[sir_eldren]

I've come to find that my presence in a game is far greater than a lot of people I know that started in any given sport at the same time I did. I also find that I've learned how to focus on particulars of a game easier.

I started off as a hockey referee. It was pretty tough because hockey does move fast and there's really no way to work on things easily without actually being on the ice. I learned the hard way at a variety of levels and worked hard at improving my skating ability.

I then began umpiring baseball. Hockey was an easy sport for me to work: I play and worship the game. But baseball was another story. I've always been interested in baseball when I'm on the diamond, but I never played organized baseball. The rules, the lingo, and even the field were foreign to me. I had to learn the subtle nuances of the game as an umpire. I feel that was actually a good thing since the only way I know how to play baseball is as an umpire.

Football came next. I took the fast action and multiple-player/large area of action that I experience in hockey and combined it with the judgement calls and confidence I'd learned in baseball and worked myself into varsity games by the end of my first season. I worked a lot of games in the short season, usually working 3 to 6 games a week.

Hockey season two started a few weeks into football. Not a problem. I've got a new eye, a new idea on how to watch the action, and I had at least 60 games worth of game management experience to add to what I'd learned the last season. I had far better judgement and learned how to analyze and discuss rules better. I'd also learned that I was not a junior official who had to rely on the more experienced or bigger official but I was their equal and could exercise my authority as well as a large, intimidating guy.

I'm currently in baseball season #2 for me. I have a lot of confidence and have learned that while I'm the HMFIC and what I say goes, that I must also remember that I'm being allowed to come onto the field by the two teams and they are relying on me to call the game fairly and administer the rules properly.

Had I only worked ice hockey, my #1 sport, I would have about 170 total games that I've officiated. But when you add in another 110 games from football and baseball that year, plus the 50 baseball games I've worked to this point, and that's an additional 160 games worth of confidence building, judgement, game management, and inter-personal skill building that I can add to my resume. Plus, it shows that I keep myself busy in the "off-season."

But, if I could work ice hockey 5 days a week, 10 months out of the year, I probably wouldn't touch another sport. I'd be too busy building my skills on the ice that I wouldn't need the time outside the rink to work on the basic skills of officiating.

-Craig