IAABO officials prepare for winter sports season

High school basketball referees prepare for changes

Alone what is happening with sports during the pandemic.

But what about the refs...newschannel 2's chelsea sherrod talks about what officials are doing to get ready for a possible winter sports season.

When you think about the return of high school sports who comes to mind first?

Usually the athletes, then the coaches, then team personnel...but what about the men and women in stripes?

On monday the iaabo #51 training for the basketball season began as it normally would.

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None .

None lee pavlot: the training is not really at this time going to be any different.

As i've said to the officials, we watn to be ready to go when the season does start.

The part that we're just - the unknown factorright o the startingf the season?curree publ high school hletic association has pushed back the start date of the high school winter sports season to november 30, two weeks later than its original start date of november 16.

The referees that you're used to seeing run up and down a basketball court may not look the same.

Lee pavlot: they are going to have to wear face masks at least duing pregames, at least during close contact times.

We just haven't really made a decision on during he game because it's quite difficult.

Same thing with whistles.

There's an itemn some of theplag blown because of the possibly - saliva being sprayed.

So, we're looking at electronic whistles.

There's alos right now, some of the manufacturers have shields that you can put over a whistle.

So all of these are possibilities.

The decisions haven't been made yet.

According to pavlot, new york state has approved the use of electronic whistles.

Just like the fall sports season, districts and sections can choose to opt-out.

A 12 to 16 game regular season for officials could become alot less.

Lee pavlot: i mean, our officials want to work the games.

It's a good chance that the officials won't have the saem number of games that they have been used to.

That's a very likely possibilty.

Also, with it being the number of officials we have, we have to distribute the games among all the officials, too.

Despite the fluidity of the winter sports season, pavlot says referees will be ready.

Lee pavlot: and i said, one of my lines was: let's hope for the best.

We will be prepared for the season.

I'm chelsea sherrod reporting for newschannel 2.

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