]

Originally Posted by EricH

Like I said, there's something else I'm up to that has some relation to this topic, but is in a somewhat different vein. If I remember to write it up afterwards, I'll post it.

As it turns out, nobody took advantage... But I'll post the write-up anyways, or something like one.

The offer: Any person who could plausibly be a ref within the next couple of years (high school seniors, parents, mentors) was offered a chance to shadow a referee for a few matches. Now, obviously they wouldn't actually be making any calls, but being with the referees and able to ask questions is big for both the people and the refs, as normally their interaction is one or two kids talking to the head ref in the question box. (I also had an "open box" policy as the head ref for the event: The box is where I am, and the person in it is the person talking to me.)

There were no takers.

And I had a team ask me if they could set up a camera to check the crossings, and at least two teams tried to have me look at a replay. I told them all that I couldn't look at a replay--not that they can't set up a camera, mind you, but that I can't look at a replay.

I did have a team or two ask about crossings being counted--my usual response was to turn to the FMS operator and ask for the appropriate sheet for that match (we used a paper scoring system, and we had scorers working with the refs--HQ, take note, refs could use some scorers just to enter data), then check with the appropriate ref(s) and make corrections as necessary.