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General items of interest to all officials that don’t fit in the categories above.
The Facts Behind Bad Sporting Behavior
Sports and American culture — the two are practically inseparable. Young children through those in their golden years get a thrill from the engaging...
More Players, Fewer Officials Point to Trouble Ahead
The NFHS reports a 16 percent increase nationally in the number of boys playing high school soccer in 2018 compared to 2009. While this may thrill soccer enthusiasts, it’s...
Get Great Series: Better by Next Year
If someone told you a they had a way to get better by next year, would you do it no matter what it was? ...
Keeping Players Safe is JOB ONE
W
hen it comes to player safety, photos (and film clips) speak a thousand words.
A video montage created for a session at the 2016 NASO...
Transition Game
Basketball has taken Ka-Deidre “Didi” Simmons around the globe. After a stellar collegiate career at Seton Hall University that saw her graduate as the...
Montgomery Hosts Landmark Gathering at 2025 Sports Officiating Summit and Officiate Alabama Day
Hundreds of sports officiating leaders, officials, and administrators gathered in Montgomery, Ala., July 27–29 for the 2025 Sports Officiating Summit—three days of programming focused...
Know More About Teams To Make Situations Easier
Many of us have checklists that we ponder in the days or hours leading up to a given contest to make sure we’re ready to officiate. We make sure...
Summit @ Home Program Resonates
The Summit @ Home, which ran from Aug. 24 to Aug. 27 was a resounding success. Nearly 10,000 officials from around the U.S. and...
Military Intelligence
Bob Delaney, vice president of referee operations and director of officials for the NBA, sees something special in officials with military backgrounds.
Teamwork and trust...
Master of the Rules
Mastery of playing rules doesn’t just mean ‘knowing’ what a rule reads
Rod Serling might have put it this way:
Imagine you’re attending your final year...
Pastoral Care in the Officiating Community
A
s COVID-19’s reach expanded globally during the spring of 2020, people and the organizations of which they were members scrambled to adjust to everything...
Officiating Organizations Stand Out at the Summit@Home
Often in officiating we only hear about officiating companies or organizations when they have a booth at a camp or clinic we're attending, or...
Pain in the Association
By Rick Woelfel
From Pride to Problems
Think back to the start of your officiating career — the pride of passing the rules test, pulling on...
Be Prepared for Officiating After Covid
How will you feel when the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted and the games resume? Ecstatic? Relieved? Anxious?
How about prepared?
We will be experiencing a new normal in many...
You Think Writing Rules Is Easy?
When I think about the process of writing rules, I remember a "The Far Side" cartoon in which some solemn-looking American colonists were gathered around another...
Officials Help Keep a Park District League in Operation
A few years back, the park district in our community started an indoor soccer league and offered players in the area the opportunity to...
The Buzz on Officiating Drones
Drones are making themselves useful in a wide variety of industries and occupations — on construction sites, in roofing, with reforestation and even in...
2023 Gold Whistle Award: Violet Palmer
Violet Palmer, coordinator of women’s basketball officials for the Pac-12, West Coast, Western Athletic, Big Sky and Big West conferences, received the 2023 Gold...
The Four-Hour Audition
By Brad Tittrington
T
he odds of making it to MLB as a player are infinitesimally small — roughly 0.5% of high school players make it....
Benefits and Landmines of Working Multiple Sports
More and more, we seem to lose sight of the fact kids might be playing three sports just for the fun of it. Now,...
Mentoring Programs Can Combat Shortages
Taking a page out of corporate America's playbook in a bold, aggressive step to mitigate the officials shortage in the state, Oregon has recently...
Are Big Calls Even A Thing Anymore?
The proposition is simple enough: safe or out? foul or not? catch or no catch? A good official has had hundreds of big calls in his...
Doors Opening Wider
Clockwise from top left: Amanda Bender, Maia Chaka, Kelly Dine, Sara Woods, Kaili Kimura
By Tim Yonke
In what could be a blueprint for women seeking...
NASO Survey: Diversity & Inclusion
The NASO National Officiating Survey asked questions that focused on diversity and inclusion topics. The 2017 survey of 17,487 officials provides invaluable insights into...