Building Your Officiating Character

No matter what sport or level, all officials must have integrity. A major component of integrity is character. In short, you can’t have integrity without character. The dictionary offers many different definitions of "character" and its variations. None could be more appropriate to officials than "moral strength" or "the pattern of behavior or personality found in an individual or group; moral constitution."

How sound is your moral constitution? Do you do "the right thing" time after time, without regard to political and career ramifications? Or does your moral constitution change like a chameleon’s skin color if you feel threatened. A four-sport official from California forwarded NASO a series of "Guidelines to Professionalism in Officiating," written by some colleagues. The following quote introduces the guidelines: "Be more concerned with your character than your reputation because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."

The following 16 guidelines were written to help officials build their officiating character. While written for basketball officials, the advice applies to other sports.

1. Realize the importance of your position and at all times uphold the dignity it demands.
2. Have ambition, but also patience, as over-anxiety has ruined many young officials.
3. Learn how to handle situations with the least among of friction. Above all, you must maintain your composure.
4. Keep personality conflicts out of your work: Be able to forgive and forget. Every game should be a new game in every respect.
5. Hear and see everything, but react only if dictated by the game situation.
6. Don’t worry if you have a tough evening. Review your work. One poor game doesn’t make you a poor official.
7. Learn some one-liners that can help defuse a situation, but use them sparingly. Remember, anything you say can and will be used against you.
8. Be patient with coaches and players. Keep your poise.
9. Never be jealous of a good break another official gets. Your turn may be next. What’s important is teamwork among officials and that the game is properly covered by a solid crew.
10. Once you arrive at the game site prior to a game, if possible, stay away from athletic offices, school personnel and coaches. Familiarity breeds suspicion.
11. Arrive properly attired and ready to work, then work hard. Those types of things reflect your interest in the game at hand.
12. If you are a veteran official, don’t impose your will on a junior partner unless the circumstances clearly dictate your involvement. Also, never use your senior position to embarrass a partner.
13. As the junior official, stick to your guns if you’re sure you did things properly. However, be receptive to constructive criticism.
14. Constantly strive to improve. Do so via videotape review, self-evaluation, and by accepting feedback from supervisors and other neutral observers.
15. When the game is over, leave the floor quickly, with your head up and with your partner(s). Move expeditiously, but don’t hurry.
16. Be positive.

NASO suggests you take each of those items and relate them to your unique situations. Then consider times when you’ve performed in a less-than-stellar fashion and vow that you’re going to learn, however arduously, how to turn lemons into lemonade. Then do that by applying the old adage: practice, practice, practice.

Those Who Helped After the Hurricane ...

The hurricanes that devastated the shores of our Gulf States recently have impacted so many lives, including those of officials. NASO is partnering with a variety of organizations to help assuage the burdens on the officials whose lives and homes are in turmoil due to the storms.

At the same time, there are hundreds of individual referees and umpires nationwide who are pitching in and doing what they can to help out with the rebuilding efforts.

NASO wants to know about those men and women who are committed to that good work. Whether the help comes in the form of time, effort or money, please make NASO aware of anyone you know who has pitched in to help not only their fellow officials, but their fellow man, in the face of the devastation.

NASO would like to recognize those selfless individuals. Please send us an e-mail at editor@naso.org or write us a letter to the following address:

NASO Editor
2017 Lathrop Ave.
Racine, Wis., 53405

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 officiating buddy we might all recognize. (Do you have a story to tell? Write it down and e-mail to lastcall@referee.com.)

He's With Me
By Bill McCabe

You meet a lot of people in officiating, but the ones that become your true friends are precious. Of course, you have to take the bad with the good. …

My dear friend, Jerry White, was a very successful baseball player and coach. He officiated major college basketball for more than 30 years. For those that know him, they agree, he is one of the most entertaining people they have ever met. Everyone who knows him, it seems, has a favorite "Jerry White story."

Several years ago, Jerry called to ask how my football schedule looked for the fall. I told him I was privileged to have an assignment at Notre Dame University. He said, "I think I’ll go with you." Taken aback a little, I informed him I did not have a ticket for him. But in typical Jerry fashion he said, "No problem, we’ll figure something out!" I hesitantly gave him my flight times and, of course, he had no trouble booking the same flights.

As we were flying to South Bend together, I told him I had to meet briefly with the NBC producer before we caught up with the rest of the officiating crew. Jerry wanted to tag along there, too. I told him he could come to the meeting but only on one condition – he had to be on his best behavior. After the meeting, I told him, I would see what I could do about getting him a ticket to the game.

When we walked into the meeting room, the first thing I noticed was the big buffet of food, and I joked to the producer, "Was I supposed to bring the entire crew?" He said, "No, the announcers, Todd Christensen and Jim Lampley, and several administrative people will be joining us." We started to get down to business and had only been there a few minutes when I happened to glance over at Jerry.

"This is great food! You should have some!" He had a heaping plate of chicken, mashed potatoes and everything else the buffet offered. I shook my head and took him aside. "You’re supposed to be on your best behavior. This isn’t a good start."

As the meeting progressed, Jerry was sitting next to Lampley. They struck up a conversation talking about Pac-10 basketball (and Jerry had a million stories). Lampley, like so many before him, took an instant liking to Jerry and asked, "Jerry, where are you sitting? Why don’t you come sit with us up in the press box?" Jerry said, "Oh, I don’t have a ticket. Bill is getting me one."

Jerry beamed and everyone looked at me. I tried to smile. To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t given any thought yet on how I was going to get Jerry a ticket.

I saw the producer go over to the telephone and a couple of minutes later, his assistant came into the room and handed Jerry an all access NBC pass. Oh brother! Were we in trouble now!

But everything seemed to go fine after that. Jerry and I met with my crew (they all knew him well, too, and there were many hearty hellos). Jerry sat in on our pregame and then headed up to the pressbox to watch the game.

Early in the fourth quarter, our umpire made the second holding call against Notre Dame. As I was giving the preliminary signal, I took a peek at Lou Holtz (then ND coach) to catch his reaction. My heart dropped. I don’t remember Lou’s reaction. What’s burned in my mind is the image of Jerry White standing right next to him.

"I just wanted to see how tall he was," Jerry said after the game, waving his "all-access" pass in the air.

Exasperated, I asked him why he hadn’t stayed up in the pressbox. "Aww, It was too crowded with the announcers," he said. In fact, before he wandered down to the field, Jerry moseyed on over to the empty luxury box next to the announcers’ booth, where he said he was soon joined by a gentleman. "I told him, ‘Come on in; the food’s great,’" Jerry recalled for us. It turned out the gentleman was the president of Notre Dame. I gurgled a little, but couldn’t say anything as Jerry completed his story. "We had a great time together! He gave me his business card and told me to call him or his assistant anytime if I ever needed shirts or hats or anything."

Only Jerry could go from being a complete outsider at a venue like Notre Dame to anywhere on the inside. He lives a charmed life, and even on those days when it seems all I’m doing is playing his straight man, I wouldn’t trade my friendship with Jerry for anything.

Bill McCabe officiated in the Western Athletic and Mountain West conferences for 21 years (1978-99) and is currently an Arena Football League referee as well as a replay official for the NFL. In his career, he officiated 14 bowl games, including the 1993 Rose Bowl.

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