Coach / Admin FAQs

Welcome Coaches and Administrators.

We’ve assembled this page to respond to common questions we’ve received and to provide links to other important materials.  If you don’t find the information you are seeking, please feel free to contact us here.

Quick Links

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Spring league games:
    • IHSLA – Season schedules must be entered into the ArbiterSports site by the announced cutoff date, currently February 1st.  (Here is a short video showing how to enter games.)
    • IYLA – Season schedules must be entered into the ArbiterSports site by the announced cutoff date, currently March 1st.  (Here is a short video showing how to enter games.)
    • After the cutoff day(s), our Assignors will begin to place officials on your games.  Assignors must be notified of any changes to your schedule after the lockdown date, otherwise we cannot guarantee that officials will be available for your games.  Coaches, administrators, players, and parents are asked to remember that there is a shortage of officials throughout the state, including a critical shortage in the northern regions.  
  • Off-Season and non-league games:  Please refer to our Request For Officials form.

Most games are assigned through the ArbiterSports website and are accessible for review if you are registered as a team-, site-, or billing contact.  You also have the option to receive emails about assignments from ArbiterSports 3 days prior to game day.   Finally, ILOA policy instructs our officials to contact coaches 3-4 days before the contest to confirm times and locations.

In the event that your games are assigned outside of the ArbiterSports system, an ILOA Assignor will forward any relevant information to you directly.

If you are authorized as a site, billing or team contact, you may complete our Arbiter Access Request Form. On confirmation, our assignors will create a login for you and ArbiterSports will email details on how to access the system.

Once you have an ArbiterSports login, here is a short video on how to log in and enter games:   ArbiterSports Tutorial

  • Travel.  It’s an unfortunate fact that officials generally don’t favor driving long distances to games.  In years past we couldn’t find takers for assignments, which is why we eventually instituted the travel fee policy.  Even with travel fees we still sometimes struggle to get games covered. 
    SOLUTION:  Schedule multiple games to make it more worthwhile to travel.  Coordinate with other teams in your area so a single crew can cover your games and theirs on the same day.
  • Number of consecutive games.  Working a single game is also not viewed favorably by many.  We’ve avoided the girls’ lax practice of a premium for single games, but if officials continue to decline these contests it may raise the issue.
    SOLUTION:  Schedule multiple games, round robins, field-sharing.
  • Weekend game times.  During peak season, we typically need to assign most officials to multiple games on Saturdays and Sundays.  Often this requires traveling between different sites.   Unfortunately, many teams schedule their games around the same time – usually between 12 and 2 – which not only strains our ability to assign full crews, but also our ability to match experience to the competition.
    SOLUTION:  Consider morning, late afternoon or evening games.

Here is our current Fee Schedule.  Payment is generally expected at game time.  We realize, however, that each program processes payments in their own way.  For this reason ILOA has constructed a Payment and Collections Policy so that programs and officials can operate within a reasonable time frame.  For programs interested in making electronic payments,  see our ArbiterPay FAQ.

The ILOA cancellation policy is included here.

ILOA wants and needs feedback to improve the quality of our officials.  To that end, we have implemented the following ways for Head Coaches to submit observations and concerns regarding officials working their games:

Officials Evaluation System for Head Coaches
We utilize an add-on module in ArbiterSports, that is accessible through Coaches’ regular login credentials.  (A reminder is sent automatically by Arbiter.)  The evaluation consists of a handful of questions on each official, with space for optional comments.  ILOA officers and assigners review these submissions routinely and are notified immediately when a rating falls below an acceptable level.  Our goal is improvement rather than hard feelings, so officials receive evaluation data only when batches of 5 or more accumulate, and evaluators’ identities are withheld.
Here is a short walkthrough document:   Official’s Evaluation Instructions.

Submissions to the ILOA Liaison Committee
The ILOA has formed a board-level committee to serve as the point of contact for our clientele – leagues, teams, tournament administrators – to address serious issues requiring investigation and response.  We invite Head Coaches at all levels of competition to submit comments, questions, and concerns about officials directly to the Liaison Committee under the following guidelines:

Submissions must:

  • Be made by HEAD COACHES ONLY. All other submissions will be discarded. Please use <<this form>>.
  • Be made no earlier than 24 hours after the game or incident in question.
  • Cite specific examples. General disagreement with the way an official calls a game is not actionable.  If there’s a problem, we need to have a clear idea of what it is before we can address it productively.
  • Be civil.  We want to find resolutions to problems, and antagonism will make it much harder to focus on the real issues.

All concerns meeting these criteria will receive due diligence by the ILOA Liaison Committee and an appropriate response. Critical issues will be presented for review by the full ILOA board.