My Summer as a Ref

[MUCrisco]

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I was a ref for a Varsity Girl's Basketball league this summer.  I didn't do it for the cash.   The league needed some help and due to my love of the game, I agreed to work.  When I first started coaching, I use to get on the officials because I thought that was what you were suppose to do.  Now, I occasionally get on them, but I try to stay focused on the game. 

Knowing that I am a terrible referee, I was pretty nervous.  This league featured many players who will go on to play division 1 basketball, and some teams who are capable of making a state appearance.  Before this, I had never called an actual game.  After I started, there were too many things that I had to watch for.  I had to keep my eye on the player's feet to watch for travels and on their body to watch for fouls.  When the shot would go up, I had to watch for over the backs, while also keeping an eye on the ball to see who touched it last if it went out of bounds.  Most of the time, even though I was in the right position, I had a very poor angle on the action, or the players would block my view.

After calling 5 games per day for the entire summer, I became fairly comfortable at my job.  I realized that so many of your whistles are judgement calls and I figured out how to make the correct ones.  Still, I had coaches in my ear for the entire game and parent's screaming at me, even though what they were yelling was complete nonsense.  Sometimes when it got really bad, I found myself giving the benefit of the doubt to the opposing team.

After that experience, I realized how tough being a referee is.  One coach in the entire league would come up and shake my hand after each of their games and I felt really grateful for that gesture.  Besides that one person, It was a thankless job and I was glad that the league ended. 

I understand that bigtime refs in college and especially the NBA might make a lot of money doing that.  However, for the guys and gals that ref high school or grade school games, they mostly do it because they love the game and they want to help out.  I found that the job as a ref was much tougher for me than being a player or a coach.  Remember that the next time you might be coaching or watching your kid play.  That ref is doing the best that he can.  He is not trying to screw anyone over.  He is just trying to do his job to the best of his ability.

[Dish]

If you really want to experience being a ref, go over to the rec center and ref intramural games. My sophomore year at MU, I was looking to make some cash, so I signed up to be an intramural ref. I'd ref'd grade school games for three years prior to that, which were a piece of cake. Marquette was a different story. I had gum thrown at me, some guy stalked me out of the Rec Center, someone asked my buddy (who was a ref too) what number they could call to complain about the officiating.

[MUCrisco]

I didn't do anything like that, but I did yell at those refs on occasion.  Now, I feel really embarassed that I did that.  Thank you for doing that.  I know your job was no fun at all.

[passion of da coach]

ya, there was one game during intramurals when some dude tackled a guy on the other team and started kicking his neck, totally messed up all the other games, he was running around throwing his shoes at the guy was fighting...

[Dish]

Crisco-As you experienced, it's a tough gig (your's much tougher than mine because you have players, coaches, and worst of all, fans yelling at you). It certainly gives you a better appreciation for how hard it is.

As subjective as a baseball strike zone is, trying to watch boxing out/over the back's/pushing/shoving/tripping when a shot goes up and your the official down low is brutal. You have to watch all of that, follow where the shot winds up to see if it goes out of bounds, and make sure your out of the way of the action.

It's not life or death by any stretch, but it's not easy. As Passion was talking about, when a fight breaks out in an intramural game, all hell breaks loose. That's when the $5 an hour MU was paying wasn't nearly worth enough to stick around!

[muhoosier260]

how bout doing this in a capacity 20,008 bradley center, my hat is off to those guys

[Chili]

how bout doing this in a capacity 20,008 bradley center, my hat is off to those guys

forget about it. they make over six figures.