All Sports
No Argument About It
Not all arguments with coaches end perfectly. The goal of all officials is to resolve volatile conflict quickly and to an extent that allows...
Letter Perfect
M
nemonics are devices intended to assist the memory, as a verse or formula. A popular example, HOMES, is an acronym to help recall the...
Team Works
Most people think two teams are required for an athletic competition. Officials know better. It takes three — the teams scheduled to take the...
Crew Glue
When any game assignment arrives, all sorts of questions usually race through an official’s mind. First, who’s playing? Great teams? A rivalry game? If...
Don’t Fan The Flames
Between the lines, sports officials have every right and can take immediate action to eject a player or coach from a game for unruly...
Your Attention Please
T here are many things that might disrupt an official’s concentration during a game. They might be internal or external and could happen during...
Your Chance to Shine
How do officials make it to the top of their respective sport? What characteristics are necessary to achieve that goal? For years, both as...
For Warned
Warnings come in a variety of forms. There’s “the look,” “the stop sign” and “the quiet word,” to name a few. Each can be...
Zeroed In
One of the biggest challenges in officiating is how to be completely locked in mentally for the entire game. It is of upmost importance...
Want to get better?
How good an official do you want to be? How much do you want to improve? Good officials, no matter their level of experience...
No Dead Ends
When the late Jerry Seeman was NFL director of officials, he developed his 10 Commandments for Officiating. Ninth on his list was: Thou shalt...
Principles With Interest
O
fficiating has been in my blood since I was a scholastic wrestler during the mid-1960s. Throughout the decades, I gradually began to understand the...
Collision Course
So you think baseball is not a contact sport?
Look at the photo that accompanies this article, captured during the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division...
Sure Thing
Officiating is all about making decisions. That’s arguably the one and only reason they give us a paycheck. Sometimes, in the process of decision-making,...
Career Suicide Can Be a Killer
Officiating is unlike many endeavors in that hard work, diligent study and the right temperament are not guarantees to success.
Conversely, there are several...
Best Selller
The score is tied in the championship basketball game with less than a minute remaining. The fans in the packed arena are on their...
Tip Top
In the 44 years Referee has been in existence, tens of thousands of words have been devoted to helping officials improve their performance. Our...
Arrive And Shine
How you enter the arena, stadium, field or other facility says a lot about you. Do you casually stroll in? Are you laughing, confident,...
‘Big Time’ Attitude Is for Small People
By Jeffrey Stern
Virtually every local association or chapter has at least one official who has “made it big,” the member who has worked a...
Help Yourself
I stumbled upon a couple of clips of MLB games and got a chuckle out of how the announcers reacted to two situations. It’s...
Forgive, But Don’t Forget
We’ve all had one. Or two. Or 102. That moment when stark reality hits and you realize you have just kicked the ever-living daylights...
Pace Commander
How to set and maintain a good pace to a game is not often discussed at camps and association meetings. But if players are...
Insistence on Consistency
Calling Them the Same Is the Elusive Goal
Be consistent.
If you’ve officiated for any length of time, you’ve likely heard that comment on numerous occasions.
It...
Everybody’s Talkin’
Pregame conferences during the pandemic were often short or non-existent. Many schools asked us to come dressed and masked and arrive at the game...
