[Rick Durkee]

I am a former coach who was lured to the Dark Side to officiate. I thought that being a coach first gave me some advantages and posed some challenges.

While most other new officials were struggling with watching the ball, I found it was easy to look at the action away from the ball, because I was use to watching what my players did off the ball. I think coaching gave me a good idea of what coaches spend a lot of time working on with players, and I tried not to undermine their work. For instance, nothing drove me more crazy as a coach than spending three days preparing to face a bigger team (box out drills, double-teaming, etc.) only to have the official allow the bigger players to push my kids around and negate the good work my players did getting position.

On the other side, it may take some time to see and call the game the way it should be called and not the way you wanted it called as a coach. I find that most of the coaches I have watched become officials (certainly including me) take some time to work through some of those issues. For instance, was taking much more grief from players and coaches then I should have, because it was what I wanted to get away with as a coach. I think if you are aware that this may happen and keep it in mind as you self-debrief a game and consider your decisions, it may accelerate your transition from coach to official.