As you can see, this will not be an“ overnight” process, to say the least. And, while there is some stuff left to be done before the full process can be delivered, I asked a few questions:
Q: Who must go through the process in order to be considered“ certified”?
A: All refs, regardless of experience level.
Q: Who will be the evaluators, since no one has yet been certified?
A: Not yet determined, but the development group is well aware of this issue.
Q: Will the evaluators come to your club location to do their evaluation?
A: At this point it’ s envisioned that the certification and the evaluators will be at some“ central” location where the greatest number of applicants can be present at one time.
Q: What’ s the benefit of being certified?
A: The goal is quality assurance for tournaments, so that refs are consistent and knowledgeable. The expectation is that, in time, certified refs will be preferred at tournaments and at least used first. The plan is that eventually all refs will be certified as the game of pickleball continues to evolve toward a professional sport and money purses continue to grow.
2. ScoreIt: A New Tool for Referees
We attended a demo on a whim, and in this case we’ re glad we did – it turned out to be a really interesting introduction to a new tool being developed that would support referees, assist audiences in knowing scores, and help reduce errors. The product is called ScoreIt. It’ s a remote and mostly automated referee scoring tool. It has been developed by Brent Haws, who has done similar things for other sports including soccer, badminton and more. The offering consists of both software and hardware.
Instead of the current paper scoresheet, the referee uses a small tablet, smartphone or other Windows device on which the names of the teams appear on the left and right of the screen. The software does the coin toss and shows it on the screen for choice of serve, side, receive. Also on the screen are areas for the ref to touch to enter a point made. The software produces a voice that announces the score,“ point,”“ side out,” etc. via a small wireless speaker that you place under the net in the middle of the court. The automated announcements from the speaker would potentially eliminate players being unable to hear the score being called by referees with soft voices. Is it loud enough for spectators to hear as well? We’ d like to see a test to get that answer.
The software only allows the referee to indicate the point for the team serving and shows which player should be serving and from which court. Say goodbye to the clips, clothespins and whatever other reminders we use to keep track of first or second scorer. Since the system automatically switches the serving team display after calling a side out, it seems that it would eliminate the error of forgetting to manually turn over the score sheet that results in entering points for the wrong team.
There’ s more functionality to this potential product, and you can check it out on the Facebook page( www. facebook. com / ScoreitHawsit). You can see a rudimentary demo of ScoreIt Remote – Pickleball Edition there as well. Brent promises a more robust web presence soon, but this does the job for now.
What’ s still missing to make this a complete package? Brent has to work the interface with Pickleball Tournaments. com so that the tournament software will download each match remotely and wirelessly to the ScoreIt system. Then the ScoreIt system needs to be able to upload the results of the match wirelessly back to the Pickleball Tournaments system. No more running scoresheets back to the scorer’ s table for manual input of match results. If we can eliminate one occasion where a referee accidentally indicates the winning scores against the wrong team, we can save hours in system downtime while trying to recover in a tournament. Sounds good to us, since we’ ve seen that happen at a couple of different tournaments, causing much hair pulling on the part of tournament officials.
And what’ s the benefit for our referees? If we reduce the attention that must be paid to managing the paper scoresheet with its clips and strokes for scores at side outs, the referee should have more time for the real work – keeping an eye out for foot faults and other rules infractions, managing the pace of the game, arbitrating disputes and all the rest, which keep tournament matches running smoothly.
We’ re excited to see how this product, or any others like it, can improve the tournament experience for players, referees, spectators and tournament staff. The projected price for hardware and software doesn’ t seem to be outlandish to us.... maybe $ 150-250 per court at the high end, and, as Brent said to us, it may be less.
A thorough standardized process and a new, interesting automated product – what do you think about each of these approaches? •
Irene Fraties is Director of Training for the Bend Pickleball Club and a Central Oregon USAPA District Ambassador. A former USAPA Board member and editor of the USAPA e-newsletter, she conducts referee training, manages referee resources at tournaments, and participates in player rating, skills training and youth outreach. She’ s a principal in Pickleball. biz, an information resource for pickleball clubs and players.
JANUARY 2016 | MAGAZINE 51