Potomac Rugby Referees Report of the Allocations Officer for The Allocations Officer for was Mark Handel. John Bridges assisted with most of the HS/U weekday assignments during in the northern reaches of our empire. Brei Gussack, President, oversaw both incoming and outgoing exchanges. Allocations was a tough two-person job in. was made difficult by referees changing their availability on short notice. For, we started making assignments using the ArbiterSports web site. The site is not without its annoyances, but is still better than the alternatives of which we re aware. Costs were just under $ for the year. Despite the problems, use of the site has made billing and tracking much easier. It took a lot of labor to set the system up for our use. The biggest payback is that the clubs now enter their own schedules, reducing labor at the start of each season. It is easy for the assigner to see travel distances and to quickly review an official s travel history when making assignments. Referees can now submit their mileage and expenses immediately after their matches. Over the course of the year, about referee assignments were made (a day at a tournament is a single assignment). This was about a % decrease from the previous year. In addition, about assistant referee assignments were made. There were decreases in all categories of single matches. This was the result of fewer requests from clubs, not a failure of ours to meet requests. There was a % increase in tournament days. Some of the decrease in single games and the increase in tournaments reflect a difference in handling the counting of some mini-tournaments. Tabular breakdown of these assignments can be found following the report text. Our peak weeks had over members and guests officiating on a given day. Roughly matches are exchanged by arrangements with USA Rugby, New England, Eastern Penn, Virginia, Met NY, Upstate NY, and Southern California. The exchanges with Durham (UK) or East Midlands (UK) take up about assignments in a concentrated long week. The Society maintains good relations with all of these other entities, so that the exchanges and incoming assignments usually proceed with little difficulty. MARR, USA Rugby and exchange appointments make up about % of local assignments. Outgoing appointments of Potomac officials almost exactly balance this, but are not handled by the Allocations Officer. This year only a very small number of A games went uncovered because of referee shortages. Tallies of uncovered matches are included in the first table. It was our best year yet on this measure. More VIIs was played during the regular seasons outside of summer. This included some minievents with only six games and some one-day/one-field events involving college teams, both men and women. Given that VIIs will be an Olympic sport in, its importance and volume will increase. Late cancellation by referees was a big problem for season, a noticeable increase from the past. Too many of the reasons presented for were for predictable events or simply choosing to do something else on a non-emergency basis. Unlike late cancellations of games, late cancellations by officials have a cascaded effect that great disrupts assignments and added significant labor for allocations. The Board has been discussing penalties for our members if this continues. A big problem in making Saturday assignments remains covering clubs who are at great distance from the DC/Baltimore/Annapolis region. We no longer cover matches in State, PA. Chambersburg and Pittsburg, PA; and Salisbury, MD, still present challenges. We can t assume that anyone who is available on that day is also available for a distant match. When requesting availability, we did ask everyone to specify at least one weekend for long-distance travel. However, most members did not list availability for distant games. Therefore, many of the distant assignments required an ad hoc plea each week. Over the course of the season, almost every member covered at least one match and some as many as three (not counting exchange assignments). Most (about %) of the HS/U matches are on days other than Saturday. We can not support any further increase in HS/U Saturday matches. Weekday assignments pose different problems than do those on weekends. Changing work schedules prevent most referees from providing availability far in advance. This means that almost all assignments are done with an ad hoc call after we have the match schedules in hand. The geographic distribution of matches is also different on Saturdays than
weekdays because the Baltimore area has seen a growth in HS/U not matched by the senior clubs. Traffic makes travel from the DC area to the Baltimore area almost impossible in the afternoon. We have some referees in the Baltimore area make themselves available only for a limited number of HS/U matches, but not enough. Our greatest assignment challenge remains providing referees for weekday games in the Baltimore area. B games are not broken out separately in the statistics, but are only about % of the match assignments. The Society makes no secret that it does not have sufficient resources to cover many lowerside games. As a result, most clubs no longer submit referee requests for these matches. The tallies for uncovered lower-side matches only refer to those for which clubs did submit requests. The PRU instituted a formal requirement that all clubs have certified referees within their ranks able to step in. Lower-side (B) games provide both problems and opportunities for the Society. When the Society is able to cover a lower-side game and that game is of reasonable duration with fresh players, it provides an excellent training opportunity for junior referees. However, neither the Society nor the clubs are able to keep up their side of the bargain. As noted above, the Society doesn t have enough referees to cover the lower side games. When the Society does manage to assign a referee to a B-side game, they often find a disorganized affair with many players in their second match, which is then less than minutes of playing time. It is difficult to get a junior referee excited about such an appointment. Lower-side (B) games remain a problem because of both insufficient referees and unpredictable levels of competition. No solution is expected any time soon to either part of the problem. Over the course of a season, we face an uneven demand for referees. The last table shows the ups and downs from week to week on requests for referees to cover Saturday matches. Both seasons have tails at both ends with low demand. We are simultaneously faced with weeks when we are overwhelmed by demand and still have only limited opportunities to give eager referees seasons of good duration. There is no simple answer to the magnitude of our referee shortage, but in some views the shortage is not large. Though we might not have an overall shortage on most weeks, we are often putting referees into matches that because of speed or intensity are over their head. Simply having more inexperienced officials does not solve that problem. Allocation procedures require clubs, or whatever entity is taking responsible for paying our fee, to take responsibility for requesting referees. Pressure to make assignments based on league schedules has abated and clubs seem able to work with the new system. Clubs enter their matches directly into our system with kickoff times (at least their best guess), in addition to the expected location of the match, and the opposition. The range of times that clubs are now using for games is making it easier for us to schedule referees who, often because of family commitments, are available early or late, but not in the middle of the day. Our coverage no longer easily matches up with the membership of the Potomac Rugby Union. In addition, we provide officials for clubs in the Atlantic Coast Rugby League (college men), Virginia Youth Rugby (HS/U), Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (HS), and the Metro Area Varsity Rugby Conference. We provide officials based on geography, not union membership. However, all clubs and players must belong to USA Rugby. There has been little griping about assignments or travel by members of the Society, and the most of the few complaints that did come in were usually justified and resulted from the Allocations Officer not looking at a referee s history of assignments for the season. Most desperate calls for additional referees or for greater travel were answered. The referees of the Society have been largely cooperative during the past year and the Allocations Officer thanks them. Respectfully submitted, Tigg Mark Handel Allocations Officer December
Assignment Data Referee Games Games Games HS/U HS/U Potomac Rugby Referees Match. These statistics are extracted from the Arbiter database. They are more accurate than in the past, but any cell should be considered accurate +/- and totals within %. MARR, USA Rugby, and exchange appointments handled through the Society are included. Formal USA Rugby appointments are not. A similar number of games were covered by Potomac referees outside of the area. Some lower-side (B) games listed as uncovered, may have actually been covered but without being included in the tallies. Uncovered games include only those for which requests were made. No tally was maintained of changes. games are ones originally submitted then having the request withdrawn (these do create work for those handling allocations). Referee s Tourneys s Tourneys Summer Annual Potomac Rugby Referees Tournament. (The format of this table is different from the earlier years.) A referee assigned for all or part of a day is counted as a single assignment, regardless of the number of matches covered. This year it is based on actual assignments, not estimated. Date / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / Requests Date / / / / / / / / / / / / / Requests Potomac Rugby Referees Saturday Requests. Tallies include requests for referees on Saturdays (only) for games at all levels before cancellations and include large tournaments (large tournaments defined as those needing more than officials). Large tournaments in with Saturday requirements were: / the Jesuit Classic, / Washington RFC Cherry Blossom Tournament, / MD Exiles Youth Festival, / Furies Ruggerfest, / Baltimore s Rites of, / Freshman/Sophomore tournament and support of a USA Rugby event in Pittsburgh, / VA youth tournament and a VII s tournament at Model School, / a small VIIs tournament at U. Maryland, / s a small VIIs tournament for Navy and the Atlantic Coast men in VA Beach, and / MD Exiles Turkey Trot VIIs. On /, /, and /, many members attended training/scrimmage events.
Assignment Data, from prior report for comparison Referee ARs covered w/ review ARs covered ( USA) HS/U HS/U Annual Potomac Rugby Referees Match. These statistics are done quickly and may not be exact. MARR, USA Rugby, and exchange appointments handled through the Society are included. Formal USA Rugby appointments are not. A similar number of games were covered by Potomac referees outside of the area. Single-field, half-day tournaments are mostly included in the match totals. Some games may have been covered by society officials, especially lower-side (B) games listed as uncovered, without being included in the tallies. Uncovered games include only those for which requests were made, not cancelled, and intentionally not covered because of CIPP or similar problems. All numbers are probably good within %. No tally was maintained of changes. games are ones originally submitted then having the request withdrawn (these do create work for those handling allocations). Referee s Tourneys s Tourneys Estimated Day Summer Annual Potomac Rugby Referees Tournament. The first two columns contain the number of full-day or multi-day tournaments, followed by the number of field-days (a pitch being used for a full day of matches). For the last column, a referee assigned for all or part of a day is counted as a single assignment, regardless of the number of matches covered; it is an estimate based on our typical assignment patterns, not a detailed account of those actually assigned. Date / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / Requests Date / / / / / / / / / / / / / Requests Potomac Rugby Referees Saturday Requests. Tallies include requests for referees on Saturdays (only) for games at all levels before cancellations, but not including large tournaments (large tournaments defined as those needing more than officials). These counts are not significantly different from. Large tournaments in with Saturday requirements were: /: Cherry Blossom Tournament; / MD Youth Festival, /: Ruggerfest; and /: Rites of. The HS B/C tournament became the Freshman Festival and was moved to Sunday.
Assignment Data, from prior report for comparison Referee Matches ( to RSL) ( to WPL) HS/U ( to Acorn) ( S) ( S) HS/U ( S) ( S) Annual Potomac Rugby Referees Match. These statistics are done very quickly and may not be exact. Numbers in parenthesis followed by S are HS/U games on Saturdays, which are also included in the category amounts. MARR, USA Rugby, and exchange appointments handled through the Society are included. A similar number of games were covered by Potomac referees outside of the area. Single-field, half-day tournaments are mostly included in the match totals. Some games may have been covered by society officials, especially lower-side (B) games listed as uncovered, without being included in the tallies. Some late-cancelled games may be inadvertently included. Uncovered games include only those for which requests were made, not cancelled, and intentionally not covered because of CIPP or similar problems. All numbers are probably good within %. No tally was maintained of changes. games are ones originally submitted then having the request withdrawn. Acorn games are those for which requests were first made to us, then dropped; it is not all of the Acorn games. Referee s Tourneys s Tourneys Estimated Day Summer Annual Potomac Rugby Referees Tournament. The first two columns contain the number of full-day or multi-day tournaments, followed by the number of field-days (a pitch being used for a full day of matches). For the last column, a referee assigned for all or part of a day is counted as a single assignment, regardless of the number of matches covered; it is an estimate based on our typical assignment patterns, not a detailed account of those actually assigned. Date / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / Requests Date / / / / / / / / / / / / / / Requests Potomac Rugby Referees Saturday Requests. Tallies include requests for referees on Saturdays for games at all levels before cancellations, but not including large tournaments (large tournaments defined as those needing more than officials). These counts are not significantly different from. Large tournaments in with Saturday requirements were: /: Cherry Blossom Tournament; / MD Youth Festival, /: Ruggerfest; /: Rites of, and / PRU HS B/C Tournament.