been gone

We'll folk's I've been working a bunch (5 appointments today). LaDonna and I have also been on vacation to Maui (first time to any island) as well as had a couple of weekend vacations.

I've been writing two new biz plans as an academic pursuit.

Physically I've been training for a century ride in October. I have also been working with kettlebells (fun and a challenge).

Hope all is well and may God richly bless you.

I had to laugh

Since no one really reads this blog it has become cathartic to write here for me.

I recently read a job posting (always looking at the competition) saying basically, is there a leader out there. The large company could not find anyone to fill a leadership role from inside the company. I thought about lessons I learned for a former employer and a couple best selling books.

I wondered if the company, that I'm sure is at least 30 years old, growing and has had success, did nothing to develop leaders.

That's when lessons from the old coach crept in, "I didn't care what they had done or where they had been." That coach won over 85% of his games in over 25 years would hire based on philosophy not a resume. Would this coach fit what we "are." He didn't care about anything else. I fact I interviewed 5 times over 2 months and we never once talked about football. We talked about history, philosophy, leadership, education, values and personal traits. We did it at an old weather beaten picnic table in his backyard. Every coach on that staff went on to become either a head coach or coordinator (mostly in DI).

One of my favorite leadership books talks about legacy. What do leave when your name is no longer on a door. It is the responsibility of the leader to develop others to continue a direction or finish a vision. That means giving them the spotlight. Sometimes the light is hot, blinding and uncomfortable. Sometimes it's easy. Both give opportunities to others to develop leadership. The old coach used to say "lead from the back of the pack," let others learn from their success and failures. If you pick the right people they will learn.

Another way I wonder about this companies leadership is, what is most important. If you ask me the most important job I do it is support the company. If your focus is the company it is more likely to succeed. If your focus is look at me then you are the focus and that leads to being a distraction. A friend put it like this, "If you're the head coach and you have all the ideas, you're in trouble." The other way to look at it is, if you spend your time looking for someone to tell you you're great, you're wasting a lot of time. This comes from another best seller (around the world).

So what are you doing to develop others? If it's watch what I do and you never let others do it, well maybe your just a poor leader. If you're the leader maybe you are setting up your successor for failure. Nice legacy, you can be remembered for all you did, but the old coach would see you a little differently. So would a couple of other smart guys.

I had to laugh

God bless you all.

PS. Just found out the competition is closing.

Pride v. Humility

Pride. Hmmm, In Mark 9:33-34 Jesus asks His apostles, "What were you discussing on the Road?" But they did not answer because they had been arguing about which one was the greatest." Got your attention (it's not me by the way). Simply put pride leads to many wrong doings. It gets in the way of humility, (the opposite virtue). It is self-conceit and if you wonder if you are prideful, here's the basketball stuff, ask this "do I like it when someone snubs me, or refuses to take notice, patronizes me or shows off. " Hmmm.

Lets consider a playoff or unit ranking. Feel left out, snubbed, treated unfairly. Perhaps it's because your pride is competing with someone else. Why do you want more? What don't you have that a different rank would solve?


Don't misunderstand, when you are complemented about a job well done or you're told that you have really improved your game and you feel good about it, that's not pride. It's where you take the comment or what you do with it. My mentor taught me that you are never as good or as bad as people say. Somewhere in that comment is humility. If you start looking for applause, become vain or want praise because you are improving, well that's going to lead to problems.

Jim Johnson retired this year. At his final game the public address spoke about Jim working his final game and the crowd responded with praise. I can't imaging Jim being anything but humbled by the kind gesture Upland HS, the teams, coaches and all the fans offered through their applause. Prideful, no, Jim is the example of humility and continued to be humble as he shared at the banquet. Thank you Jim for being an example. By the way I see myself as a sinner and often prideful about basketball. What I should do when I get full of myself is thank God for the skills He has given me and give Him the glory. Fortunately, God humbles me when I get full of myself.


So next time you feel full of pride, wanting more, ask, do I have enough, why do I want more, or what will more solve?

This blog posting was influenced by a recent reading of "Pride: The Great Sin" by C. S. Lewis.

God bless you all.

I'm not...

Dead or dying or mad, angry, blah, blah, blah. This of course is in response to the emails and apparent voice mails (I have not picked up) regarding why I left as the IC.

I do find myself checking my email address still but not very regular. Today I opened two notes wondering if I was sick, another if I was mad. Dead or dying appears to be the most common question. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo,

I have not answered my hoop phone, I don't even know where it is at this moment. So if you are wondering why I have not returned a call of yours its because I have not listened to it since, I don't remember, but it was before my last board meeting. If your question regards the unit I don't even know where to direct your call, maybe Otis?

I do want to thank those of you who sent me notes of thank you, much appreciation.

I am a happy camper, God is very good to me.

May your lives be richly blessed.

If you read this blog

You know that I have a personal relationship with God. I am washed by the blood of Jesus Christ and have accepted Him as my Lord and Savior. Every time I think of this I smile a little.

I am no longer the IC, I have no regrets as I walk away. I do not feel any sense of loss or disappointment. I made a choice. I expect people to say what they will. I have prayed for both my detractors and supporters, and will continue to do so.

The reason for my departure will, I'm sure, be discussed. Some will delight and others will wonder why. Ultimately, my reasons for leaving are personal. They are about what I see best for me. I thought and prayed about it a long time. I am completely at peace.

As for leaving the unit it is again a personal choice. I don't know how long I will stay away but next year I'm sure I will not be a member.

I wish to thank three people who were constant sources of support, Guy Thomas, Randy Homer and Rocky Bettar. You are good friends and much more important to me than basketball will ever be. Thank you, you're all in my prayers.

May God richly bless you all. Amen

who knew

Who knew one day I would one day not care about coaching football or refereeing basketball.
Who knew one day I would love reading about history and leadership.
Who knew one day I would like getting up early in the morning.
Who knew one day I would not know who won a championship, or care.
Who knew one day I would find TV boring, and a waste of time.
Who knew one day I would rather be anonymous than on the stage.
Who knew one day I would become one of the people I used to make fun of.
Who knew one day I would rather serve than receive.
Who knew one day I would not be interested in what someone heard about someone else.
Who knew one day I would face my mortality with a smile, instead of a fear.
Who knew one day I would stop, and think first.
Who knew one day I would pray for those who would attack me, instead of plan my revenge.
Who knew one day I would appoligize because I wanted too, rather had too.

Jer 1:5-“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.”

God Knew, that's who.

God Bless

How did that help?

Back in the the 70's I was was told a story by a coach for whom I had great respect. I had just begun coaching, in fact I don't think I had been a coach for 12 months. I listened as he shared the story about coaches in a staff room. The story goes, "the runingbacks (RB) coach turns to the linebacker (LB) coach and says, your LB's stink, so the LB coach replies, so do your RB's. The two coaches go at each other for a while tearing each other down. In the end nothing was accomplished but animosity, a riff in the staff, simply put, nothing that would help the team win." Instead of attacking each other, the old coach said, "how about providing advice or a suggestion to the coach. Something constructive, that has direction, solution oriented, instead of attacking one-another and dividing the staff. Riffs just take away from winning."

So the story went. More than 30 years later I still remember it like it was yesterday. A few weeks ago I watched a person attack another person with criticism over a job done, in the attackers eyes, poorly. I watched as the person attacked the other. I sat their remembering the story about the two coaches and said nothing.

I was wrong because I knew better and still said nothing. Did I learn something, yes. Will it happen again, no. Sometimes being a leader means stand up and risk being fired for the betterment of the team. It's all in how you communicate what you say that leads to victory.

God Bless

God and Basketball

If you didn't know, I'm a Bible thumper. Yes the same people I used to make fun of or say that God was their crutch. Now I'm one of them. What's that have to do with Basketball? Remember the movie "love and basketball." We'll I think the movie was about the way basketball got in the way of a relationship, or was it, heck I can't remember. I just remember the title and for me God is first. So sub Love and God and it's the same title.

So a few weeks age I was at my Bible study and a verse came up, James 3:16. The verse is written, "For wherever there is jealosy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every kind of evil." What's that have to do with basketball? Perhaps I should be more helpful with officials, more prepared, a better leader. I sometime wonder if my vision for our unit is seen as personal ambition. Don't worry everytime I get full of myself, God humbles me. I don't have a personal ambition regarding our program, in fact the vision I have will most likely be completed after I'm gone. My Job is to prepare the next leader, and when that person reaches that vision, not be jealous.

I really do want to pray before our instruction begins, but I don't, at least not with the unit. When I pray I ask God to give me wisdom. I often fall short when I don't ask, when I do ask God for help I find that things come out of my mouth that I know no business saying because I'm not wise enough or smart enough to say "those words." One of my favorite books in the Bible is Proverbs, also known as the book of wisdom. It's one of my favorites because it is so clear when it comes to understanding wisdom. Here's one that has helped me this year, Proverbs 15:22, "Plans go wrong for lack of advise; many councelors bring success." One of the reasons I'm asking officials to apply to be instructors is because I want to be sure we find different experiences, a broader vision, not a tunnel vision.

Proverbs 18:2, "Fools have no intrest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions." I read that verse recently and wondered if I like the IC position for what it brings or for what I bring to it. Do I bring something that is worthy of God's praise or am I selfish. I've felt both ways. I recently had a conversation with an official who was disapointed with his rating. I shared some things with that person, but I don't believe that he went away with a sense of direction, only disapoinment. I wanted to help this young offical but in the end I felt at a loss. Wondering if I had helped at all. Had I been understanding, I wanted to, but it is he who will decide. What he shares about our conversation will determine if I helped him.

God Bless

Success, that is the question

Everything will rise and fall on leadership. Don't think so. Work in an organization, take a job, help with an event and if the leadership is bad...You figure it out.

What is leadership. Servanthood, is a good place to start, have you ever had a superior ask you what do you need to be successful, and then help you with what you need. Not always the case. Those leaders who do that, you talk about loyalty, they get it.

How about this situation. Your leader is about a 5 out of 10 (10 being best) as a leader. You're a 7 out of 10. What level will you reach as a leader. Well the best you'll do is a 5, because that is as far as the leader will let you develop. That's the law of the lid. What would you do.

Good leaders will have a close inner circle. People who the leader trusts, respects, people who are smart and will disagree with the leader without embarrassing him or her. The inner circle are those who respect the leader most, because they know the leader. The inner circle will help the leader succeed if they are strong people. Who's your inner circle. Do they always agree with you?

I was asked the other day what I thought about the instructional program. I would say it was different. I think it was better, but not good. It has a way to go before I'd call it good. Do I think the direction we are taking could become part of the state teaching program, yes. Would I make some changes, yes. Will I make staff changes, yes. Would some members and board members disagree with the changes, yes. I have a vision for this unit that is clear to me. Have I shared it with enough people, most likely not. Will I be back as the IC? Don't know.

Want more about leadership Read: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, by John Maxwell
Death by Meeting, or The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni
Good to Great, by Jim Collins

God Bless

MT Speaks

I enjoy listening to Mychal Thompson on radio 570. The other day he stated that high school and college referees want to be seen. They think "people came to see them ref." I don't disagree with this statement. My reasoning is simple. If we didn't care about "being seen," our rating, schedule and quality of games wouldn't matter. What would matter is the body of work, our attitude and introspection. This is another way of saying humility is not a bad thing.

Hey MT, why not the NBA officials? JT once told me that the NBA looks for personal qualities in an official. Not positioning or judgement. They look for people skills, personality traits. Often times people skills are code for getting along with people. Getting along often means being humble. Don't get me wrong, being humble doesn't mean you lack confidence. Often times a humble person is very confident, they just don't have to be sure that everyone knows it.

God Bless

about www.agapefitness.com

If you didn't know I train athletes and Individuals
Agape is a Greek word meaning "committed love." It is the love we share with a spouse, child or parent and is also often referred to as love for Jesus.

It is the commitment that we want people to recognize as they watch us as we work with our clients.

The people who will represent Agape will be committed to the Clients needs and goals. We will not believe that one size fits all.

We will always commit to continuing our education to benefit our clients. We encourage our trainers to use their time to continue their education.

We will commit to the well being and safety of our clients always aware of what we are asking them to do. We will not be influenced by fad or trend if it puts our clients at risk of injury.

We commit to testing and evaluating our clients before we begin a program. We will set ourselves apart from many trainers who see everyone as the same without knowing.

Please visit our site. www.agapefitness.com

Another Camp

DAVE LIBBEY’S BASKETBALL OFFICIATING ACADEMY

A New Generation of Basketball Officiating Training Emphasizing • Education • Training • Leadership Join Dave Libbey and a select handpicked staff for a new concept in basketball officiating instruction. The Academy is your opportunity to experience what it takes to do more than just survive as a basketball official.This experience will provide you the knowledge and skills needed to improve and advance your officiating career. The Academy will benefit both men and women at all levels of officiating and will be especially beneficial to board members and the instructional leaders of your local associations.Participants have the opportunity to take the skills learned in sessions and try them out in high school varsity level basketball in 2 person and 3 person crews.Joining Dave will be Mark Reischling (my mentor) and other top quality officials to assist with the instructions...Check it out: click here: http://www.uofs.com/Camps/basketball_officiating_academy.htm

Congrats to the Unit Success

The Foothill-Citrus Unit has sent 7 officials to the Southern Section CIF Finals for the first time.
The most in unit history.

Congrats to Ray Thompson, Bill Gayler, Alex Carroll, Otis Stokes, Minnie Caluag, Bob Holland, Jennifer Veal who will work as officials and Aaron Schuman as an alternate.

Add the 7 Teams we have in Finals and the Foothill-Citrus Unit has a lot to be thankful for this year.

A special congrats to triple threat Mel Sims. Mel has his team in the finals, worked as an official and served on the board. Good luck coach.

Let's Go Camping!

Here are a few camps that are available to you as officials. More information can be found on-line. Good Luck to all those who attend a camp this summer.

"Be A Lead" June 20th-22nd at UC Irvine. Register by April 5th-$185.00 after that $225.00
More Info at www.bealead.com (Martin Cota)

"Day of Game" 3 camps, June 14-15th and June 21-22nd at APU-$190 by May 15th or
July 19-20 at Concordia University (Irvine), $190.00 by May 15th.
More Info at www.dayofgame.com (Rich Kollen)

"Up Close and Personal" Friday April 18 or 19 or 20th Lynwood HS (Lynwood). $200.00 by April 10th , $250 after April 10th. D. DiCamillo has the application. Contact him via email for an application. (Bobby Mozee & Bill Mallory)

Playoffs-Just some stats, notes and a comment

We used a different method to select the playoff officials this year and we believe it was very well done, by all. All includes the VQ officials and the committee.


96% of our VQ officials submitted nominations. Of those 22 officials submitted fewer than 10 names.

Only 2 officials did not receive any nominations, 4 received only 1 nomination and 3 received only 2. The highest individual total for any 1 official was 20 and 31 officials received 10 or more nominations.

Six NVQ officials received nominations including a first year official who received 2 nominations. None were considered.

We considered 61 names for the total playoff list. Two did not submit, 3 are not eligible (transfer/dual), 2 who did not receive any nominations, 2 have removed themselves from the list, 1 did not qualify (10 games), others did not work HS basketball.

The committee met on Saturday, January 26, 2008 at APU beginning at apx. 8:45 and ending 11:50.

The playoff bucket range was set at 100%-41% of partners nominated (42 officials). 2 Officials received nominations from 100% of their partners. There was no statistical advantage to the number of partners or number of nominations to being in the bucket.

Officials were then ranked by the committee from 1-42. All but three rankings were discussed. We also selected three 3-person crews for CIF.

We added an alternate list for CIF because the first and second rounds still has people working college basketball and we need to have a few more names just in case we needed an official or two. The Alternate range was 37%-27% (11 officials). None were used.

Regardless of the outcome all but a few officials understood and or accepted the outcome. I, as the IC, was pleased with the entire process.

Next season in here already

For many of us the season was over about two weeks ago. And for many of us we need to begin to train now, yes now. The one thing we can count on as a high school official is the players age will stay the same. The players are about 14-18 years old, some younger, some older.

We as officials are getting older every year. In fact I don't think that we have any officials who are younger than 20 years old. That means most of us are in our 30's, 40's or 50's, the players aren't.

Players today are playing year round, their coached year round and the HS aged player is better than they were when most of us played. Their better trained, stronger, quicker and play faster.

So if you want to be in position to see plays you need to be as fit, strong and fast as you can be. So the older you are the sooner you need to start. If you need to lose some weight, start today.

Lastly, we talk a lot about being professional. Part of being professional is appearance, fitness and the ability to run in order to see the whole play correctly. Be a professional, everyone involved is counting on you.

Thanks to All

Here's to all of you who helped make this season a good one for me.

First, thank you to the board for the opportunity to lead the group. I truly appreciate your support in making a change.

Thank you to Otis. Who demonstrates tough leadership, not everyone can lead through change.

Thanks to all the instructors and observers who helped make a difference.

Thanks to Guy and JT for their direction and leadership. JT is a great teacher and Guy did a great job getting officials seen and evaluated.

Thanks to all the officials who bought in and raised their game. You've raised the bar for next season.

A special thank you to all the coaches who provided input and video of their teams. It made us more aware of things we can improve.

And lastly, thanks to all my partners who treated me like an official and not the IC when we worked games.

Here's where you can find out the latest!

Welcome to the Unofficial F-C Basketball Officials blog. You can find out information about meetings, instruction, and who is doing what in our unit right here.

Unofficial means that the unit has not sanctioned it.

Dennis DiCamillo is your moderator.