The Selection of Officials to the Conference and NCAA Championships (MEN) Selection of Officials to Conference Championships

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Austen Clarke
6 years ago
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1 The Selection of Officials to the Conference and NCAA Championships (MEN) Each year in late October/early November NCAA water polo begins to gear up for the selection of officials for the Conference and NCAA Championships. Every year I get questions from referees and coaches about how the process works at the Conference and NCAA levels. The purpose of this document is threefold: (1) provide transparency to the selection of officials at the Conference level; (2) provide transparency to the selection of officials at the NCAA Championship level; and (3) to provide officials with sense of where they stand within any specific Conference. Selection of Officials to Conference Championships Each of the six conferences with Automatic Qualifying (AQ) status uses a similar process to come up with the names that they are most interested in. Here is how each conference comes up with their wish list: CWPA: The CWPA consists of two conferences, each with an AQ. The Supervisor of Officials (SO), Ed Reed works closely with a Technical Committee (TC) consisting of Bret Bernard, Jack Horton, Andy Takata, and Jim Cullingham (when available). The CWPA uses Dartfish to conduct much of their evaluating, targeting the invitational tournaments. When it comes time to select the officials for their two Championships Ed Reed seeks input from the coaches (40%) and the TC (60%). Coaches are also invited to submit evaluations for referees they have had on their games. These data are compiled by the SO, who then distributes the results to the TC. The SO also checks on availability of potential referees. A conference call of the TC produces the eight officials (plus alternates) to be invited to officiate the two Championships and assigns them to one or the other. GCC: Jim Cullingham is the SO and he does much of the regular season evaluation himself. He sees input from a poll of the coaches (33%), the results of the evaluations (33%), and his own rankings. MPSF: The MPSF has co-supervisors, Alan Korsgaden and Sandy Nitta. The coaches rankings are 40% of the final criteria and the Evaluators 60%. The SOs make the final decision on who to invite. SCIAC: The SCIAC also has two SOs, Don Holbrook and John Montrella. They rely heavily on coaches input, as well as any written evaluations before making their final selections. The SCIAC tends to be one of the last conferences to select their officials because of the limited number of games involved. The SOs for the SCIAC will continue to coordinate with the SOs from the other conferences to ensure the best possible distribution of the officials available each season. WWPA: The SO for the WWPA is Mitch Carty. He uses a combination of a coaches poll and written evaluations (40%) and his own observations throughout the season (60%) to make his wish list.in case of a tie he invites the official who had the most exposure in the WWPA.

2 Because there are so many qualified people officiating, the SOs convene a conference call with the goal being to share information so that within reason, every conference gets a slate of officials that fit well in their conference. Although every referee is considered an Independent Contractor, the Conferences do work together to ensure that every qualified official is invited to a conference championship. In this way, officials are not forced to choose between two conferences and risk alienating the SO or the coaches of the conference not selected. Selection of Officials to the NCAA Championship 1. Minimum Qualifications: a. Take and pass annually the online rules test (90% pass rate); b. Officiate a minimum of 12 NCAA contests during the season; c. Be nominated by at least one of the conferences with an AQ; d. Officiate at least one conference championship tournament; e. Attend the NCAA Water Polo Referee School (biennial); and f. Officiate no more than three consecutive men s NCAA championships. 2. Selection Criteria (no order of importance implied): a. Final ranking(s) of official by nominating conference(s); b. Review of body of work throughout season: including number of games officiated, with consideration given to difficulty of the games worked; c. End-of-season performance: Input solicited from conference supervisors of officials regarding conference championship assignments and evaluation of performance at the conference championship; d. Where available, review of written evaluations conducted by neutral evaluators (conference level); and e. Where available, review of written evaluations conducted by national coordinator of officials (NCO). 3. Selection Process: a. At the start of the season the NCO solicits nominations (unranked) from each of the supervisors of officials from the conferences regarding potential officials to work the championship. b. Throughout the regular season, the NCO consults with the respective supervisors/evaluators regarding their ongoing evaluation of their respective conference officials. c. Throughout the regular season the NCO completes in-person evaluations of as many of the previously identified officials as possible. d. The NCO attends selected conference championship tournament(s) to conduct end of season in-person evaluations. e. At the conclusion of the conference championships, the NCO solicits from each of the supervisors of officials from the conferences their final rankings of the officials who worked their conference championship.

3 f. At the conclusion of the conference championships, the NCO consults with conference supervisors of officials regarding conference championship assignments and evaluation of performance at the conference championship. g. The NCO reviews all data received (final conference rankings of officials; written evaluations; input from supervisors of officials and conference evaluators) and generates slate of four officials (plus two alternates) to officiate the championship. h. The NCAA Men s Water Polo Committee will review and either approve or return to the NCO for resubmission the proposed slate of officials. i. This process will continue until the Men s Water Polo Committee has approved the recommendations of the NCO. Conference Ratings of Officials 2017 Men s Season Each of the conference Supervisors was asked to provide a list of the officials they assigned in their conference during the 2017 men s season and rate them A-D, as follows: Group B: Works games in our Conference and qualified to officiate our Conference Championship if Any referee who has questions about the rating they received should contact the Supervisor for that Conference. Conference Supervisor(s) Cell CWPA Ed Reed edswimpolo@charter.net (205) GCC Jim Cullingham jcullingham@usawaterpolo.org (310) MPSF Alan Korsgaden Sandy Nitta akorsgaden@yahoo.com tweetwo@cox.net (209) (702) SCIAC Don Holbrook John Montrella holbrookpolo@verizon.net jmontrella@aol.com (909) (714) WWPA Mitch Carty mitchc@cifss.org (562)

4 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) The CWPA recently underwent an external review of their officiating program and one of the recommendations coming out of this review relates to the rating of officials. As a result, until they have an opportunity to process the recommendations coming out of the external review, the CWPA is not prepared to release that information. Golden Coast Conference (GCC) Troy Barnhart - Rick Curry - Danielle Dabbaghian - Levon Dermendjian - Amber Drury - Michael Goldenberg - Steve Rotsart - Darren Spiritosanto- Alex Stankevitch - Scott Voltz Group B: Works games in our Conference and qualified to officiate our Conference Championship if Dragan Bakic - Hadi Farid - Matt Mester - Haz Ortega - Ross Spiritosanto Gary Hull - Buddy Olds - Freddy Sicard Mike Reid - Andrew Selder Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) invited: Rick Curry - Danielle Dabbaghian - Amber Drury - Hadi Farid - Mark Koganov - Steve Redding - Craig Rockhold - Joe Peila - Alex Stankevitch Group B: Works games in our conference and qualified to officiate our Conference Championships if invited: Dragan Bakic - Levon Dermendjian - Gary Hull - Matt Mester - Ross Spiritosanto - Tiffany Spiritosanto - Val Vasilchilov - Scott Voltz

5 Group C: Works games in our Conference and qualified to officiate regular season Conference games: Christopher Lancellotti - Haz Ortega - Larisa Rotsart - Fred Sicard - Mike Stewart Group D: Works non- conference games in our Conference, and/or may be assigned to tournaments we assign: Chris Jimenez - Connor Robertson - Roque Roque - Jahn Trutna Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Levon Dermendjian - Mark Despars (play-in) - Amber Drury - Matt Mester - Haz Ortega - Joe Peila - Steve Redding, Mike Reid (play-in) Roque Roque (play-in) Fred Sicard - Tiffany Spiritosanto Group B: Works games in our Conference and qualified to officiate our Conference Championship if Jen Aronson - Andrew Gates - Chris Jimenez - Terry Kimberling - Gabriel Martinez - Buddy Olds - Peter Sophabmixay - Brandon Spalding - Mike Stewart - Steve Yancey Omar Bardumyan - Chris Belcher - Scott Brennand - Tom Finwall - Jen McCall Connor Levoff - Dave Riley Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) Dragan Bakic - Rick Curry - Troy Barnhart - Danielle Dabbaghian - Hadi Farid - Jenn McCall- Mike Reid - Haz Ortega- Joseph Peila - Craig Rockhold -- Freddy Sicard

6 Group B: Works games in our Conference and qualified to officiate our Conference Championship if Mike Gordon - Gary Hull - Chris Lancellotti - Matthew Mester - Roque Roque - Larisa Rotsart - Peter Sophamixay - Brian Spiritosanto - Ross Spiritosanto - Tiffany Spiritosanto German Lopez - Sergio Macias - Rachel McCracken-Buddy Olds - Brandon Skiba - Andrew Selder - Jahn Trutna Jen Aronson - Mike Francis - Ian Patterson - Mike Stewart ********************** Please note, as far as I know this the first time in the history of NCAA water polo that the process used by the Conferences and the process used by the NCAA to select officials has been formally spelled out. And it is the first time that the ratings of the referees in each conference have been made public. I hope this information is helpful; please contact me if you have questions or comments. Respectfully, Bob Corb, NCAA National Coordinator of Officials ncaacoordinator@earthlink.net (562)

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