As high schools prep for another year of athletics, there’s another team getting ready for its own season. Under the hot rays of the Saturday sun at Pioneer High School on Aug. 9, a new crop of referees tucked their whistles between their teeth and tested out their training for the football season.
For the past few weeks, Rick Moore, the owner of Bay Area Sports Officials (BASO), has worked with the refs almost daily to get them ready for the CCS football season. Every session starts out with a refresher course because repetition is one of the best ways to drill the nearly 80-page rule book into their heads.
While the training sounds intense, it’s not. Moore works hard to create a supportive atmosphere for his new referees, surrounding them with seasoned crew chiefs like Randy Frey, who has officiated CCS games for more than 45 years.
“One of the things that our association [the National Association of Sports Officials] really tries to do is make sure that they’re [new refs are] not getting yelled at by the more senior officials that have been around a long time,” said Frey. “It’s like, come on, these are new guys. We have to help them out. We have to just explain to them what they did wrong and let them know it’s okay. We all made mistakes when we were coming up. Every game you work, you’re going to get a little bit better.”
And the training doesn’t stop when the season starts. Frey says he and his crew will go out after working a Friday night game and talk about football afterwards.
“You get a little something to eat, a little something to drink, and just talk football for a couple hours,” said Frey. “It really helps. It’s fun and you learn, and at the same time, you make friendships.”
Ed Bautista has worked CCS games since 1990. He coaches new refs into breaking things down into smaller parts.
“You can get overwhelmed, and what you need is experience just doing things,” said Bautista. “Work on one thing at a time. Talk to the other members of your crew, and they can help you decide what to concentrate on.
“We want to work with folks that want to succeed, that are excited about it,” Bautista continued. “You know what the other part of it is? Having fun. They have fun on the field. They have fun in the stands. We take it seriously. We work hard for the kids, but we want to make sure that the officials enjoy it also. They have fun. It’s enjoyable to be out here.”
While Moore is training football referees right now, he needs referees in all ten of the sports he oversees for CCS, including football, flag football, field hockey, volleyball (boys and girls), basketball, soccer, wrestling, baseball, softball and gymnastics. The only requirement to be an official is that you have to be over the age of 18, and Moore says it takes some energy to keep up.
“We want to get younger, because we’re all getting older, and we all talk about that,” said Moore. “Next year you’re going to be 55; next year you’re going to be 56. That kid is always 18. He’s always 18, or he’s 17, or 16. You just keep getting older, and they’re going to be that same age because they’re a senior in high school.”
Officials are paid for every game they work. To find out more about Bay Area Sports Officials, visit basoofficials.com.
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