GETTING IT RIGHT

An ‘Existential Crisis’

By Luke Modrovsky

David Pierce, Ph.D., describes the nationwide shortage of sports officials as an “existential crisis” that threatens certain amateur sports. Groups of college students pitched varying solutions to combat the crisis during the NCAA Next Generation Sports Officiating Challenge in March and April.

According to Merriam-Webster, existential is defined as “relating to, or affirming existence.” In essence, Pierce claims that without sports officials, certain amateur sports cannot exist because, as the popular phrase goes, “Without officials, it’s just recess.”

Pierce, who holds a doctorate in sports management from Indiana University-Bloomington and is the sports innovation institute director at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), coordinated the contest.

“Officials are kind of forgotten and are viewed as a necessary evil,” Pierce said. “Everybody looks at it through the lens of the student-athlete or the coaches or the fan experience. No one ever talks about the officiating experience. We talk about visitor experience, fan experience.

“There are all these different lenses through which people are creating innovation and a better world in sport, but rarely is the official the centerpiece of that. To me, it’s a forgotten group but is fundamental to the entire ecosystem.”

Twenty-five groups of college students across the nation presented ideas on not only how to recruit sports officials, but to retain and train them as well. Those 25 competing teams were narrowed to 12 after each submitted a preliminary proposal in March. From there, the 12 remaining teams submitted a fiveminute YouTube video, a 250-word summary and a two-sentence elevator pitch. Four teams were selected as finalists and gave a pre-recorded final proposal during the NextGen Innovation Summit hosted by the Indiana Sports Corp on Facebook Live.

Prior to initial submissions, Pierce provided all of the competing teams with background information, such as data from NASO’s 2017 National Officiating Survey and NASO’s 2002 Special Report on Assaults, and asked teams to conduct preliminary research on the topic.

“NASO did a great job with that research,” Pierce said. “Every local market did their own sports official shortage story.”

Pierce said he wanted students to focus on taking things to the next level by focusing “beyond the media headlines.”

NASO President Barry Mano joined 15 other judges in selecting a “Judges’ Choice” winner.

The judging panel tabbed the University of Georgia the “Judges’ Choice” and Notre Dame took home a separate award based on the Facebook Live vote. The Georgia team pitched a virtual reality game while Notre Dame’s proposal focused on recruiting non-violent prisoners.

Other ideas included social media campaigns, establishing a scholarship fund, standardized training programs, the concept of microlearning and how psychology affects officiating.

To view the final student pitches, visit Facebook.com/ IndianaSportsCorp. Luke Modrovsky is an assistant editor for Referee. He is a five-sport official. 

College students tackled the shortage of sports officials during the NCAA Next Generation Sports Officiating Challenge. Slick Mentorship

The NHL Officials Association, in conjunction with the NHL, founded a mentorship program geared toward a group of 48 elite female officials throughout North America.

From September 2020 through the beginning of January, NHL officials used virtual platforms and held four sessions to share tricks of the trade.

“We thought it would be a nice idea meeting with some people who officiate outside of our level,” NHL referee Wes McCauley said in an article posted on the NHL Officials Association’s website.

Samantha Hiller, 28, said she was thrilled with the sessions, particularly after breaking her leg as a firefighter in May 2020. Hiller is a level four official with USA Hockey working in Illinois.

“One of the things we talked about was self-talk,” Hiller said in the online article. “They were able to talk about things they do when something isn’t going right and to be able to center themselves to get back in the game.”

Soccer Players Showing Empathy?

The grassroots programs of English soccer club academies could be getting a little greener.

England’s Football Association (FA) wants developing players to take a basic referee course so they can have a greater empathy for referees and a better understanding of the Laws of the Game.

“One of the things we will be speaking to the pro game about will be the idea that the scholar program, that goes through the EPPP (Elite Player Performance Plan), we will be seeing if we can try to introduce the basic course to every scholar in the country,” Andy Ambler, FA director of pro game relations, told England’s Evening Standard. “I think it is massively important. What am I saying? I am not saying they have to become qualified referees, but they could take on some form of our course.”

The FA expects to launch the course in the near future.

Have you heard an inspirational or Have you heard an inspirational or motivational offi ciating story? motivational offi ciating story?

VISION ACTION IN

You Are Fully Protected: True or False?

Here at the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) we’ve always prided ourselves on providing the very best insurance protections for our member officials. When it comes to liability insurance protection — the basic type of insurance every official should have — we have always made sure that it covers our member officials for every game, every sport and every level they’re working. Other insurances may only protect officials working in a particular league, or during a particular season or only at a particular level of competition, but NASO insurance covers you for any game, anytime, anywhere.

So if you’re an NASO member, you can safely answer “True” to all of the following scenarios. If you’re not an NASO member and you don’t know if anything below is true for you, you should consider joining today!

SCENARIO 1: Does your insurance protect you if a game is played with modified rules? NASO asks that the event be sanctioned, that it be organized under some kind of playing rules — NFHS, Little League Baseball, U.S. Lacrosse, etc., etc., etc. If the rules are modified, your NASO coverage is still going to follow you as an official, so you’re covered!

SCENARIO 2: Will you be covered if the coaches decide to add an extra period at the end of the game? Everybody’s there; maybe the next game got canceled for whatever reason — are officials still covered for that extra period? For NASO members, the answer is yes!

SCENARIO 3: Will you be covered if your crew is shorthanded? For example, if there are supposed to be three officials at a game and you decide to officiate with two because everyone’s pressuring you to start the game, NASO members are still covered. On the other hand, your liability may increase, which means if you’re sued over something in that game, a case may be argued that you were more liable because of the decision to work shorthanded. Still, your NASO insurance applies.

SCENARIO 4: Will you have coverage if your partner is not certified or accredited? There is no restriction in the NASO policy for that, so if you’re an NASO member, the answer is yes! At the same time, NASO’s mission calls for better educated, trained and properly certified officials. But still, if your partner official is not certified like you, you are covered.

NASO’s premier insurance package provides up to $6 million per occurrence of general liability insurance. Somebody may say, “Well, isn’t $1 million enough?” Maybe 25 years ago it was. If an entire officiating crew of football officials is sued, a million dollars shared among all of you may not be enough.

Best of all even if you have other insurance coverage, NASO’s protections cover you for any gaps the other insurance may not cover.

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