Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I have no doubt that folks have seen HS athletes officiate that did not do a good job. I happened to have hired 14 officials for our Burlington Open/Novice. I hired 4 High School student-athletes, 4 college age officials, and 8 experienced veterans with good qualifications. I asked the veterans guys to work with the younger guys. That seemed to work well also. We also kept our HS guys in with the 6, 8 and 10U group.

I was very impressed with how the day went for all 14 officials. Very few coaches called them to the table. Josh Lattimer was our head official and was only called in on 1 issue that went to the head official.

As Kevin and others have noted, we need to work these younger officials in to develop the next core group of officials for the MS and HS level.

It worked for us, and I hope others will consider helping these guys continue to develop!

Thanks for reading -
Doug Vander Linden
Burlington Wrestling