August, 2007: The new referee recruiting brochures are printed. If any officials can help in distributing them, please contact Mike DeLong and he will get you some. The Snohomish County Boys and Girls Club is hosting their annual 3-on-3 tournament at the Tulalip Casino on August 11 and 12. Officials needed. Please contact Kevin Erickson.

July, 2007: There are lots of off-season leagues and tournaments available for anyone wanting to ref in the summer. Give Dan Taylor a call at (425) 343-4149. If you do some summer ball, don't just go through the motions. Identify something to work on every game so you improve.

June, 2007: Anyone interested in attending the WOA Annual Conference should contact a board member. The conference will be held on August 10 and 11 at the Yakima Convention Center in Yakima Washington.

May, 2007: Check the Stripe Zone Website for a list of referee camps that are available this summer.

April, 2007: The WOA has announced that they will no longer certify 3-person camps. 3-person certification (to make an official eligible to referee at a state tournament) will now be a one-day seminar. More details to come.

March, 2007: The SCBOWBO post-season banquet is set for Monday, March 5 at 6:30 PM. It will be held at the Old Spaghetti Factory Restaurant in Lynnwood.

February, 2007: STATE TOURNAMENT ASSIGNMENTS: Moe Kon - 4A (Tacoma: Feb 28 - March 3) Kevin Erickson - 3A (Seattle: March 7 to 10) Trent Harwood - 2A (Tacoma: March 7 to 10) Romeo Escalona - 1B (Yakima: Feb 21 to 24)

January, 2007: The WOA has extended the deadline to complete the Online Interpreter's Clinic to Jan 15, 2007. We still have officials who have failed to complete it. Do it now.

December, 2006: Our November snowstorm has now passed and our usual rain has returned. Many games were postponed but now the season is in full swing. Enjoy your games.

November, 2006: Meetings have started and games are kicking off. New officials need to make sure that the assignors have entered them in Arbiter. All officials need to take the online test and online interpreter's clinic ASAP.

October, 2006: SCBOA and SCBOWBO have been conducting joint training sessions for new officials and officials with one year of experience. There are two sessions remaining - Sunday, October 8 and Saturday October 14. Mountlake Terrace High School from 9 AM to 11 AM

September, 2006: The first general meeting is set for October 30. It will be a joint meeting with the boys association (SCBOA).

August, 2006: Summer board meetings have begun. If you have any concerns, comments, suggestions or ideas, get them to an SCBOWBO board member ASAP.

July, 2006: The new SCBOWBO board of directors became active as of July 1. Ashley Thomas and Larry Kiger have departed while Duane Taylor and Trent Harwood are now board members.

June, 2006: There are many rec leagues and tournaments going on right now. Call or e-mail to Dan Taylor if you want to work some games.

May, 2006: A committee has been formed to determine how SCBOWBO and SCBOA can work together better next year to provide officiating services to the athletes of Snohomish County. Members of the committee include Larry Kiger, Pat Kaminske, Kevin Stride, Phillip James, Jason Bradley, Ashley Thomas and Jack Palmer.

April, 2006: Check the Stripe Zone Website for a list of referee camps that are available this summer. In addition, the Snohomish County Boys Basketball Officials Association (SCBOA), is hosting a 3-person camp at Stanwood H.S. Get more info at www.scboa.com

March, 2006: STATE TOURNAMENT ASSIGNMENTS: Moe Kon - 3A (Tacoma Dome - March 1 to 4) Trent Harwood - 1A (Yakima SunDome - March 1 to 4) Kevin Erickson - B (Spokane Arena - March 1 to 4) Tony Churlin - 4A (Tacoma Dome - March 8 to 11)

February, 2006: Glenn Dunbar, Jim Shaw and Gunther Hausmann have over 95 years of referee experience in SCBOWBO between the three of them!

January, 2006: The board of directors have announced that this year's referee party will be held at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Lynnwood on Monday, February 13.

December, 2005: The new gray ref shirts that we are allowed to wear this year are looking spiffy! Just remember that the entire crew has to all be wearing identical shirts and we are not allowed to wear them if either team has gray uniforms. Please notify your board of directors if any schools are not providing proper hospitality to us. You should be met by a gym manager upon your arrival at the gym and directed to a suitable changing area which has privacy, a hot shower, and secure storage.

November, 2005: We have LOTS of new officials this year (almost 30) thanks to the off-season efforts of Glenn Dunbar and his recruiting committee. Please make an effort to get to know them, make them feel comfortable and help them out. Below is a picture of just a few of them listening to Troy Moe and Greg Osborne at the 6PM apprentice meeting on Tuesday, November 1.

October, 2005: Both SCBOWBO and SCBOA will be assigning games "online" over the internet this coming season using an online program called Arbiter. It would be very helpful if you would get a little bit familiar with this program prior to the season. Contact your assignor to get info on how you can start getting your feet wet with this new program. It is not difficult at all, it will just take a few minutes to get used to it. This program is used by over 1,000 referee associations and is the "gold standard" in assigning programs. For those officials who do not have internet access, the assignor will still print your schedule and bring it to the next general meeting. However, it will be very beneficial to you and to the referees association if you can figure out a way to get regular internet access.

September, 2005: The season is coming up fast. As is always the case, we will lose a few officials from last year for a variety of reasons (relocation, going off to college, family committments etc.). It is a constant battle to keep our numbers up so that we don't have to overwork everyone too much. Please try to recruit a new official this year to join SCBOWBO and help us out. Have them contact Glenn Dunbar who is in charge of our off-season recruiting efforts.

August, 2005: SCBOWBO and SCBOA official, Paul Patterson, was named the WOA boys basketball official of the year for the 2004-2005 season!

July, 2005: Phillip James and Kevin Stride had a rather "adventurous trip" to basketball officials camp in Phoenix. While driving through Northern California, Phillip forgot to keep his eyes on the road and turned to see what Kevin was doing briefly. He lost control of the car, hit the guardrail twice, and did a 360-degree spin before ending up in the median of I-5. The guys were OK, but their transportation plans were derailed. After leaving their car at a repair shop, they managed to get a ride to a local airport and did manage to get to the camp on time (with much lighter wallets). When the camp director heard of their sad plight, he told their woeful story and passed a collection plate around to the other campers and collected almost $600.00 towards their expenses.

June, 2005: SCBOWBO official Blake Snow led his Edmonds Community College baseball team to the semi-finals of the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges Baseball Championships.

May, 2005: SCBOWBO official Don Sims is officiating in the IBL this season. The closest team to our area is in Tacoma. It is a very talented league with ex-college players. Check out the IBL website.

April, 2005: Check the Stripe Zone Website for a list of referee camps that are available this summer.

March, 2005: Congratulations to the officials who represented SCBOWBO at the state tournaments this year. They all did an excellent job and were a credit to our association: Pat Kaminske - 4A Romeo Escalona - 3A Ashley Thomas - 1A Tim Wheatley - B

February, 2005: Glenn Dunbar has been selected to be an evaluator at the "B" state tournament in Spokane on March 2 through 5. Gunther Hausmann has been selected to be an evaluator at the "3A" state tournament in Tacoma on March 2 through 5. It's district playoff time. Assignments are posted. Try to make it to a game and support our officials.

January, 2005: We had "three generations" of officials working a game when Gunther Hausmann, Steve Wirth and Phillip James reffed a recent game.

December, 2004: The season is in full swing. Three-person officiating is being implemented one night per week.

November, 2004: An SCBOWBO official, in the halloween spirit, delivers a technical foul to a trick-or-treater on October 31. Can you tell who the official is?

October, 2004: SCBOWO official (and financial advisor), Jim Shaw, is now selling referee equipment. Give him a call at 425-330-4766 and he'll gladly bring your order to our next meeting.

September, 2004: Congratulations to Scott Morris who has been offered (and accepted) a contract to work Division 3 women's college basketball games this season.

August, 2004: Congratulations to Glenn Dunbar who was honored with the WOA's "meritorious award" at the WOA annual meeting. Glenn has been officiating for SCBOWBO for more than 30 years, has been on the board of directors at least 3 times and has represented our association at state.

July, 2004: The 2004-2005 board of directors have already begun their summer meetings in planning for the season this fall. Board members are Ashley Thomas, Pat Kaminske, Larry Kiger, Jason Bradley, Tony Churlin and Troy Moe.

June, 2004: A record number of SCBOWBO officials attended summer referee camps this year, thanks in part to the WOA's requirement that 2005 state tournament officials attend a WOA 3-person camp. Some of the officials who attended camp are Pat Kaminske, Romeo Escalona, Kevin Erickson, Trent Harwood, Paul Patterson, Tim Wheatley, Tony Helf, Phillip James, Don McKinney and Mark Hedges.

June, 2004: Congratulations to one of our younger officials, Megan Warner. Megan was crowned as 2004-2005 Dairy Princess at the 49th annual Snohomish County Dairy Princess Coronation Banquet.

May, 2004: Bill Sieh, SCBOWBO and SCBOA official, was awarded with the "Pop of the Year" Award for Cascade High School at the Walsh-Platt Banquet. Congratulations Bill!

April, 2004: Congratulations to one of our referees, Jim Shaw, who was selected to work two semi-final games at the recent 3A/4A state softball tournament in Tacoma.

April, 2004: The WOA has announced that all 2004-05 state tournaments and district playoff games will be officiated by 3-person crews. More details to be announced after the summer WOA meetings on August 13-14. Selected regular season games will use 3-person mechanics as well. Individual varsity game fees will drop from $48.00 to $33.00.

April, 2004: State tournament allocations drop from 16 to 12 at each state tournament. That means that our association will only send 4 officials to state tournaments rather than the 6 that we sent in the past. Officials at the state tournaments will now work 2 games per day rather than one.

April, 2004: Scheduling of the games in the regular season that are 3-person will most likely change to a "back-to-back" format with the same three officials doing the JV game and the Varsity game. This will help alleviate the drop in game fees.