You’ve thought about becoming a basketball official and need a place to get started.

Find out about the local officials associations in your area. An officiating association is a group of officials who meet periodically to discuss rules, mechanics and philosophy. They are a great way for new officials to learn from veteran officials.

Attend a game in your area and ask the officials what association they belong to and whom to contact for information. The association will be a valuable pool of resources for training, obtaining games and getting to know the officiating community.

Attend association meetings. At those meetings, some held before the season starts, you can ask questions about rules, mechanics and positioning. Those sessions will be a foundation to get you started properly.
Expect great physical demands. As the players’ ages increase and the competitive levels increase, the physical demands will rise. You will be required to run short distances many times. You will be constantly moving and on your feet.

Expect lectures, demonstration and exercises on the basic rules at local association meetings.

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• Polished, black, athletic shoes.
• Black socks.
• Black slacks with a belt is acceptable at lower levels but as the level of competition rises, beltless pants are the norm.
• A striped shirt, V neck.
• A whistle and a lanyard.
• Estimated cost: $200. Sometimes, veteran officials have "hand—me—downs" that help new officials get started.

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Talk with officials at a game, contact the athletic department of a local high school or contact your local recreation department. They will be able to give you the name of the state governing body for high school athletics. You will be expected to complete a registration form for affiliation with a national, statewide or local association. Often there will be a fee that must be paid with that registration which goes toward additional officiating training and insurance. Often, with your state association fee, you will be provided rulebooks and other materials. The fees range from $10 — $75.
Game fees vary widely based on the players’ age group, competitive level and the state you officiate in. You can expect the range of $10 for youth games to $50 for competitive high school varsity games.
Ask a respected veteran official to be your mentor. That mentor will help answer your questions and provide crucial support. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about situations and rules. The more you talk about officiating, the more you will learn about it.

The different organizations have different requirements, but most require at least attendance at a meeting to go over any current rule changes. Additional requirements may be a written test with a minimum passing score, payment of fees for the upcoming season and association meeting attendance.

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Here’s the path for starting and continuing your officiating career:

*The youth level: Many officials start at that level. Contact your local recreation department leaders. Your local association should also help you make contacts to get games.

*Upgrading to high school: After working some games, you may feel you have the skills and confidence to work higher level competition. Contact your state association for registration information.

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) is the nation’s governing body for high school athletics. Contact the NFHS for rulebooks, rule changes and information on your state association.

NFHS
P.O. Box 690
Indianapolis, IN 46204
317/972-6900

In most cases, state associations can put you in contact with a local officials association. NASO has more than 4,000 local officials associations in our database. Local officials associations assign games, many times offers mentoring programs and assist in training. You may Contact Us for a local association near you.

High school athletic directors, association assigners and other officials will help you get games. Attend local officiating camps and clinics. They are focused on helping umpires learn and improve.

*Upgrading to college: College officiating is a highly competitive level. Officials with one year of youth league experience would most likely not be a candidate even though there isn’t a designated number of years of experience to reach the college ranks. Obtaining a conference schedule and advancement within a conference is based on the league or conference. When first trying to enter a particular college conference, talk with officials who are currently in the conference. They can give you valuable information such as the conference commissioner and officiating camps to attend. College athletic directors or sports information directors can also be helpful. Click here for a NCAA college conference directory .

You may start your career in the NAIA, work an NCAA Division III conference, advance to a Division II schedule, then on to a smaller Division I conference and culminate with a major Division I schedule. Attending officiating camps is an important tool to improve your officiating. Not only can you learn from experienced officials, you can be seen by those who assign games at that particular level, most often conference commissioners or officiating supervisors.

The collegiate national governing bodies:

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
P.O. Box 6222
Indianapolis, IN 46206-6222
317/917-6222
http://www.ncaa.org/

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA)
23500 W. 105th Street
P.O. Box 1325
Olathe, KS 66051-1325
913/791-0044
http://www.naia.org

National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA)
P.O. Box 7305
Colorado Springs, CO 80933- 7305
719/590-9788
http://www.njcaa.org

Professional league: Though you don’t have to have top—level experience to become a professional official, some experience is required. For example, it would be unlikely that a person with one year of high school experience would be a serious candidate for the NBA or WNBA, though there is no set number of years or certain level of achievement required by the professional leagues. Keeping that in mind, write the professional office expressing your interests in becoming an official. The league will send you an application. Complete the application, send a resume detailing your basketball and athletic experiences, along with three references. The league will thoroughly look over your resume and, if appropriate, contact the references.

Next, you may be invited to a summer identification camp. At the camp you will officiate and become familiar to the professional staff. From there you may be placed into the development program, which consists of offseason and inseason camps.

If progress is made from year to year, you will be invited back to summer identification camps. You may then be chosen to be a professional official, continue working in the development program, or be released. Your work will be critiqued and evaluated. As you progress through the evaluation process, you may be hired by the NBA to work in the NBDL (National Basketball Development League). In your first three seasons, you will likely work NBDL, WNBA and NBA games before becoming a regular member of the NBA or WNBA staff.

If you are interested in working women’s professional basketball in the WNBA, the process is similar. Contact the NBA or WNBA offices for an application.

National Basketball Development League
645 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10022
Phone: 212/407-8000 Fax: 212/407-8277
http://www.nba.com/nbdl/

National Basketball Association (NBA)
Olympic Tower - 645 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10022
212/407-8000
http://www.nba.com

Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Olympic Tower - 645 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10022
212/688-9622
http://www.wnba.com

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