![]() “You do four games a week, do the math,” MacFarlane said. The schools are stepping up as well with pay raises coming into effect next Winter that will take a varsity officials paycheck up to nearly $100 a game. You never know when something’s gonna happen, but that tends to mitigate that quite well.” “So as an assigner, you kind of put them with a good, strong partner, put them in the game that they can manage. “You don’t wanna set them up for failure,” MacFarlane said. “The last two years they’ve come up with IAABO-U where people can do their whole course online and not have to go in person and take that class,” MacFarlane said.įor people interested in getting involved, MacFarlane says the first step is to register for training with the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials.Īnd they make a point for new officials to be paired with vets when they’re getting started. They’ve also been making a concerted effort to recruit new officials. “In other words, if you want a night off on Thursday and Saturday, you can go in and block it.” “I have our guys manage their schedule on our platform diligently,” MacFarlane said. He says it took a little while to get used to the new system, but he and the other officials he works with are figuring it out. “That group has essentially allowed us to schedule all of our different athletic events into one system.”Ĭhris MacFarlane is the head basketball assigner for the Northern Vermont Athletic Conference, and he’s been officiating hoops games for 34 years. “One of the things that we did going into this year was we, we signed on with Arbiter, who’s an officials assigning group,” Wendel said. The VPA, schools, and officials are taking proactive steps to try and meet the demand. “In sports that we never used to have to worry about, now we have blackout dates where there’s already so many games scheduled,” Wendel said, Factor in the frequency of Winter weather cancellations and postponements, and that’s a lot of potential hiccups “We saw in football where we started having Thursday night games and Saturday games,” said VPA Assistant Executive Director Lauren Thomas.Īs we head into the Winter sports season this weekend, there is concern about that issue spreading to those sports. But this Fall it started to pop up in unexpected places. Nowadays you check with the assigners before you even consider canceling the game or moving it.”Ī lack of available officials has been somewhat of a known quantity in some sports over the years, like in field hockey and girls lacrosse. “Early on in my career, it was nothing to basically change the date of a basketball game. “I think the officials thing has been one of the biggest challenges, if not the biggest one,” Wendel said. His department has faced down those challenges over the years, but he says another issue has arisen recently in the state of Vermont. Wendel is the now the school’s Athletic Director and Activities Coordinator. “It eventually got to a point where we just couldn’t compete in that division anymore.” Abraham Union High School alumnus Devin Wendel. ![]() “You know, back when I was playing baseball here, we were in the Metro Division,” said Mt. But in Vermont, a number of issues are threatening the fabric of the game.ĭeclining population, Co-op teams, and even outright school consolidation have had a dramatic effect on the high school sports scene in Vermont over the years. ![]() They are an opportunity to promote fitness, teamwork, and community pride. (WCAX) - Sports have long been an integral part of the high school experience.
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