Duane Taylor is in his 14th year of officiating for SCBOWBO.  He has officiated countless district games. Duane is a current member of the SCBOWBO board of directors and has helped out with training of apprentice officials many years.  Duane is always rated as a district official and qualified for the state tournament in 2003-2004. Duane received the SCBOWBO most improved official award in 1997-1998.

A Pre-Pre Game Approach to Officiating

We are all aware of the importance of conducting a pre-game conference with our partners prior to game time, which is one of the most important aspects of our game. I would like to take this a step further and have a pre pre-game with your self (a.k.a. an anal retentive person’s approach to officiating).

I am not one those officials that can show up at game time, hit the floor and call a good basketball game. I need to prepare, and part of that preparation is my pre pre-game.

I work in an office environment so I have the luxury of being able to sit back for a few minutes during the day and escape. I do not recommend this if you operate machinery or are driving. While I am escaping my work for a few minutes I will take the time to go over various game situations, what items/issues to discuss with my partners during our pre-game conference, what teams will I be officiating on game night, the location of the game, etc.

My typical routine involves the following:

The day before the game, notify your partners via email or by calling. I prefer email since this is very easy to do through Arbiter (I really like this software program). In my email I let my partners know when I plan on arriving at the school, game time, game location and request that your partners respond back with an acknowledgement.

The day of the game, if I have time and the assignor has the time, I will try to find out who the JV officials are. I always make a concerted effort to be at the JV game just before tip off. I feel this is a very important part of our duties as officials.

I will make some notes on paper points I would like to discuss in the pre-game conference with my partners. I will also try to think of a game scenario I had in a previous game that I may like to discuss.

One of the most important parts of the pre pre-game for me is doing a few minutes of research on the teams I will be officiating that night. One of the best sources for information is the Seattle Times website. Here is the link: http://read.nwsource.com/highschool/basketball/girls/. The amount of information available on this site is fantastic. You can access standings, leading scorers, team rosters, team statistics, game schedules, etc. I like to access information relating to the teams that I will be officiating that night. I will write down the number and position of the leading scorers for each team. I feel this will help me identify key players for each team. Always keep in mind that while this helps me identify key players, it does not take away from the fact that there are 10 players on the floor at one time. But this information can assist with learning the style of game they play, is a team guard oriented on offense or does the team revolve around post play, or a combination of both. The leading scorers in many cases will also be the team Captains. I also make a note of how many points a team averages per game and how many points they allow. This may help with identifying a team that may focus on a defensive style of play.

All this information will assist with knowing what you can expect in a game and is useful information to pass along during the pre-game conference with your partners.

Something else I use to help me prepare (remember I sit at a desk most of the day and am getting older), is I periodically get up from my desk and do stretching exercises. During lunch I will take a walk if I can. This assists me in staying limber during the day. As that guy who is lining up to run a sprint race in that dumb commercial says “I don’t want to blow a hami” (hamstring). This is a painful injury that takes time to heal.

Hopefully you can use some or all of this information to assist you with game preparation. As we all know, in order to be successful in anything we do, preparation is critical. I would rather be over prepared than under prepared. I am sure your partners will appreciate it as well.