During your season, how often do you look at your rulebook?

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Injured? Your Best Bet Could Be Sitting Out

The officiating ego is a strong one. Every good official thinks he or she can get the job done. Many officials also believe that they should shake off an injury, suck it up and finish the game. Depending on the type and severity of the injury, that’s a noble but often misguided premise. Your gallantry or hubris may actually do a disservice to the teams and your partners.

If you sustain an injury at work or at home in the hours leading up to an assignment, your chances of finding a qualified substitute are slim. Such last-minute changes should be rare and should be attempted only if you are truly incapable of working the game. Simply not feeling well or being tired are not adequate reasons for late changes. If you truly cannot work, inform your supervisor, the game manager and your partners to let them know you need a substitute.

Mechanics manuals describe where officials should be positioned in order to rule on a play. The mechanics were also developed to put officials in locations where they will not become entangled with players. But onfield and oncourt accidents will happen. If a trainer or doctor is available, do not turn down assistance. If you need to take a seat for a few minutes, do it. Return to action when you feel up to it.

Take as much time as you need to have an open wound bandaged. It’s important to bring a spare uniform in case the one you’re wearing becomes saturated with blood.

Leg injuries often occur if you haven’t warmed up properly. Take the time to stretch before and after the game. The often-ignored postgame stretch helps you stay limber and prevents future injury.

You may have worked a long time to get a playoff or championship game. But if you are injured during the course of play and an alternate is available, yield to the alternate until you’re ready to resume. A game of that magnitude deserves the best official available. In such a case, that is the alternate, whose role is to take over in those situations.

If a spectator or parent offers to take your place, politely but firmly decline the offer of help. Whether or not there are liability issues, the game is best served by having less than the usual number of trained, capable officials who know the rules, mechanics and procedures than by having one or more such officials and an untrained Good Samaritan.

Written by Jeffrey Stern, Referee senior editor. This article originally appeared in the 2/03 issue of Referee.

Register Online for the 2007 NASO Summit Today

NASO’s Sports Officiating 2007 Summit — The Power of Persuasive Officiating — will be held in Denver on July 29-31. The event will include some of the best and brightest in officiating and answer your questions about the latest skills and philosophies in officiating. For information about the industry-leading event, visit www.naso.org/summit2007. The website contains details about Summit sessions and speakers. You can also sign up online.

Group registration discounts are available when three or more officials or administrators from the same association, league or conference sign up for the Summit on the same registration form. The discount allows each attendee to receive $70 off the normal registration fee — saving a total of $210 in registration fees. Check out the registration form for additional information.

Individual NASO members save $100 with a reduced membership rate. Register before June 8 for an additional $25 savings.

The Denver Marriott Tech Center is the host location for the 2007 Summit and offers room rates of $119 per night.

Visit the Summit website and then register for the NASO Sports Officiating Summit today. For additional information about the NASO Summit, contact NASO Summit Coordinator Jodi Schmidt at 800/733-6100 or jschmidt@naso.org. We look forward to seeing you in July.

Pull Up a Chair …

Everyone who’s ever stepped onto a field, court or rink to officiate a game has a story to tell. Here’s a story about an official who remembers his officiating uncle. Do you have a story to tell? Write it down and e-mail to lastcall@referee.com.

Uncle Wilse and the Snow Game

By Jack Gallagher

Some 80 years ago, in Pennsylvania football circles, referee David Wilson Merriman was known as “Wilse.” To me he was simply “Uncle Wilse,” my favorite relative. In the 1920s and ’30s the Pittsburgh sports pages, in reporting football games, listed alongside each official’s name his college affiliation in parentheses. It was not uncommon to read that “Merriman (Geneva)” had officiated a game that was being reported.

Those were the same days when Uncle Wilse officiated in some of the major match-ups of the era — perhaps Army-Navy or Pitt-Notre Dame — and gained a reputation for his competency, but he was best known for his honesty. Even opponents did not object to his refereeing at Geneva College, his alma mater.

In our family lore, Uncle Wilse’s honesty is best remembered because of a basketball game played in the late ’20s between Geneva and Thiel in Greenville, Pa. Uncle Wilse had volunteered to drive some of the Geneva players to the game and looked forward to watching his son, Clair, in action that night. Clair was Geneva’s center and leading defender. Upon arrival in Greenville, Uncle Wilse and the Geneva players learned that a heavy snowfall in the Pittsburgh area had made it impossible for the contracted officials to make the trip to Greenville in time for the game, a situation that could force cancellation. The Thiel authorities, who did not want to disappoint the players and the fans, soon discovered that Uncle Wilse had accompanied the Geneva team that night and were aware that, in addition to football officiating, he was licensed in basketball.

“Mr. Merriman?” said one of the Thiel representatives, approaching Uncle Wilse, “Would you be willing to referee tonight? We don’t want to cancel the game.”

“I can sympathize,” said Uncle Wilse, “but I can’t.”

“Why not, Mr. Merriman?”

“Well, you must know that my son plays for Geneva, and I don’t want to run the risk of being accused of favoring his team.”

“Mr. Merriman, we all know about your reputation for honesty, and we know you’ll call the game fairly.”

At that point Uncle Wilse became convinced that they trusted him to referee and finally agreed to help out. They gave him a whistle, he took off his coat and tie, then went onto the court to get the contest under way.

I don’t know whether Geneva won or lost that game, but family lore has it that Uncle Wilse called fouls more closely on his son than on anyone else, with the result that Clair fouled out and had only five minutes of total playing time.

Many years later the Beaver Falls sports hall of fame honored Uncle Wilse posthumously and invited Clair to receive a special plaque dedicated to his father. During the ceremony Clair, by then a recognized pediatrician, dusted off that bit of family history. After he finished telling the audience about that long ago night at Thiel College, an audience member asked, “Dr. Merriman, we admire your father’s honesty, but what kind of father was he?”

Without hesitation, Clair shot back, “A great father, but a lousy referee!”

Four years ago my daughter, Victoria, and her husband, Mike Stull, invited me to accompany them on a trip to see Mike’s parents, Don and Marge, who live in — would you believe? — Greenville. As you might guess, I asked Mike to drive me over to the Thiel campus, and there I found the very gymnasium in which one snowy night long ago Clair had played five minutes and Uncle Wilse had refereed. It is no longer the main gym, but it was the number one gym for me. We went in and saw some students shooting basketballs. I asked them if I could take some shots. They threw me a ball, and I dribbled in for two layups, one for Clair and one for Uncle Wilse.

Jack Gallagher is a Pittsburgh area native now living in Florida. He is a former basketball coach and freelance writer.