This does not affect me. I don't officiate kids. I don't know who decides these sort of things. There is no officials organization or group that represents kids officials, although that might be something for them to consider putting together.

My understanding is kids officials get paid $125-$150 for a long days' work. That's at least $50-100 less than high school tournaments where you work a lot less hard in a lot better environment. My understanding is that some of these kids tournaments start early and run quite late. And these rates have been pretty stagnant for a while.

I heard the entry fees are about $12 now so if you do the math there is a pretty good income off these events. I don't know about all the expenses.

So how about it? Can we bump these guys up a bit?

Thanks

I paid $150 for our kids tourney (kids sub-district and district contracts are considerably more). Officials for my kids tourney reported between 8:15-8:30. I handed out paychecks at 3:00pm (wrestled last match around 2:45). That is about six hours of work. We had plenty of rovers, so they each got to take a lunch break too. That is $25 per hour....not a bad gig. Good officials are well worth whatever the pay is...and some tourneys have longer/harder days.

But we need to keep in mind why we are hosting tourneys to begin with. Every dollar expensed is a dollar that can't be used to build our programs.

I think Kansas overpays. When I was involved in kids wrestling in california all kids officials were volunteers. Sounds crazy but it worked, we were trained, held to high standards, associated w our home clubs and no criticism outside the appropriate channels was allowed. Clubs helped subsidize travel expense and we were fed etc. it worked amazingly well. Just saying.......

Not sure of the pay for refs. But I DO know that BILL LITTLE does a great job getting quality refs in D2. Very seldom do any of us coaches have to argue a call. I would like to see multiple votes this year out of D2 for some of our refs to be at the state tourney. Instead of the female hair NATZI from last year. Lol.

I agree Bill was our HR at Hutch and brought in a very good crews, and handled what little issues there were very well.

For some tournaments the refs are the biggest expense they have. There is a balance and I guess when there are no more quality refs that will accept 150-200 for the day it will drive the market to change.

It is their choice to work for the wage they get, I can't make them.

For some tournaments the refs are the biggest expense they have. There is a balance and I guess when there are no more quality refs that will accept 150-200 for the day it will drive the market to change.

It is their choice to work for the wage they get, I can't make them.[/quote]

Since they don't have an organization or spokesman, its not really their choice...it is a take it or leave it situation now. They could probably form some kind of "union" and then the tables would be turned, but the point of the post was to raise the issue for some thought and discussion. And I may have it wrong, but every official I've talked to about this thinks they are way underpaid for kids when compared to JV-Varsity.

Varsity and JV is kind of the Big league for them, some of the reason they are working kids is because they might not be good enough for that yet.

I have asked every year "what are the rates" and Bill has told me.

I think they are paid 50-100 less than High school and JV for a reason, eventhough there are a few high schols refs I wouldn't want at my tournament.

Agreed. Keep Tood Kahler in mind from district 2 as well

The ref staff at 6&U state was great. Much better than we've had at a few of the smaller district 1&3 tournaments we've attended this year. I wish every group of refs were as good as the group I watched last w/e!!

For the first time since 1994, I didn’t officiate any kids events this year. I love Kansas kids wrestling and everything that it has done for me, but too many of these open tournaments have turned into long, ugly affairs. In the last couple of years I stuck to novice tournaments – a little “return to the roots” moment for me so that I could revisit the positive attributes of kids wrestling as my 6 year old son begins his first foray into this greatest sport. Before I list my complaints, let me first say that there are several well-run enjoyable open tournaments out there. There are lots of good folks doing great work for our kids clubs! With that said, here is what is wrong with officiating kids tournaments:
1 – Way too many people at the mat. Seriously WAY too many. One parent/coach for each little grappler is enough. Tape your matches from the stands – that’s how my mom did it!
2 – Officials should be paid a fair amount that is based on the number of matches worked or hours spent on the mat. I have been severely underpaid several times. To be fair, I’ve left the gym a few times feeling overpaid. The unders outnumber the overs at least 5 to 1, by the way.
3 – There is way too much negativity around the mats. I can handle criticism. I can’t handle someone brow beating an 8 year old.
4 – Make sure there are enough surfaces to handle the number of matches. Make sure the surfaces are safe and big enough to wrestle a meaningful match. Make sure you have 4 officials for every 3 surfaces. 8 hours of any kind of work is a long day. 8 hours of working kids matches is brutal! Officials need breaks at a minimum of every hour or hour and a half.
5 – Don’t keep hiring the officials that you think are doing a bad job! If you can’t find enough good ones, consider using some high school wrestlers to work the 6U & 8U age groups. You might just create the next generation of officials.
I don’t want anyone to think that I quit doing kids tournaments because I’m too good for them anymore. I am not perfect. I make mistakes at each event I work. I try to learn from those mistakes and become a better official. When I have a free date, I go to duals and tournaments and watch how the other officials are working their matches. I have a DVR loaded with Big 10 wrestling so that I can watch Hagerty and Mayabb work the big boy matches. I actually want to be a better official. I felt that the adversity and negativity at some these events was squeezing the enjoyment out of it for me and I know some other officials who feel the same way. I hope that something can come of this discussion and I’m glad that Mr. Ford brought it up. Now…feel free to fire away!