No more TASO officials?

[CenTexSports]

The UIL also voted to use only UIL regeistered officials for ALL sports next school year. This would eliminate TASO, the organization now scheduling most officials for high school contests. There is great unrest in the football official's group because the main target is our pay structure.

Several probable results:
1) A lot of older officials will be calling it quits.
2) Games could be affected before this year is over.
3) UIL will be using untrained and un-qualified officials next year.

[yoe64]

I don't think I like that.

[Old Dog]

As I've said about the UIL before; it's all about money and power.

[Johnny Utah]

Most officials chapters are going with the UIL proposals and UIL affiliations. UIL governs HS Sports therefore the officials need to be sanctioned by the UIL and follow all UIL rules, and those rules for Athletic contests. Those officials that opt to get out or stay with TASO organizations that do not follow the UIL will be left out in the cold in my opinion. Coaches and teachers are not in it for the pay so your telling me officials are??

[grahampaw]

I am not calling a 7th grade B game for the love of the game.You have to have a little incentive for calling games and if the main reason the UIL has for taking over is to change our milage or pay structure then I will be out.We need TASO to be our voice.

[cotulla]

and you think the TASO is not in it for the money?

where do your dues get you that you pay to TASO?

[BwdLion_80]

It sounds to me that there will no longer be TASO next year. If the UIL forces all schools to only use UIL officials, then there is no need for TASO. I guess an official could stay in TASO and pay dues and never call any games. As for the rules, we use the UIL rules now as far as those rules go on each sport. In football Texas uses NCAA rules with some UIL exceptions, in basketball, baseball and softball, we use NFHS rules. So, unless the UIL is going to come up with their own set of rules for each sport, there will not be much changing of the rules that the games are played with.

[injuredinmelee]

Originally posted by grahampaw
I am not calling a 7th grade B game for the love of the game.You have to have a little incentive for calling games and if the main reason the UIL has for taking over is to change our milage or pay structure then I will be out.We need TASO to be our voice.

very good points.

[Johnny Utah]

Are you saying a 7th grade B game is beneath you to call or is it not enough money to call? Come on. UIL has good intentions. Get on board for the love of the game.

[cotulla]

and TASO was your voice before how???

UIL has good intentions, they have always supported TASO and it's officials.

There has to be a reason for this change.

I have yet to read where TASO will be dissolved. Just that officials will have to be registered with UIL.

Just my opinion here, but now if you are a registered with UIL, you may have to answer directly to them. No more TASO getting in the middle... I think the officials will now be held to a higher standard, is that a bad thing?

[957tiger]

It makes sense to have the UIL involved in regulating the officials. I attempted to join TASO to become a baseball umpire several years ago, even made a hour and a half drive to a meeting only to get a cold shoulder. This was after several local HS games were delayed due to a lack of umpires.

[grahampaw]

How many 7th B games do you call Utah?I am not one of those officials that complains about any assignment , in fact I will be calling a 7TH A,B,andC games today.And yes your right if your doing this for the money your in trouble.That being said we are taking time out of our schedule and away from our family and we need to be properly compensated and I think TASO has allways been a voice for officials to make sure this happens.After all it is run by officials voted by us.When the UIL changes who calls certain games, and how much you get for driving to a game ,or any concern you have as an official, who will be your voice to the UIL?

[BaseballUmp]

I know that the college station chapter will not like this one bit. And neither will I.

Also about doing it for the money...I happen to enjoy getting paidsomething I enjoy. Those freshman and jv games that drag on forever with a 45 minute 12 run half inning suck tho. But I know that this move is going to upset a lot of officials

[grahampaw]

Originally posted by cotulla
and TASO was your voice before how???

UIL has good intentions, they have always supported TASO and it's officials.

There has to be a reason for this change.

I have yet to read where TASO will be dissolved. Just that officials will have to be registered with UIL.

Just my opinion here, but now if you are a registered with UIL, you may have to answer directly to them. No more TASO getting in the middle... I think the officials will now be held to a higher standard, is that a bad thing? So your saying that TASO does not hold officials to a high standard?

[cotulla]

some of you are buying into the belief that UIL is all about money, and money for their pockets. More money for them, and less for the officials? I don't believe that at all. Where have they ever said that they will drop the fees for umpires? I read yesterday that they were looking at adjusting the fees based on metro/non-metro. Now who's to say the officials will not come out better with a new agreement?

UIL has always been supportive of the officials.

Again, here's my opinion: the UIL and TASO relationship was strained last winter in regards to the TASO baseball/fee schedule/mileage fiasco. UIL is supportive of everyone, just don't do something that's not part of the agreement, ask any coach who's ever been tossed from a contest!

[grahampaw]

Another thing that no one is bringing up is the fact that the UIL may use this to gain even more control over schools and coaches by not leting chapters and officials have the opportunity to work with them in certain situations .

[Lonestars06]

I just recently started calling out here in west Texas and I think UIL is making a huge mistake. We have a tremendous amount of experience here in my chapter and all of them without doubt said they would hang up the whistles. I have enjoyed the opportunities so far with games I have been assigned but filling white hat shoes under the dictatorship of the UIL would be extremely uncomfortable for the coaches and officials. I know for the last few years I have been trained well from the current leadership and losing that would be a huge factor on the quality of games. I really don't do this for the pay, but especially here out here in west Texas it takes a bit of coordination to call Thursday night games that are a hour and half away, take the abuse from coaches for a 7th and 8th grade game and return home, do your regular job for the next day then get ready for a varsity game where we are already mandated to be there two hours before the game. Again, working it out with the boss to get off early to call is a little tricky, but I do it because I love the game. The extra incentive to paid properly helps, but not on overwhelming factor. The main problem I have is the UIL overseeing athletic events with the officials in the back pocket. Now don't you think this is a little bit unethical? The fox running the henhouse is what we are up against. Many occasions coaches and players think the officials are their own verbal abuse pawn, and if the UIL takes this on then we will have officials being scratched from every game. I know our chapter is strong and we want this resolved, but we are all holding our breath because right now we are short officials and week in and week out we make it with quality officiating---I think we are heading down a dangerous road for officiating, recruiting will come to a standstill and experience is gone.

[CenTexSports]

Money is not the reason most "seasoned" officials call but it is only fair that we get paid something for the effort. The chapter I belong to has bucked the UIL recommended pay schedule for the last tow years. By doing this, we get no UIL assigned playoff games (games turned over to the UIL because the coaches can not agree). It was our boards decision that it was better for the chapter as a whole (all calling officials) to charge appropriate fees during the season at the loss of a few playoff games for a few crews. DO YOU THINK THIS WILL BE POSSIBLE WHEN THE UIL IS DICTATING THE GAME FEES? NO WAY!

We are independent sub-contractors for TASO and should have some say in the process. This step gives us two choices, officiate or don't.

As I have said on here before, I would call on Friday night for travel cost but I want to be compensated for the others. It is not fun to go to chapter meetings on Monday and calling for nothing on Tu, We, and Th.

One other thing. If you want to officiate next year you can apply through the Texas Workforce Commission. I bet we get some great officials form there.

[slingshot]

This (the UIL taking over officating of games) has disaster written all over it! Most of our experienced officials will hang it up--we will have a bunch of absolute know-nothings calling our games. Do you want the outcome of your team's game or possibly season resting on the decision making prowess of these rookie officials? Definitely better have those defibrillators and a paramedic or doctor on standby at every game--we're gonna need'em, gonna be some coaches having coronaries on the sideline at some of the looney calls we're gonna see... :rolleyes:

[TexMike]

It is still too early to make a good prediction of where we will end up. TASO (Football anyway) could survive this and take on the important role of training and certifying officials for the UIL. The UIL cannot do that. They do not have the infrastructure nor the subject matter experts. They need a TASO-like structure in the field to pull this off. One little piss ant sitting in Austin could not make the thousands of game assignments each week so someone else has to do that. Why not TASO (or a reasonabke facsimile)? At the end of the day, there might be some slight additional cost to officials next year in terms of dues for 2 organizations instead of just 1. The exact amount needs to be determined. But UIL already promised increased fees next year so perhaps that will make up the difference anyway.

Unless I missed something, the changes that were made did not include any change to the UIL policy that requires coaches mutually agree on officials. So UIL will not (yet anyway) be able to arbitrarily assign folks where they want so coaches will still have some say in the process.

The role I would like to see TASO take is that of a professional body like the American Bar Association. TASO could provide training, testing, certifications that individual officials could then "advertise" when the coaches are selecting officials. If I was a coach and all I knew about 1 guys was that he was registered with UIL but another guy (who was also registered with UIL as required) had a certification from TASO telling me he had reffed for 10 years, had worked 90 varsity games, 120 subvarsity games, scored a 96 on the annual certification exam and attended 2 summer training clinics, I know who I would pick.

[WildTexan972]

Originally posted by Johnny Utah
Are you saying a 7th grade B game is beneath you to call or is it not enough money to call? Come on. UIL has good intentions. Get on board for the love of the game.


you want love of the game turn on ABC and watch away....but when you have to leave work early to call the 7th grade B game across town and the pay is $8 then it is more STUPID than love of the game you are workin with.....working up the ladder to earn the bigger games I understand....costing me 3-4 times my revenues for 4-5 years to bump up to just breakin even for 4-5 years is pretty much crazy....and if the UIL decides to keep cuttin on the "cost" of the officials, then that pretty much wipes out ALL incentive to do all that work thru the years to get to the big games - just so the UIL can act like banks on the obama plan and send the execs to all the posh spots for the annual meetins and such.....no thanks

[grahampaw]

Originally posted by TexMike
It is still too early to make a good prediction of where we will end up. TASO (Football anyway) could survive this and take on the important role of training and certifying officials for the UIL. The UIL cannot do that. They do not have the infrastructure nor the subject matter experts. They need a TASO-like structure in the field to pull this off. One little piss ant sitting in Austin could not make the thousands of game assignments each week so someone else has to do that. Why not TASO (or a reasonabke facsimile)? At the end of the day, there might be some slight additional cost to officials next year in terms of dues for 2 organizations instead of just 1. The exact amount needs to be determined. But UIL already promised increased fees next year so perhaps that will make up the difference anyway.

Unless I missed something, the changes that were made did not include any change to the UIL policy that requires coaches mutually agree on officials. So UIL will not (yet anyway) be able to arbitrarily assign folks where they want so coaches will still have some say in the process.

The role I would like to see TASO take is that of a professional body like the American Bar Association. TASO could provide training, testing, certifications that individual officials could then "advertise" when the coaches are selecting officials. If I was a coach and all I knew about 1 guys was that he was registered with UIL but another guy (who was also registered with UIL as required) had a certification from TASO telling me he had reffed for 10 years, had worked 90 varsity games, 120 subvarsity games, scored a 96 on the annual certification exam and attended 2 summer training clinics, I know who I would pick. Mike ,TASO like your saying, is like the Republicans in Congress,they have all the good ideas but are allways outvoted by the democrats(UIL).

[grahampaw]

Originally posted by WildTexan972
you want love of the game turn on ABC and watch away....but when you have to leave work early to call the 7th grade B game across town and the pay is $8 then it is more STUPID than love of the game you are workin with.....working up the ladder to earn the bigger games I understand....costing me 3-4 times my revenues for 4-5 years to bump up to just breakin even for 4-5 years is pretty much crazy....and if the UIL decides to keep cuttin on the "cost" of the officials, then that pretty much wipes out ALL incentive to do all that work thru the years to get to the big games - just so the UIL can act like banks on the obama plan and send the execs to all the posh spots for the annual meetins and such.....no thanks Im with you 100% WildTexan.