Home » Misc » How much do high school basketball referees make per game
How much do high school basketball referees make per game
How Much Does a High School Basketball Referee Make?
Being a referee is largely a thankless job. Not only are you bound to make mistakes from time to time, but it’s tough to keep up with live play. You’re also going to get yelled at by both players and fans. That gets even tougher when you’re trying to work at the high school level.
I am a basketball fan who has nearly three decades of experience both watching and playing the game. My own knowledge of the sport, backed up by extensive research of referees, allowed me to properly cover each and every section outlined below.
Here, I will look at the average salary of high school basketball referees, as well as how much those at higher levels get paid. I will then take those salaries and compare them to similar sports in order to discuss, not just income, but where refs fit into basketball as a whole.
Read on to learn more!
What’s the Salary?
Before getting into anything else, we must first answer the question at hand: how much do high school basketball referees make? Truth is, it depends. Unlike other jobs where you have a fixed salary, pay differs for high school refs depending on where they are and their officiating level.
For instance, in San Diego, California referees get around $67 a game. That’s pretty solid for a part-time gig, and it can go up with experience. However, in Santa Cruz, California, the spread is a much wider (and much less stable) $30 to $63 per game based on your level.
The lowest high school referee salary in America is in Louisiana, where referees get just an average of $31 per game. Mississippi is the next lowest, paying out their refs around $40 on average.
In addition to those fluctuations, there’s also the issue of different pay at different levels. While some referees get the same throughout their county, many schools will have higher dollar amounts for varsity referees as opposed to those working with JV or freshman games.
That gap isn’t typically huge, but even ten or so dollars a game can really start to add up over the course of an entire season.
Are Higher Levels Paid More?
To look at high school salaries in context, you need to study how much refs make at all levels. At the end of the day, it’s more of a fun side hustle than a steady job. The money can add up, but it’s never going to supplement a real income. That’s not true of college and NBA refs.
Those who officiate Division 3 games, the lowest level you can ref in college, make roughly $135 per game. That then goes way up to $700 a game for the ones working in Division 1. Not only that, but they also receive accommodations, which high school referees do not get.
Of course, that then extends even further in the NBA. Those referees, working with the top athletes on a national stage, easily make six figures a season. In fact, the highest paid ones get about $400,000 or more a year.
Looking at the above numbers, it’s easy to see why most high school refs do it for a general love of basketball and the game rather than as a pure job. In some places, it can get to that level, but those are rare fringe cases rather than the norm.
What Do Other High School Referees Make?
For even more context on basketball referees, it’s also important to look at the two other popular high school sports (football and baseball) and see what they make.
As with basketball, officiators and umpires get different pay depending on their own personal history as well as what level they’re referring. However, looking at general numbers, the pay does fluctuate compared to basketball quite a bit.
For example, high school football officials can earn as low as $40 a game, to as much as $200. They can get paid for travel as well. Umpires, on the other hand, can earn anywhere between $60 and $90, with the ceiling going a bit higher if they’re working with traveling teams.
That shows that, no matter how you cut it, being a high school basketball referee is definitely the toughest job in the entire bunch.
FAQs
Here are some questions you might have about the topic, which I’ll answer briefly below.
Is Referring a Full-Time Job?
Though the position doesn’t pay enough at lower levels to act as a true income, it can definitely be a full-time job for those who do it at the college or professional level.
Which Basketball Referee Makes the Most Money?
Any of the top NBA refs, including Finals officials like James Capers, are the sport’s top earners. They typically pull in mid six figures a year for their work with the league.
Where Do High School Referees Make the Most?
No state pays more to high school referees than California. Even with the discrepancies between counties, those in the Golden State make more on average than anywhere else.
How Do You Become a High School Ref?
To become a certified referee you need to go through an official approval process. That includes having a high school diploma and then passing a written test to show you have deep knowledge and understanding of the sport.
Final Words
Being a high school basketball referee is far from lucrative. It can also lead to working odd hours and cause you to travel long distances without much reward. As such, those that do it simply do it because they enjoy being around or involved with the sport.
There’s nothing wrong with loving the game, nor is there anything wrong with earning some extra money doing so. It can also serve as a stepping stone to greater opportunities down the line. You have to put up with a lot, but for some, that’s part of the journey.
High School Basketball Referee's Salary
Growth Trends for Related Jobs
Leonard Dozier
•
Updated January 07, 2019
South_agency/E+/GettyImages
Whether officiating professional or amateur sports, referees are usually paid a salary — base or per game. However, since salaries are usually low for high school athletics, referees have other full-time jobs that give them the flexibility to officiate games on a part -time basis. High school basketball referees normally work in pairs and are responsible for ensuring that the rules of the game are enforced.
Average Salary
Simplyhired.com states that the average yearly salary for high school basketball referees is $22,000 as of 2011. In comparison, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) states that the median yearly salary for umpires, referees and related workers is approximately $23,000 as of 2008.
By the Game
High school basketball referees may work several games a week and may pick up considerable extra income. In San Diego, California, referees earn approximately $67 per game and may work as many as four games per week. In Santa Cruz County in California high school basketball referees may earn between $30 and $63 per game.
Lowest Salaries
In a February 2011 article for Bayou Preps, a Louisiana-based newspaper, Chris Singleton cites the complaints by high school basketball referees in the state during the Louisiana High School Athletic Association convention. According to the article, high school referees in the state earned the lowest per game salary in the nation at $31 per game. Referees in Mississippi earned the next lowest salaries at $40 per game. The national average, according to the newspaper, is $69 per game.
By Comparison
While varsity basketball games are typically the most lucrative for officials — $50 to $75 per game, basketball referees on the collegiate and pro level earn considerably higher salaries. Referees who work Division 3 college games earn approximately $135 per game while those working Division 1 games earn as much as $700 per game. High school basketball referees drive to their games and must pay for the cost of gas. In contrast, referees working Division 1 college games receive hotel and flight accommodations. National Basketball Association referees make six-figure incomes with top referees earning as much as $400,000 annually.
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Athletes, Coaches, Umpires and Related Workers
Simply Hired: Average High School Basketball Referee Salaries
USA Today; Basketball Officials in Louisiana Stop Work in Pay Dispute; Raymong Partsch; February 2011
NCT; Prep Basketball: Officially Crazy. ..; Greg Ball, February 2009
Santa Cruz County Basketball Officials Association Website
Writer Bio
Leonard Dozier is a freelance writer based in southern New Jersey and New York. His film and sports columns have been published by "Casino Connection Magazine" and Trev Rogers sports respectively. A prolific and extremely versatile writer, he is an ASCAP songwriter and has written screenplays and stage plays registered with the Writer's Guild of America.
Photo Credits
South_agency/E+/GettyImages
Sports professions. PartⅠ-Referee Edition II "Basketball referee
Due to the rapid development of basketball, the position of an arbitrator in this game, and especially a qualified master of his craft, is always in demand. If you want to know more about the profession, read the article!
Small introduction
Knowing how to play basketball is good, but in order to understand and understand all the nuances of the game, you need to go to the basketball referee school. Only there you can learn, and in the future, correctly perceive the referee's gestures, as well as look at the game with their independent eyes. At the same time, basketball will cease to be a game of a beloved and someone else's team, words of praise for the work done will be replaced by outbursts of anger and booing of fans, before your eyes there will be not a ring into which you need to throw the ball, but a set of basketball laws, from where one by one you need to draw out the appropriate rule for a particular situation on the parquet, and it takes years for this process to become automatic. practice and constant training.
How to apply for an arbitrator position?
At the moment there are many basketball refereeing schools, the doors of which are open to everyone and fans of this sport. First of all, this is due to the lack of personnel in the globally growing game. It is best to start your career with 15-16 years old . You can later, but then it will be difficult to gain the necessary experience. FIBA has established a limit for qualifying as an international referee under 35 years of age. Although the age of some basketball referees exceeds 50 However, it is better to start early for a successful career.
In order to take part in refereeing city and regional championships, you need to have a referee license. It is issued for one year and after successfully passing the basketball rules test and the Metronome general physical fitness test.
Where does a career start?
Talented personnel in basketball are required everywhere and there are practically no problems with employment. But you will have to develop your abilities first from judging children's, youth, and then adult city competitions. With an increase in the amount of accumulated experience, the council of the regional federation on a competitive basis can recommend for the championships of the regional level. Aphorism "Training hard, fighting easy" applies to a basketball referee as it should be. After all, the weaker the level of the game, the more difficult it is to judge. It's all about preparation - a less technically savvy athlete allows more marriage - hence there are more violations. Only daily work on yourself: studying the rules, consulting and discussing controversial and interesting points in the game with other referees, can give you a chance to get into such leagues as VTB and FIBA . There is a lot of methodological material on the Internet for this, various video lessons, recordings from referee seminars.
Basketball referee salary!
Hmm... If we take the basketball federations of Ukraine and Russia, then this issue is not so simple. The bottom line is that the referee's salary should be paid by the state association, but in fact the money comes to him from the clubs participating in the championship. In this regard, the arbitrators have no social. packages and pension, as such. And the fees themselves remain in the shadows. Hence the question: how honest are the referees, whose salary depends on the teams?
Salary of the Chief Referee of the Ukrainian Super League - 800 dollars per match.
The salary of the chief referee of the European League - 500 dollars per match.
In NBA everything is much simpler, more transparent, and the amounts are more impressive:
• the contract of the novice referee is 200 thousand dollars a year;
• The contract of senior arbitrators with experience reaches 550 thousand dollars per year.
Per game playoff referee in NBA can receive from 4,500 to 25,000 dollars, it all depends on the stage of the match in the tournament - from the first to the final.
Nuances of this profession
If you have reached the level of a professional and refereeing has ceased to be a hobby, then you probably already know how basketball referees live. And if only at the beginning of your career path, then this spoiler is for you.
Referees spend most of their lives away from home. About 3.5 weeks a month they take trips from city to city, from hall to hall. During this time, they manage to serve from 12 to 15 basketball games. It's also interesting to know that referees rarely sleep at night. After the game, they sort out mistakes and unclear situations, and many communicate with other referees, discussing each other's matches. Referees sleep more during the daytime and get up a couple of hours before the game. A true professional refereeing a match always struggles with doubts about the correctness of his refereeing. And only after reviewing the game, drawing conclusions and sorting out the mistakes, he can sleep peacefully. You can't always be right, but you can strive for it!
Basketball referee - conductor with a cool head
Why did I choose this title for the article? The answer is simple. In the hall where the basketball game takes place, the stands are located in close proximity to the site, which does not impress much in size. And the judge hears everything that the audience shouts. Therefore, the pressure on the referee is higher than anywhere else. But the truth remains that no matter how loud the indignant cries around are, the referee on the floor makes the right decisions a thousand times more often than he makes mistakes. And guided by this, a true professional will turn all the appeals of the public into white noise, and the indignation of the players and coaches into elements of silent cinema.
In conclusion, I will quote the words of one basketball referee:
"A mistake does not turn me into an amateur, does not make me a layman. It only means that I am human."
baker-news
Basketball according to the rules
From August 5 to 7, a training and methodological seminar on basketball for referees and commissioners of the Siberian Federal District was held in Barnaul on the topic “Implementing the benefits of triple refereeing”. The organizers were the Russian Basketball Federation, FIBA-Europe, the Regional Sports Administration and the Basketball Federation of the Altai Territory.
The most notable figure at the seminar, without a doubt, is Sergey Fomin, Chairman of the RBF Referee Committee, member of the FIBA-Europe Technical Commission. Fomin was only 29 years old when he was awarded the title of judge of the international category. At that time, he was one of the youngest "international" arbitrators in Europe... However, the regalia of Sergei Gennadievich can be listed for a long time. It is important that for all his titles, he is also a very interesting conversationalist. Friends jokingly say about him: Fomin speaks once a day - he starts in the morning, finishes in the evening. Indeed, the one-hour press conference of the Sensei of the refereeing basketball corps of Russia flew by in a flash. Below is the most interesting.
About the benefits of knowledge
- This work under the program of the Russian Basketball Federation has been going on for the sixth year. We are now very actively working with the regions. Not even because the number of referees from the regions serving basketball matches has decreased recently (by the way, there are similar problems in other team sports). There are objective and subjective factors for this. For two decades, there was no targeted policy for the training of basketball referees. For a long time we did nothing in terms of switching to professional refereeing. We need to catch up, and very actively.
We started with the fact that five years ago, on the initiative of the RFB, we created nine educational and methodological centers: seven in the federal districts plus Moscow and St. Petersburg. They also opened a center in Stavropol, since the North Caucasus Federal District was formed. Now we are going to those regions where basketball exists not only on paper. Where there are living people, ideas and deeds. Regardless of the status of the team. The main thing is that local people should be interested in the development of this game. Because, as you perfectly understand, there will be no game without competent refereeing.
Second moment. One of the painful topics is the lack of qualified coaching staff, in particular, in children's and youth basketball. Most coaches working with the growing shift do not know the rules thoroughly. But you can't teach a player without this! Our experts state that foreign players are better equipped technically than the Russians. And this also happens because foreign coaches are thoroughly familiar with all the nuances of the basketball rules, they know what a player can do on the court and what not. Look at Lithuanian or Serbian youths - the technical elements they perform can be filmed and used as a teaching aid. What can we say about children's specialists, if even in league games some coaches still argue on which step the foul was made - the first or second, although for eight years now the rules have been written about the "throwing phase"!
About the format of working with regions
- We have several of them. In addition to the educational and methodological seminar, which is held for the first time in Altai, we are opening a methodological judicial office here. I believe that at least two hundred teachers and physical education teachers will fall into the sphere of interest of this method room. After all, they need to competently hold basketball competitions at school, university, in the countryside and in the city. Add to this young people from the student environment who are not destined to become professional players, but who love basketball. For these guys, at the end of the year, we will hold a modern basketball school. Well-known specialists will come to Barnaul. We attract foreign specialists to this school from Serbia, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, where youth basketball is well developed. In Barnaul, we intend to open a branch of the All-Russian College of Basketball Referees. This is a public association, which today includes 790 basketball referees and commissioners of Russia.
What will all these steps bring to the Altai Territory? And the fact that in the future all basketball competitions will be held according to the rules of basketball. What is very important! Believe me, without this, the prestige of basketball will never be raised.
About Altai judges
- On a serious level, apart from Biychan Andrey Borodkin, no one else works in the region. He is a very qualified and experienced referee, officiating matches in the Women's Premier League and Men's Super League. But according to the RSE regulations, matches can be judged up to 50 years. Borodkin is now 48. So, - and we will talk about this with the leadership of the Altai Basketball Federation - we need to train at least ten young competent referees for the region in the shortest possible time, in two or three years, capable of working at the major league level. And Borodkin, after the end of his refereeing career, I hope, will make a good commissioner. He has enough work. In Siberia - just think about it! - for seven large subjects of the federation, there was one commissioner from Omsk who met the age criterion. Six commissars have already crossed the age limit of 70 years.
About professionalism
- There are no judges who do not make mistakes. The arbiter can progress all the time while he is judging. His class directly depends on how he works on himself and on psychological stability. I have not yet seen a single team that, after losing, would not say something critical to the referees. From the banal "the judges screwed up again" to tirades that go beyond civilized communication. I'm not talking about the press that your fellow journalists are able to organize. We recently created an integrated scientific team under the refereeing committee of the RFB, which would help in the selection of referees for work, starting with the major league. The scientific team will test these candidates precisely for the presence of psychological stability. Passed successfully - work, no - sorry, this cross is not for you. This is how they do it in the NBA, Spain, Italy.
We are now slowly talking about professional judging. Those who reduce this topic to wages alone are profoundly wrong. For a whole year, at my personal request, the former director of the NBA refereeing department, 61-year-old Ronnie Nunn, who has 8 seasons in the NBA as a player and 19 seasons as a referee, will work on our committee. Ronnie will oversee the development of professional refereeing.
In October, another "whistle legend" Tony Nunes, one of the three most popular referees in the history of the NBA, will arrive in Russia. A Mexican with a very modest height for our game - 164 centimeters. He has a 40-minute presentation made up of photographs taken during his time as a judge. There is a unique shot there, when Nunez is in such a high jump ( gestures over the table. — Approx. by the author ) fouls the great Michael Jordan, stunned by surprise. Nunez pokes a hefty Jordan in the heart, and Michael blocks his hand in surprise. Tony is an example of how to plow in basketball. When I asked how much time he spent on self-training, he blurted out: "All year round!" Tony is 69 years old and every day he devotes two hours to physical training. Being a professional is a way of life, not just a high salary and insurance. This is lost time for personal life, family troubles and other "production costs".
We need to improve the quality of refereeing, and this is a very broad topic. An arbitrator at work must be perfect in everything, starting with the decisions made and ending with his appearance. Because people come to enjoy a quality spectacle: the game, the surroundings around it, the beautiful uniforms of the teams, the support group, the hall (the hall you have in Barnaul is wonderful) and - the judge!
About the chances of the national team
- EuroBasket probably surpasses both the World Championship and the Olympic Games in terms of the intensity of the struggle and the composition of the participants. There is a more even mix here. In addition, now the level of European basketball has leveled off a lot. I agree that Spain looks like a clear leader in composition. But remember the European Championship in Poland, where Spain looked very pale in all games except the last three. She then barely left the subgroup. It is not certain that Spain will be able to repeat this risky path. I recently returned from Lithuania and saw how her team was training. The Lithuanians are in a crazy mood and have an optimal line-up - now Sarunas Jasikevicius will also arrive. Head coach Kestutis Kemzura fully manages the team - you can see how his authority has strengthened after the bronze medals of the World Championship. The third favorite is France. The Serbs have not gone away from the leading roles in Europe - they have such young people! Add Croatia to this. It will be difficult for us from the very beginning - the games with Ukraine and Georgia will not be passable.
Our team is good and diverse. David Bluth, a top-notch coach, rightly says, “We will try to play tactically flexible, using various defensive formations.” The main thing is that the guys do not have injuries, that Vitya Khryapa quickly gets in shape and that we quickly get involved in the tournament, without buildup. You have to fight in every match.
I think, according to how our guys played the previous European Championship and how confident they looked at the World Championship in Turkey without leaders, they should play well in Lithuania.
In some places, it can get to that level, but those are rare fringe cases rather than the norm.
It can also lead to working odd hours and cause you to travel long distances without much reward. As such, those that do it simply do it because they enjoy being around or involved with the sport.
High school basketball referees normally work in pairs and are responsible for ensuring that the rules of the game are enforced.
According to the article, high school referees in the state earned the lowest per game salary in the nation at $31 per game. Referees in Mississippi earned the next lowest salaries at $40 per game. The national average, according to the newspaper, is $69 per game.
..; Greg Ball, February 2009 
Only there you can learn, and in the future, correctly perceive the referee's gestures, as well as look at the game with their independent eyes. At the same time, basketball will cease to be a game of a beloved and someone else's team, words of praise for the work done will be replaced by outbursts of anger and booing of fans, before your eyes there will be not a ring into which you need to throw the ball, but a set of basketball laws, from where one by one you need to draw out the appropriate rule for a particular situation on the parquet, and it takes years for this process to become automatic. practice and constant training. 
FIBA has established a limit for qualifying as an international referee under 35 years of age. Although the age of some basketball referees exceeds 50 However, it is better to start early for a successful career. 
After all, the weaker the level of the game, the more difficult it is to judge. It's all about preparation - a less technically savvy athlete allows more marriage - hence there are more violations. Only daily work on yourself: studying the rules, consulting and discussing controversial and interesting points in the game with other referees, can give you a chance to get into such leagues as VTB and FIBA . There is a lot of methodological material on the Internet for this, various video lessons, recordings from referee seminars. 
During this time, they manage to serve from 12 to 15 basketball games. It's also interesting to know that referees rarely sleep at night. After the game, they sort out mistakes and unclear situations, and many communicate with other referees, discussing each other's matches. Referees sleep more during the daytime and get up a couple of hours before the game. A true professional refereeing a match always struggles with doubts about the correctness of his refereeing. And only after reviewing the game, drawing conclusions and sorting out the mistakes, he can sleep peacefully. You can't always be right, but you can strive for it! 
But the truth remains that no matter how loud the indignant cries around are, the referee on the floor makes the right decisions a thousand times more often than he makes mistakes. And guided by this, a true professional will turn all the appeals of the public into white noise, and the indignation of the players and coaches into elements of silent cinema. 
There are objective and subjective factors for this. For two decades, there was no targeted policy for the training of basketball referees. For a long time we did nothing in terms of switching to professional refereeing. We need to catch up, and very actively. 
Most coaches working with the growing shift do not know the rules thoroughly. But you can't teach a player without this! Our experts state that foreign players are better equipped technically than the Russians. And this also happens because foreign coaches are thoroughly familiar with all the nuances of the basketball rules, they know what a player can do on the court and what not. Look at Lithuanian or Serbian youths - the technical elements they perform can be filmed and used as a teaching aid. What can we say about children's specialists, if even in league games some coaches still argue on which step the foul was made - the first or second, although for eight years now the rules have been written about the "throwing phase"! 
After all, they need to competently hold basketball competitions at school, university, in the countryside and in the city. Add to this young people from the student environment who are not destined to become professional players, but who love basketball. For these guys, at the end of the year, we will hold a modern basketball school. Well-known specialists will come to Barnaul. We attract foreign specialists to this school from Serbia, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, where youth basketball is well developed. In Barnaul, we intend to open a branch of the All-Russian College of Basketball Referees. This is a public association, which today includes 790 basketball referees and commissioners of Russia. 
He is a very qualified and experienced referee, officiating matches in the Women's Premier League and Men's Super League. But according to the RSE regulations, matches can be judged up to 50 years. Borodkin is now 48. So, - and we will talk about this with the leadership of the Altai Basketball Federation - we need to train at least ten young competent referees for the region in the shortest possible time, in two or three years, capable of working at the major league level. And Borodkin, after the end of his refereeing career, I hope, will make a good commissioner. He has enough work. In Siberia - just think about it! - for seven large subjects of the federation, there was one commissioner from Omsk who met the age criterion. Six commissars have already crossed the age limit of 70 years. 
I have not yet seen a single team that, after losing, would not say something critical to the referees. From the banal "the judges screwed up again" to tirades that go beyond civilized communication. I'm not talking about the press that your fellow journalists are able to organize. We recently created an integrated scientific team under the refereeing committee of the RFB, which would help in the selection of referees for work, starting with the major league. The scientific team will test these candidates precisely for the presence of psychological stability. Passed successfully - work, no - sorry, this cross is not for you. This is how they do it in the NBA, Spain, Italy. 
Ronnie will oversee the development of professional refereeing. 
I recently returned from Lithuania and saw how her team was training. The Lithuanians are in a crazy mood and have an optimal line-up - now Sarunas Jasikevicius will also arrive. Head coach Kestutis Kemzura fully manages the team - you can see how his authority has strengthened after the bronze medals of the World Championship. The third favorite is France. The Serbs have not gone away from the leading roles in Europe - they have such young people! Add Croatia to this. It will be difficult for us from the very beginning - the games with Ukraine and Georgia will not be passable. 
