Advice for a VERY young official
 

I post here infrequently but read often...My 13 year old son is going to be officiating for the first time this year. He will do 3rd & 4th grade CYC games. I started officiating around the same age and my dad (who also is an official) pretty much gave me a whistle and a shirt and said "have fun".

I want to prepare him and help him as much as possible without overwhelming him. I have mentored officials before but this situation is different with him and the players being so much younger.

So I am looking for some advice to give him (while keeping it as simple as possible). He's had his head in a rule book for the month and is a gym rat so he kind of has a clue...

Maybe for us to help you, it might be better to state what kind of advice you are looking for. Not many officials are that young and many kids are not thinking about officiating anything at that age. The best thing he can do is to learn the rules and learn the mechanics the best way he can. I have no idea how they would deal with coaches who are most likely adults and way older. But is there something he is struggling with or does not feel confident about? If we know that kind of stuff it might help give him specific information. But it is unusual for a kid that young to be doing this. I just know he has something to shoot for and will be more advance than most of us in 10 years if he stays at it.

Peace

1) He will make mistakes. The coaches (and parents) won't know how to correctly deal with the mistakes. They will choose the path that includes yelling.

2) It's not personal. they are yelling at the uniform, not at him.

3) He will work with officials who are going through the motions. Don't be like that.

4) Officiate with the book, not by the book.

All of which is easy to say, and easy to understand, but will be hard to remember when he's in the heat of battle.

I guess I'm struggling with the same thing you are asking. I don't know where to start. He's a pretty confident kid and has seen me officiate hundreds, maybe thousands of games from grade school to college. I don't think he is actually struggling with anything in particular. I will try to work most of his games with him, so that should help. I just want to prepare him without overwhelming him. I remember the first time I went to a NCAAW camp - i had never worked 3 man- it was overwhelming, but I had great clinicians who helped me work on 1 thing at a time. Since he's never stepped foot on the floor before I'm struggling with where to start.

This is great! Thanks so much!!

Just my 2 cents
 

I like your dad's advice.

"Have fun"...sometimes we can overthink these things and anticipate problems that don't come to fruition. So deal with issues as they happen, I wouldn't plant the seed of what might happen.

I think everything Bob said was good solid advice except for the first part. I see a kid his age getting sometimes more crap because he is very young. I can see coaches and fans acting like he is not knowledgable about the rules or the game. That does not mean that is true or that he cannot become knowledgable or do his job well. Unfortunately that seems to be the main thing I would be concerned with because people bring all their prejudices and sometimes bigotry to the table when they deal with us. It is much more than our uniform they yell at sometimes. I think it is good you work with him and you can protect him in ways others would not be willing to do in some situations. I think he will be fine and it sounds like you have the right idea. Just watch him and do not push him so that he does not find a love or if he chooses not to officiate he does so for the right reasons. Good luck with this, and keep us informed. I would like to know what kinds of things he deals with and how he succeeds in the future.

Peace

1) Blow your whistle and raise your hand. Loudly. Wait. Wait some more. Then signal.

Tell him that the role of the official is much like (insert favourite play-by-play announcer) -- you see what is happening and then tell people what it is.

Well it did get me where I am today ;)

I think you are correct to some extent...I think that people have a predisposed "hate" for the uniform, but also bring their own prejudices and bigotry...it's a double whammy sometimes. I am not pushing this on him, it was his decision (that I am very happy and proud that he made). My daughter tried her hand at officiating once and walked off after the first game saying "never again"...so we'll see.

That's a great analogy that I will definitely share with him.

I think he will be fine and I actually think he will do very well. I truly appreciate all the advice.

My son started at 15... and the hardest thing was getting him to stop being afraid to put some air into the whistle.

My son started at 14. For the first couple of years, I worked with him at youth tournaments on Saturday mornings. I usually had worked the night before but really wanted to be out there with him.

He had a couple of advantages--first he was a big kid and coaches likely thought he was older than he actually was. Second, he had me watching his back. Even the youth coaches figure out really quick when a varsity level official is working their games and I think they behaved better than typical.

I always stressed he had to know the rules and had to work on proper mechanics.

Now that he is grown up, lives two hours away, is a lawyer, and married with a small child, I will always cherish the days we reffed together.

I've talked to him about this and he acts like he gets it, but we'll see that first time he's actually on the floor :)

My son also has that advantage, he's tall for his age. I used to be so annoyed when my dad would call me to work the 8th grade championship game at st. so and so, but now I get it. He loves every chance he gets to work with me and he's very proud (if you asked him about me, you'd probably come away thinking I worked a final four :rolleyes:). So no matter how this turns out, the time we spend together on this will be invaluable to me.

I also had the chance to work with my son in the local youth basketball league. The advice I have for you is the same I would give any new ref -- keep studying the rules, watch other refs when you can, ask lots.of questions, blow your whistle loud, and project confidence everytime you make a call. Sure, many of the adults will question you, but they will question you less the more you appear to have no doubts when you make a call. I would also suggest, if its possible, that you get paired with more senior refs when you can just to help you learn during the first year and to have that backup mentioned in an earlier post.

By the way, one of my favorite moments as a ref was watching my son toss a coach. Not because he tossed him but because , as a 16 year old, he had the poise and guts to do it. The guy had been riding us the whole game and I T'd him just before half time. During the third quarter he objected to a non-call, threw down his clip board and yelled at my son, daring him to do it. I watched from all the way down the court as he blew the whistle, signaled the T, and then pointed to the door. Its funny that the next two years that guy was one if the best coaches we encountered after that.

He also needs to keep track of the games he has worked somehow and his schedule and whether or not he has been paid. This could be a great time to teach him some of the off the court responsibilities as well.

And to piggyback on brainbrian's post, I'd also recommend keeping a journal of his progress as an official. I'm in my second year as an official and keep a written diary. In addition to general information about the game, I try to include a couple of things I thought I did well during the game and a couple of things I feel I should improve or focus on improving in the next game.

Hopefully your son's partner will be an adult with at least some experience. My son called a game or two with me when he was ten, and did just fine. That way, basically I could count on him to call out of bounds and administer throw-ins on his two lines, but I could expand and help him call everything else as needed.

Heres what i would do. Since its 3rd and 4th grade, it should be no problem getting proper permission from whomever you need to get permission from and work a few games with him. Not as his partner, but right there next to him. Get him in position. Tell him where his focus needs to be. Help with difficult OOB and the like. Handle things that need to be handled. Be right there to remind him to get his arm up and what the signals are. He's 13, they're 8. No one's going to care, if they do having you there says back off, he's learning.

A couple three games like that then take the training wheels off.

Here at my local association in Australia we have the new officials work with an experienced one as a "shadow" for a number of games. Following this they then begin to work Aussie Hoops which is a program from 5-8 yr old and slowly progress from there. This is great as it allows the younger official to learn mechanics and AOR from the other ref. they do not have to deal with players and coaches, and they are then able to watch and learn aspects of the game from the experienced official. I do a lot of work with young officials every week and love helping them and giving back to the game.

The most common things I am telling the young officials I work with are:

1. Put some air in the whistle and stop the game. Too many times the young ones will make a great call and no one stops because they didn't hear the whistle.
2. Confident signals to the table. If they look like they know what they are doing and are confident they take away some of the yelling and other rubbish that you experience.
3. Block out the rubbish from the sidelines. You probably know more about the rules than they do. I will be there to take care of that.
4. Enjoy it! You have the best seat in the house.

Hope this helps!
East

Thanks so much for all of the great advice. It has given me some great starting points!

Don't be afraid to use your voice:

At the table reporting fouls... calling out of bounds...

if you are meek then even if you make solid calls they will be interpreted as weak.

A lot of tremendous advice already given...I would only add this.

1- Have him practice mechanics in front of the mirror, or you. He'll feel stupid, but, better to feel stupid in front of the mirror than look stupid on the court.

2- Have him pick one or two- no more- just one or two things to work on each game. Anymore than that and he'll get overwhelmed.

3- Have him start a journal. After every game encourage him to write down what were the positives and negatives of that game. When you write it down, it becomes real- and stays with you. If you don't, the games will blur into each other after awhile.

And, good for him and good on you!!! Good luck, and we'll see you on the trail.

This is huge to boost self confidence.

As the guiding force behind 3 teen aged officials I would like to share a few of my secrets:

1- Keep your young refs steadily occupied on the weekends, working at least 8-10 games. They will be so tired they can't get involved in any troublesome shenanigans.
2- Throw them to the wolves, no mollycoddling. Let them take their lumps and learn to be assertive, self-sufficient and responsible.
3- Make sure they have a solid foundation in rules and their proper application. I can't recommend a better venue than this forum.

Also make them bank all but a small fraction of their earnings. As time goes on, uniforms, shoes, camp fees and etc can get expensive. All 3 of my sons are proudly driving 'refmobiles'.

Good luck and stick with it....

Page 79 of the January 2014 Referee Magazine confirms this man knows of what he speaks. :)