Make Them Take Notice

By Tim Sloan

Just think of the possibilities: The biggest football game of the season has raged back and forth between two well-matched teams and now it’s come down to the last play. The quarterback’s majestic pass arcs into the end zone, is bandied about by four different players and finally falls into the grasp of a receiver — either just before or just after touching the ground. The back judge springs into the picture and decisively signals, “no catch.” He’s mobbed by his elated crewmates but quickly tears himself away from them to strut the endline and mug, self-pleasedly, for the sky cam.

As Mike Pereira, FoxSports rules analyst and former NFL vice president of officiating, affirms his call to network viewers, he then bolts toward the seats, executing a graceful swan dive into the arms of adoring fans.

They love the officiating and everybody present wants to be just like them. Within the hour, the NASO and NFHS websites are jammed by people trying to learn more about becoming an official. What a bonanza!

Maybe not.

Until a section of the stands is filled with striped shirts at some place other than the state pen, we officials will have to find other ways to attract attention than through shameless self-promotion … but it would sure be easier if we were rich, self-absorbed celebrities; then more people would want to be just like us.

During many years in this business, one of the things I’ve had to do more often than I wanted is to sit down and figure out some new way to get more bodies into the fold. It’s a love/hate sort of thing because the same elements that make the avocation attractive to many people, like the challenge and extra cash, are often the causes of attrition, too.

“What’s the best way to attract officials and retain them?”

At one level, it’s an easy question. It’s easy to stand out in front of Sam’s Club behind a little card table covered with brochures for your association and some attractive Referee “how to” books on officiating. And anybody with an extra 12 bucks in her association budget can find a way of leaving a thousand business cards in the intramurals office at the local college. While those are fine strategies, if it were that easy to woo new officials, one would imagine we’d have to find ways of beating back the crowds we could expect.

No, getting people to take the plunge and become officials, beyond the ones who need the money more than anything, comes down to something more than hype; it’s all the little things we might do that make people see we’re something different to be a part of. Find every way we can to defy expectations. Get people to see that being an official isn’t just about us.

It can start with little things: I worked a lot of basketball games with a guy who, while waiting for the quarter to start, would turn around and hand the ball to someone in the front row to look after: old person, little kid, cutie in the cheering section — they’d sit and cradle that ball like it was a newborn. It was trivial, but they were a part of something necessary, for a moment, and it was kind of cool to watch their reaction. No one ever turned down the offer.

OK, most of the time it’s about more than handing out chocolate bars and pinching cheeks. Challenge public perceptions.

• “Officials are just in it for the money.” Run a free youth officials clinic some weekend.
• “Refs are a bunch of out-of-shape geezers.” Organize a 5K in the offseason; make sure some of your people run in it.
• “Refs think they’re better than us.” Go down to the high school as a group some afternoon and help tutor or pick a Saturday, go to the children’s ward at the hospital and just hang out.

If you and your association members are like most officials, many more people than you might think know you’re officials and are watching. They often believe you’re a symbol of something — but what? If they like what they see, that’s when they join up.

In today’s world, almost anything that you can do to pleasantly surprise people with your humanity can be the greatest advertising campaign you could ever run. I’m not suggesting making people think we’re different. I’m saying that we are different to begin with by how, why and where we ply our trade. We need to gently remind people of that and get them to want to be a part of it.

Don’t think of bringing in new officials as a transaction. There’s too much of that. Make it an invitation and that’s when your numbers will start to grow.

Tim Sloan, Davenport, Iowa, is a high school football, basketball and volleyball official, and a former college football and soccer official.