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Want to See Yourself (or Someone You Know)
in a Magazine?
NASO members are proud to be a part of the only national
association for sports officials and NASO is proud of its
membership. Help us shine some light on the great things NASO
members do and then help guide NASO into the future. Please
take a few minutes to respond to the following:
SPOTLIGHT ON YOU – NASO members are real
people, real officials who should be recognized for their
contributions to officiating. Are you yourself, or are you
aware of another NASO member who’s deserving of some
recognition? Do you volunteer your time in your community?
Are you responsible for recruiting a few new officials? Do
you know a fellow official who you feel exemplifies what it
means to be an official? We want to hear your story and feature
you or your fellow officials in one of our NASO publications,
It’s Official or NASO-ONBoard, or even
in Referee magazine. Send an e-mail to us at editor@naso.org.
2005 NASO CONFERENCE – Sure, we haven’t
even had this year’s conference yet (which, by the way,
is being held Aug. 7-9 in Washington, D.C. It’s not too
late to sign up!) but we’re already starting to plan
our 2005 gathering, and we want your input on the conference
theme. This year we’re focusing on sportsmanship as the
main theme. In previous years, we’ve centered our conferences
on such themes as Training Officials, Evaluating Officiating
Performance, and Recruitment and Retention of Officials. The
field is wide open. What do you think is the big issue in
officiating that we should examine in-depth in 2005? Drop
us a line at editor@naso.org
to let your voice be heard!
LAST CALL – Referee magazine is
accepting submissions for its "Last Call" column.
Those are first-person stories written by regular officials
from any sport or any level. The only requirement is you have
to write something that reflects the officiating experience
in some way. Tell us about the first time you ejected someone
or about the wildest play you ever had. Maybe you’ve
got a story about how your officiating impacted your family
or your job or even your health. Any topic is acceptable –
as long as it relates somehow to officiating. "Last Call"
stories should be between 600-1,000 words and pay $100 if
accepted for publication. Send your stories to lastcall@referee.com.
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Your Job Doesn’t End After the Game
is Over
Most of the time, the game ends without serious conflict.
However, there are some things you should think about immediately
after the game.
Unless your specific sport’s responsibilities
dictate otherwise, get off the court or field as soon as the
game is over. Some sports (like hockey) require officials
to watch the teams’ postgame handshake. In most cases,
however, the official’s jurisdiction ends soon after
the game ends.
When that is the case, there’s no point in hanging
around the court or field, even if the game went well in your
mind. Remember, competitive athletics is just that –
competitive. Sometimes, that competition brings out overly
charged emotions against officials. If you’re hanging
around in the area of players, coaches or fans after a game,
you’re inviting trouble. Avoid the conflicts and get
to the locker room or an area away from participants as soon
as the game is over. Always leave with your partner(s); make
sure they are right behind you if you’re in the lead
to ensure all officials are safe.
Postgame locker room, parking lot, etc. Once you’ve
found your way to the solace of your locker room, you can
begin to unwind mentally. Keep in mind however, there will
be times when participants (usually coaches) are so unhappy
they’ll want to enter your locker room to confront you.
Simply put, no one belongs in your locker room other than
you, your partner(s) and possibly a game administrator (not
the home coach!). Don’t let anyone else in to discuss
your officiating or the game.
Because of space limitations, many times your locker
room is the home coach’s office. When that happens, before
the game request to the game administrator that the coach
wait to get into his office after the game until after the
officials have left the premises. That’s ideal, but frankly
it rarely happens, especially at lower level games. If a coach
does enter your locker room because it is a shared space,
avoid conversation. Be polite if any response is necessary
at all. If the coach enters your locker room and begins an
inappropriate discussion about the game or your officiating,
ask the coach to leave the locker room until the officials
have left. If the problem escalates, contact the governing
body (league administrator, assigner or state association,
for example) to report the incident.
Reporting conflicts. In the officiating world
today, writing reports is becoming commonplace. More times
than in years past, officials are required to submit misconduct
reports to schools, league offices or larger governing bodies,
like a high school state association. Also, some leagues,
schools, etc., require officials to submit a game report after
every game – even if there was no "misconduct"
to report.
Why so many reports? Usually, the reports are used as
a tool to protect the official, school personnel and any other
entity responsible for a contest from the today’s litigious
society. Thirty years ago, it was rare for a game incident
to end up in court. Today, it’s more commonplace. If
you’re involved in a court situation, you’re probably
going to be asked to reconstruct the incident – possibly
months or years after it happened. That’s a difficult
if not impossible task without a written report done just
after the incident.
Call first. If you’ve had an unsportsmanlike
incident during your game, call the league administrator or
assigner first, before sending a written report. Why? Most
administrators want to hear about incidents from officials
first – before an angry coach calls – so the administrator
knows what happened and can deal with that angry coach appropriately.
You don’t want your assigner to be surprised by the coach’s
phone call when you’ve had time to give the assigner
your take on the situation.
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