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All Sports

Zeroed In

One of the biggest challenges in officiating is how to be completely locked in mentally for the entire game. It is of upmost importance...

Career Suicide Can Be a Killer

Officiating is unlike many endeavors in that hard work, diligent study and the right temperament are not guarantees to success. Conversely, there are several...

Think A-Head

Athletes in many sports that involve contact, either against opponents, teammates or with the ground/floor, are susceptible to concussions, a brain injury that interferes...

Type Casting

To be a top official you must understand coaches, their goals, their methods and their tactics. Coaches’ personalities range from timid to terrible, from...

Insistence on Consistency

Calling Them the Same Is the Elusive Goal Be consistent. If you’ve officiated for any length of time, you’ve likely heard that comment on numerous occasions. It...

Collision Course

So you think baseball is not a contact sport? Look at the photo that accompanies this article, captured during the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division...

Say When

In most sports, teams are allotted a specific number of timeouts so coaches may confer with players. Although timeouts may also be used in...

Sure Thing

Officiating is all about making decisions. That’s arguably the one and only reason they give us a paycheck. Sometimes, in the process of decision-making,...

Crew Glue

When any game assignment arrives, all sorts of questions usually race through an official’s mind. First, who’s playing? Great teams? A rivalry game? If...

Understanding Assigners

I’ve never known an official who was completely satisfied with game assignments. Most think highly of their capabilities and believe they deserve the big...

Team Works

Most people think two teams are required for an athletic competition. Officials know better. It takes three — the teams scheduled to take the...

Your Chance to Shine

How do officials make it to the top of their respective sport? What characteristics are necessary to achieve that goal? For years, both as...

Everybody’s Talkin’

Pregame conferences during the pandemic were often short or non-existent. Many schools asked us to come dressed and masked and arrive at the game...

Want to get better?

How good an official do you want to be? How much do you want to improve? Good officials, no matter their level of experience...

For Warned

Warnings come in a variety of forms. There’s “the look,” “the stop sign” and “the quiet word,” to name a few. Each can be...

Pace Commander

How to set and maintain a good pace to a game is not often discussed at camps and association meetings. But if players are...

Fair Ball

Coaches have all sorts of creative ways to question the ethics and integrity of officials. During the pregame meeting, they are often curious about...

Principles With Interest

O fficiating has been in my blood since I was a scholastic wrestler during the mid-1960s. Throughout the decades, I gradually began to understand the...

No Dead Ends

When the late Jerry Seeman was NFL director of officials, he developed his 10 Commandments for Officiating. Ninth on his list was: Thou shalt...

Letter Perfect

M nemonics are devices intended to assist the memory, as a verse or formula. A popular example, HOMES, is an acronym to help recall the...

Pleasure Crews

"Perception is reality.” When it comes to officiating team sports, that’s often the absolute truth. It doesn’t matter what sport you’re officiating, crew cohesion...

Brand New Ballgames

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...

Not-So-Secret Agent

At a referee development camp I attended, the camp director began with a single question: “Who is your agent?” After a period of silence that...

What’s Your Angle?

Esse Baharmast had the key angle to make the right call. During the 1998 World Cup, Baharmast, NASO’s 2011 Gold Whistle Award recipient, awarded a...

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