Shadowing

[OverAndBack]

My association (wisely) matches up new officials with experienced ones as mentors. I had the chance tonight to observe my mentor's crew as they worked a high school varsity game between two of the top teams in the state.

This is a very experienced crew that has worked together for a long time. Yet they pregamed as if they didn't take anything for granted, and they were brilliant to watch in action. Everything was boom-boom-boom, here's how we're going to go, unfazed, everything was top notch.

All of the guys were wonderful - answering questions or passing along tips or pointing out why they'd do something.

I watched the head linesman for the first quarter and was amazed at everything he has to handle. Then I watched the back judge for half the second quarter, the umpire for the rest of the second quarter, the referee in the third quarter, and the line judge in the fourth. I made a couple pages of notes of things I wanted to remember mechanic-wise and questions to ask.

It was a great learning experience and I encourage any new guys like me to find someone you can go and observe, even if your association doesn't have a formal mentoring program.