Written by: the Official Finders team, connecting leagues and officials across Northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana. August is when the fall officiating rush kicks off. Summer baseball is winding down, and fields across Will, Cook, and Lake Counties are gearing up for a totally different season. If you want a full, steady schedule this fall, now is the time to lock it in, not the first week of September. The best assignments go fast. Here's how the local market actually wo

Written by: the Official Finders team, connecting leagues and officials across Northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana. August is a lot for park district coordinators. Registrations are in, field space is locked down, the schedule is set. Then you look at your officiating roster and realize it's still not full, and opening weekend is right around the corner. Scrambling to piece together a crew of officials at the last minute is how weekends get wrecked. Before you go down tha

Written by the Official Finders team, connecting leagues and officials across Northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana. As the mid-summer heat peaks, indoor gym spaces across Northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana are experiencing a brief quiet period. However, experienced whistle-blowers and smart league coordinators know this quiet window is exactly when the real preparation happens. In just a matter of weeks, the local sports scene will shift rapidly indoors. Gym floors fr