The Southern Nevada Officials Association
Summer, 2011 Newsletter

NIAA Meetings: Earlier this month Commissioner Marc Ratner and SNOA President Vince Kristosik traveled to Reno to attend the annual Commissioners/Presidents meeting held at the NIAA office. NIAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine gave a “state of the state address”, sharing his thoughts on where the NIAA is headed in light of all the budgetary realities facing our member schools and including how he sees our sanctioned officials associations in Nevada being affected. At this meeting it was voted upon that there will be another game fee “freeze” for the 2011-12 school year. All official’s fees will remain the same as they were this past school year. The travel mileage, which is tied into the state travel mileage rate, will increase to $.51 (up from $.50) and the riders rate to $.19 (up from $.18.5). NIAA Director Jay Beesemyer also discussed the State Championship official assignments.   Mr. Beesemyer stated it is incumbent upon the NIAA to reduce expenditures in 2011-2012 by 10%. A reduction in travel costs would most likely be targeted for the upcoming school year.


For more information from this recent meeting you can view the meeting minutes on our website www.snoaofficials.com. You must click on the Board of Control tab on the homepage and under Marc Ratners information you must click on June 3rd, then click on the go tab.


Board of Control Scholarship Winners: Recently the SNOA Scholarship Committee met and awarded five scholarships to local graduating high school seniors that are either a current member of SNOA or have a parent that is a current member of SNOA. Each scholarship awarded was $800.00 each. The winners of the 2011 SNOA Board of Control Scholarships were:


Ryan Fong
Jackie Foutz
Amanda JoAnn Guerrero
Brittany Ipson
Joanna Ross


The SNOA would like to thank all of the individuals that applied for the scholarships and wish everyone the best of luck as they pursue their educational goals.


More Scholarships: The SNOA Board of Control also awarded the following individuals scholarships to attend an official’s camp this summer in their respective sports. They are as follows:


Terry Tait/Vince Consul Football Scholarship: Mike Coyle and Kelly Garfield


Quintin Dailey/Markus Gallant Basketball Scholarship: Vernon Berry, John Biglow, Chris Franco, Wally Gutierrez and Sonya Haynes.


Referee Magazine: In the May edition of Referee Magazines NASO-On Newsletter that goes out to sports associations’ leaders nation wide, President Vince Kristosik appeared in a full page article and was interviewed on the importance of officials camps and their benefits in regards to an association. Mr. Kristosik discussed our football and basketball official’s camps and how they have helped with the evaluation process of those who have attended those camps. Kristosik also discussed the importance of attending official’s camps in any sports where they are offered.


SNOA Expanding Its Horizons: SNOA is in the final stages of a contract in which the association will be supplying officials for the World Kickball Championships which will be held in Las Vegas Columbus Day Weekend which will be October 7-9. This will be the first time SNOA has ventured into the kickball world and we are looking for officials who want to make some money and have some fun. If you are interested in expanding your officiating horizons a future email will be sent out with more details concerning this event in October.


Recent Passings: SNOA recently lost two former members of our officiating family.
Chris Stewart lived in Mesquite, Nevada and made the trip in to Vegas weekly for games and meetings. Chris officiated volleyball, basketball and softball for the association before retiring a few years back.
Bill Johnson also recently passed away and was a longtime scorer and timer for the association.


Congratulations: SNOA would like to congratulate Mike Freese, Betsy Reed and Peter Simonds. All three SNOA Track and Field members were selected to officiate at the World Masters' Championships, which will be held in Sacramento, CA on July 6-17.  This is an important international competition, which is a few steps below the level of the Olympic Games. Good luck to all three individuals!


Congratulations are also in order to basketball official Kent Johnson and baseball umpires Kelly Gonzales and Joe Burleson who were all selected and worked the NCAA Division 1 National Championship postseason tournaments in their respective sports.


Moving: SNOA would like to wish the best to SNOA swimming member Cheryl Pearson and thank her for her time with the association. Cheryl will be leaving Las Vegas and relocating to St. Paul, Minnesota. Cheryl has been on the swimming board the last few years and has also served as our swimming assignor. Good luck on your move Cheryl and we hope you have invested in some really warm clothes for the winter.


NFHS Testing Changes: Beginning with the next school year, Part 1 and Part 2 NFHS exams will only be available electronically. On-Line examinations may be accessed either through the NFHS or Arbiter Sports platforms. No more paper exams and keys will be provided from the NFHS for testing purposes. Nevada is a 100% NFHS state which means that all members of all sports associations in Nevada belong to the NFHS which also provides us our insurance. The NFHS on-line testing will be free of charge to all sports officials in the state of Nevada because of Nevada being a 100% NFHS state.


Officiating Numbers Drop in Nevada: The number of registered officials in the state of Nevada has seen a decline of officials since the 2008-09 school year. In 2008-09, the NIAA had 1749 total registered officials in the state of Nevada. That number has now decreased to 1513 which was the number of NIAA registered officials for the 2010-11 school year. The number of SNOA registered officials has also seen a slight decrease over the last year. During the 2009-10 SNOA had 991 registered officials and this year SNOA had 940 total registered officials. So contrary to belief that the number of officials has drastically increased due to economy, the number of officials statewide has gradually decreased over the last two years.


Business Opportunities: The SNOA Board of Control will be finalizing plans sometime this summer in which members can advertise their businesses on the SNOA website. Look for a future email which will outline the cost of the advertising and other important details.


Spring State Officials: Congratulations to the following SNOA members that were selected to officiate a state championship game in their respective sport.


Baseball: (4A) Tim Resch and Phil Schlosser, (3A) Mike Donnelly, (2A) Joel Ritchie, (1A) Rich Coll


Softball: (4A) Vyron Wallace and Vince Kristosik, (4A if game) David Shea and Randy Aveline, (3A) Joe Leigh, (2A) Richard Mazur, (1A) Nathan Sterling Jr. and Steve Schrader.


Swimming and Diving: Gary Boyd, Patricia Habermas, Kathy Guerrero, Cheryl Pearson, Greg Wise

Track and Field: Peter Simonds, Douglas Graham, Samuel Rudder, Patricia Blackard, Tyrone Freeman, Kyle Hindsman, Karen Galindo, Richard Welch, Claud McKinney, David Moore, Hugh Jones, Keith Lucas, Ronald Crawford, Betsy Reed, John Nowicki, Christine Herold, Mike Freese, Don Kiernan Jr, Alice Ferguson, Bruce Momsen


Volleyball: Donald Orvis, Sorin Oancea, Richard Rasmussen, Danny Sanchez


Outside Inn: SNOA would like to thank the Outside Inn for hosting the state tournament socials for basketball, baseball and softball this year. These annual socials gathered officials in these respective sports from all around Nevada as food and drinks were provided for state tournament officials from the SNOA, the Northern Nevada Officials Association and the North Eastern Nevada Officials Association. The individual sport boards from these SNOA sports provided the funds for these socials.

In Closing: The Southern Nevada Officials Association would like to thank all of our members for their time and dedication given to the association this past school year. Please continue to check the SNOA website for all upcoming meeting dates and times for the 2011-12 school year. Have a safe and enjoyable summer and remember to stay in the rulebooks as we look forward to another great school year ahead!
 

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