FROM DAVINE DAVIS AT MSHSAA – POST-SEASON WINDOW NOW OPEN UNTIL FRI., SEPT. 13!!!
DISTRICT OFFICIALS DRAFT
Back in the day, district managers were expected to contract their own referees for district tournaments. As you can imagine, it got to be pretty ugly with districts fighting over referees and referees having to sort through multiple offers. So, several years ago, MSHSAA created officials drafts across the state where the AD’s in charge of each district would draw for order and when their turn came up, they would select the referees they want for each night of their district tournaments.
This year’s draft for northwest Missouri will occur on the evening of Wed., Oct. 9 at Blue Springs South. Districts will draft for referees and some line judges, and GKCOA will select line judges for the remainder of the districts that didn’t select theirs at the draft. After the draft is complete (starting that night), AD’s will begin contacting officials to offer contracts to work districts. The offer over the phone or on an email is NOT the official contract. YOU MUST LOG INTO THE MSHSAA WEBSITE TO OFFICIALLY ACCEPT THE CONTRACT IF YOU ARE DRAFTED. If you don’t, you will not be paid.
How do AD’s know if you’re available? That’s why you fill out the above form to indicate your open dates. Please make sure you keep MSHSAA up to date if your availability changes after the window closes on Sept. 13–MSHSAA doesn’t look highly upon you if you are drafted, but have to decline a post-season assignment because you didn’t update your calendar.
GKCOA STATEMENT ON POST-SEASON OPPORTUNITIES
We encourage all members of GKCOA to register to work post-season, no matter what level of experience you have. Your application will be received by MSHSAA and forwarded to the athletic directors in charge of the officials draft. The athletic directors in the draft will select referees (R1 and R2) and some of the line judges. GKCOA will supply the remainder of the line judges. Even if you have little varsity experience (less than the 10 match minimum to officiate), we would highly encourage you to register and be eligible to line judge in districts. This would be a fantastic opportunity to see higher level volleyball and gain more experience to advance your officiating careers.
Last year, in the northwest Missouri region, 75 of the 89 officials registered were from GKCOA (84.3%) and of the 75 GKCOA officials, 53 were selected to work districts as a referee and/or a line judge (73.4%). This year, we would like to see more officials sign up and your chances are actually pretty good of getting selected in some way to work districts!
DISTRICT HOSTS NAMED (District 13, 14, 15, 16 listed in that order)
CLASS 4: Lee’s Summit West, Truman, North Kansas City, Kearney
CLASS 3: Clinton, Notre Dame de Sion, St. Pius X, St. Joseph Benton
CLASS 2: Stover, Lone Jack, Richmond, Lathrop
CLASS 1: Santa Fe, Drexel, Bishop LeBlond, Tarkio
The winner of District 14 will host sectionals.
THE DEBRIEF
We want to continue the debrief initiative because we all can learn from each other, no matter what the experience level is of our partner(s). Try to carve out five minutes after your last match of the evening to discuss anything that came up that night. If we do this properly, the GKCOA will continue to be the best association in the state!
IF YOU ARE OFFERING FEEDBACK: Critique the situation, not the person, accompany the critique with a compliment, be specific with feedback, give recommendations on how to improve
IF YOU ARE RECEIVING FEEDBACK:. Hit pause on your initial defensive reaction–it’s not personal, LISTEN for understanding, avoid saying “Yeah, but…” and giving a reason for why you made those decisions on the court, always thank the person offering feedback, and possibly arrange a time to follow up if the situation warrants.
We are all mentors and we are all mentees! The intent of this practice is to help each other make each other better…not to cause conflict or hard feelings.
ILLEGAL COURT MARKINGS
If you have courts that are illegally marked (like the attack lines that must be solid colored lines below), take photos and email Davine Davis at MSHSAA and be sure to CC Dixie Wescott and Don Sleet. Court markings will be taken care of at the administrative level. Officials are not to require a school to tape down lines, even if the lines do not follow NFHS rules.
HOW TO GET YOUR MONEY OUT OF ARBITER PAY/REF PAY:
Here’s a good video to check out if you haven’t figured out how to get your Arbiter money into your bank account yet. PLEASE pay particular attention to using manual transfers—in other words, DO NOT set ArbiterPay to automatic transfers—if you do, it will charge you $1.50 per transaction!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOUQdQDjHow
NEXT “MEETING”
We do not have any more scheduled face-to-face meetings this year, so please keep up with the latest information using the Sunday newsletter and videos we may post here. We are planning on doing an online “meeting” of some sort on Sun., Oct. 6, if we feel it’s necessary. If you have questions or situations, please email ken.corum@nkcschools.org or use the Drop Box.