June 8, 2000
Dr. Harold Slemmer, Ed.D.
Executive Director
Arizona Interscholastic Association, Inc.
7007 North 18th Street
Phoenix, AZ 85020-5552
Dr. Slemmer,
An extensive, and ever increasing list of concerns has been presented to the Arizona Region II Softball Umpires Association, by its membership, culminating in a meeting that was held on June 1, 2000 to define and address these concerns. The vast majority of these concerns depict the inconsistency or failure of our Commissioner of Officials, Mr. John Reigar, to follow the policies and procedures as established in the Arizona Interscholastic Association Sports Official Handbook. Thirty-four (34) active members of the Association including the Executive Board attended the meeting. One of our fellow officials from Tucson was also in attendance to express their concerns.
The following items of concern were defined at that meeting:
I.
Policies and Procedures Not Followed
A.
Post Season Tournament Games Assignment Process
The following minimum qualifications are required and the procedures to be taken by the ASA in assigning post season softball tournament games.
According to Articles 6 and 7 of the 1999-2000 Sports Officials Handbook, the following minimum requirements must be satisfied:
Having satisfied the minimum requirements, Article 6, Section C of the Handbook states the following process for further selection, which we quote:
The qualifying criteria to be considered and implemented by the State Commissioner of Officials when making final tabulations and selections for sports officials to officiate in the state tournaments is as follows:
Selection Procedure – The State Commissioner will take into consideration recommendations from Coaches, Area Commissioners, Officials Organization and AIA Observers when making the selections of officials to work tournaments leading to and including state championship playoffs. Each area Commissioner will submit the names of those officials who qualified froom their particular area.
A “Pool” system will be used when assigning officials to tournament contests. Names of tournament officials will be put in the “Pool”. The State Commissioner, considering all information involving the state tournament structure will make the game assignments. The State Commissioner will match the contest with the officials in the “Pool”.
The fact is, there were officials working the Qualifying and State Softball Tournaments, including the Championship Games, that fell far short of meeting even the “minimum requirements”, while several fully qualified softball officials received one or no game assignments. There is also doubt that the current selection procedure includes the recommendations of Coaches or the existence of a “Pool”, or the utilization of same if they do exist.
Although there are several highly qualified softball officials in Tucson, they received only two championship game assignments, both in Conference 1A.
B. Changes
in The Required Uniform
According to Article 12 of the Handbook, Uniforms and Equipment. “There may be modifications to uniform requirements prescribed by the Executive Board.” The late change to a “required” red shirt to work games in the StateTournament, which we do not believe had Executive Board approval, was also inadequately communicated and administered with a result in the confusion and resentment of our officials, including those arriveing at the game sites from outside of Phenix and being told that they had to purchase a “red” shirt. Some umpires that refused to purchase the shirt were given one, while all others ppaid the $28.00.
C.
Advancement and Demotion of Umpires
There are specific guidelines in the Handbook under Article 7, Section A.6, regarding the advancement of umpires to a higher classification, specific “criteria” listed under Article 7, Section E, for the demotion of an official and under Article 7, Section F, detailing the “due process” action to be afforded an official subsequent to his or her demotion.
The process for umpire advancement has been haphazard, at best. Article 7, Section A.6 states, “Upon recommendation from a sufficient number of schools and with the Commissioner’s approval, and official demonstrating quality officiating performance may be advanced to a higher classification, providing the minimum test score required has been achieved and other criteria met.” We know that, several years ago, coaches did provide game evaluations of officials. Since we do not believe that this happens any longer, how does an umpire get advanced? There is currently only one designated AIA observer, Ken Wallace, who lives in the far west valley and, due to the current lack of softball umpires, is kept busy umpiring games with little or no time available to observe – and then only if your scheduled game is on the west side of the valley.
Demotion of an official, although the criteria are more
clearly defined, tends to be more arbitrary and subject to the whims of the
Commissioner, with little respect to adhering to the stated “due process”
procedure.
D.
Handling of Protested Games
Per Article 9, Section A of the Handbook, “Regualr season protest shall be handled, if applicable, as indicated in the National Federation Rule Book for that sport.” The NFHS Softball Rule Book, Rule 4.4.1, states, “It is optional on the part of a state association as to whether protests are permitted.” When protests are submitted to organizations which do allow the filing, such protest shall be submitted using a prescribed procedure (10-2-3I)”. Rule 10-2-3I states, when a game is played under the auspices of an organization which permits protests to be filed, the umpire-in-chief shall report the protest to the organization along with all related conditions at the time of the protested play…”. There is, however, no written AIA procedure for resolving the protest, once filed, which could lead to arbitrary and/or faulty decisions.
E.
Retribution and Retaliation
There has been a pattern of, what we believe to be unwarranted , retribution by our Commissioner against AIA sports officials over the past several years. As an example, softball officials have been demoted and/or not scheduled for future games in retaliation for situations that occurred during the officiating of another sport. We do not believe that an action, which occurred during the officiating of an other sport ( a rule decision), should be carried forward as punishment to him or her in their role as a softball official.
II.
Unsatisfactory Procedures
A.
Regular Season Game Assignments
Officials continue to be assigned to games that conflict with their availability schedule as had been provided by them to the AIA in writing. This results in the necessitiy for an excessive turn back and loss of assignments by the official and creating an unnecessary and additional rescheduling requirement for the Area Commissioner. The game assignment process worked better this year but continues to require improvement.
B.
Observation and Evaluation
As previously mentioned, there is a lack f a practical process to observe and evaluate a softball official for possible advancement to a higher level. As a result, officials have become frustrated, discouraged and question what chance they might have to advance and be afforded the opportunity to officiate higher level games. We all realize that an official may not be as competent as he or she believes, but all should have the opportunity, and an established procedure,to request, demonstrate and receive an honest evaluation of their officiating abilities.
C.
Response to Grievances
Written grievance have been filed with the Commissioner, this past year, by our softball officials. Some have resulted in meetings with the Commissioner. None have been responded to in writing, to date.
D.
Game Score Reporting
We, as game officials, received a request from our Commissioner, midway during the past season, to begin calling in the following information, after eah varsity level game, to a toll-free hotline at 1-877-HS-STATS: State, Boys/Girls, Sport, Game Location, Winner, Loser, Score. The intent was to support the updating of a Varsity Online website. When this number was called, the individual answering took this information and then requested that we provide, “…the rest of the game statistics including line score, etc.” We have now received another request, with our 2000/2001 Officials Registration Form, to provide this information. As an Independent Contractor to the AIA, we do not feel that it is our responsibility to have to provide this service.
III.
Proposed Recommendations and Resolutions
A.
Accountability of Commissioner
We look to our Commissioner to lead by example, to provide fair and equal treatment to all, to follow established and published rules and guidelines, to understand that baseball and softball are two unique and distinct sports and to work for the betterment, not the deterioration of softball officiating in the State of Arizona. The schools that we serve, the devoted coaches, the extremely talented girls that play the game and the dedicated umpires that officiate the games deserve no less! If he can not accept this, then we firmly believe that some action needs to be taken.
B.
Assignment Committee
There needs to be an established group of experienced AIA softball officials, knowledgeable in both the qualifications of the available pool of officials and the skill levels of the teams being assigned. The purpose of theis “committee” would be to assist our Area Commissioner, Jeanie Kosower, in one of her major responsibilities, “…all regular season officiating assignments.” To be effective, this “committee” also needs to fully utilize, to the extent possible, all availability information provided to the AIA by the official in the assignment of his/her games.
Officials for invitational tournaments are currently assigned by both the AIA and several other “outside” organizations or individuals. For consistency, these tournaments should be assigned by the established “committee”. Individuals, currently responsible for the assignment of their individual tournament, could be made an adjunct member of the committee for that specific purpose.
C.
Observation and Evaluation Committee
There needs to be anestablished group of experienced, highly qualified AIA softball officials available to observe and evaluate other officials for possible recommended advancement, or possible demotion, to the Commissioner.
Members of this “committee”, via a rotational assignment process, could observe and evaluate potential candidates by watching them in a number of games or by being assigned to officiate a determined number of games with the candidate.
Recommendations to the committee to evaluate an official should be provided by a coach or a Certified Softball Official.
D.
Grievance Resolution
There needs to be a written, defined procedure for the systematic submission of, response to and resolution of a grievance. It should include the hierarchy through which it should flow and a detailed timeline to complete the process.
E.
Post Season Assignments – Rotation and Limits
We believe that every official has as a goal, when they begin their careers, to officiate in a State Tournament and ultimately a top level State Championship Game. Not all of us succeed due to several reasons. Success, however, should not be based upon favoritism but upon meeting all of the defined requirements for tournament assignment, including demonstrating officiating competency in that sport throughout the regular season. We also believe that, once an official qualifies and obtains that goal, other qualified officials should be given the next opportunity. This could be accomplished through a system of progression and rotation and by limiting the number and level of games an official may work in a specific year and over a designated period of time.
F.
Game Score/Results Reporting School/Coaches
Responsibility
According to the memo that John Reigar issued to all baseball and softball officials on March 8, 2000 requesting our assistance in calling game result information into the VarsityOnline.com hot-line, the purpose is to, “…provide updated brackets as efficiently as possible for many of the State Tournaments”. This information is meaningful to the schools and coaches and therefore the input, and accuracy thereof, should be their responsibility.
G. Utilization Of The Expertise Of The Region II Softball Umpire Association
The Association has within its defined structure, committees to assist the AIA with membership (recruiting), training, evaluation/rating, and game assigning.
The Association has within its membership, and extensive and dedicated pool of softball officiating talent. It includes officials with State, National, International, Olympic and Women’s College World Series qualifications and officiating experience. Additionally, many of our officials have in excess of twenty-five (25) years fast-pitch softball experience at all levels of play and officiate the game year round.
Additionally, we also have one of the most highly qualified and recognized fastpitch softball clinicians I the world, Emily Alexander, active within our Association.
All of these resources have been offered to John Reigar to assist him in his duties as Commissioner. Few have been accepted.
IV.
Possible Ramifications of Inaction
There has been a steady attrition of softball officials during the past few years. At times this year, there were not enough softball officials to work the scheduled varsity and junior varsity games. Several games had only one official. If this trend in attrition continues, it may become necessary to assign only one official to junior varsity games or discontinue supporting the JV games, as previously happened with the freshman softball program…or a worst case scenario of not having enough qualified softball officials to even support the varsity programs!
Dr. Slemmer, the Arizona Region II Softball Umpires Association and its membership urgently requests your immediate attention to this matter. The morale of our softball officials hit an all time low, following the completion of the 2000 season. The basic reason can be attributed to what we believe to be the blatant disregard, by our Commissioner, of the written rules and guidelines as published in the Handbook and the seemingly biased and prejudicial treatment of his softball officials. As a result, the continued participation of many of our dedicated “softball” officials, as Independent Contracters to the Arizona Interscholastic Association, is in serious doublt.
Respectfully submitted,
Arizona Region II Softball Umpires Association
Executive Board of Directors
Greg Anderson, President