Field Hockey Referee Update

I have been a field hockey referee for 7 full seasons now. The season starts in August and ends in early to mid November.

The board of officials for which I work, BBOWS - the Baltimore Board of Women's Sports, has an interesting field hockey jurisdiction:
1. All of the public schools in Baltimore County
2. All of the independent/private schools that are not in an area considered a suburb of DC. This means everything from McDonogh to Severn down near Annapolis
3. Some schools in Harford County (never had one of these).
4. Some schools in Cecil County (never had one of these either).
5. All of the youth league games on Sundays. Typically, you're the only ref for those games, so there's LOTS of running involved there!

Most of my varsity and jv games are at the private schools because of their later start times and proximity to my work. The later I can leave, the better. But I do get the occasional public school game, like if it's on a Saturday or something. I also get a ton (4-5 a day) every Sunday September and October, plus the season end tournament the first weekend in November. This year, I worked games 4 days a week which is more than I had ever worked in the past.

Why do I do this? Because:
1. It keeps me in touch with local field hockey at the high school and youth levels.
2. It gets me outside and running around (it's excellent exercise)!
3. It pays pretty well!
4. It lets me give back to a sport I love to play and watch and now, officiate.

In 2005, I got a call from my assignor that she was rewarding me for all of my hard work (read: travel to youth league games that were over an hour away more than half of the Sundays I worked) by assigning me to the Baltimore County Senior All-Star game to be played under the lights at Towson (State) University. Neat-o!!!! I was very excited to know that she had noticed my hard work but that the Board had noticed that my skills as a referee had grown to a level where I could take on an all-county all-star game. That game ended up being a lot of fun to officiate, despite the torrential downpour we had the entire game.

In 2006, I got a call from my assignor that again, she was rewarding me for all of my hard work with the private school B Conference Championship game (to be played on turf). There was a chance that McDonogh would get to the finals, so there could be a conflict of interest. But we agreed that if they did make it to the final, it's been long enough since I graduated that their presence wouldn't change anything. I don't know the coaches or the players so I don't really care. McDonogh didn't make the final, and I had one of THE most fun games ever that day. The atmosphere was electric and there was a big crowd and it was just outright fun. To date, it's one of my favorite officiating memories.

Also that year, I got a bunch of championship games during the youth league tournament. Despite being in my 2nd trimester with DJ and carrying around a fair amount of weight, I managed to keep up with the play on the field even after the 4th or 5th game that day. I felt like I called good games that tournament that were fair and clean.

Apparently, I've proven my worth as a ref over the last few years, both during the regular season and during the important games, like the B Conference championship game, because this year, I got some awesome games!! I got assigned to a public school regional semifinal, a private school B Conference quarter final, an A Conference semifinal, and then I got a public school State Championship semifinal! Here's why these are all big deals.

Clearly, tournament level games feature teams with higher skill levels and so the game is faster and more subtle in terms of the fouls. They are also highly emotional, so solid game control (and crowd control for that matter) is paramount! That said, you don't get assigned to games like these, especially ones like a private school A Conference tournament game that gets high press both at the local and college levels, if your skills are subpar. It makes both you and the Board look bad and frankly, it's enormously frustrating to all parties involved.

But wait, there's more. You have to be selected by a Board of public school coaches to be the referee for any of the games for the public school State Championships. So for me to have been assigned to the State Semifinal, that means the board of coaches saw enough of my officiating this year to decide that I could successfully handle a game of that caliber. My assignor had submitted my name last year, too, but clearly I wasn't selected. I suspect that's the reason why I got the private school B Conference championship game instead that year.

The private school B Conference quarterfinal I had this year was pretty uneventful.

The private school A Conference semifinal, on the other hand, not so uneventful. It's not like there were any incidents, but the flow of the game was just *weird*, and weird is hard to officiate. The pace was very fast, the intensity level was as electric as a championship game, and the skill level was above and beyond the vast majority of the games I'd officiated ever. The fouls were subtle, the slight pushing was rampant (and very hard to see without being at the exact right angle to see it) and I admit, I struggled with that game. I don't tend to leave games wondering if I'd done a good job anymore, but I left that game wondering. And it bothered me for a few days, even. I felt like this despite the parents/fans of the losing team saying "thank you" and "good game".

It's funny because at the public school regional semifinal a few days previously, I know I ran a good game, and the parents/fans of the losing team said I did a "horrible" job. And I didn't think twice about the game thereafter either. Confidence levels are weird that way, I guess. Or maybe it's just that the parents/fans of the private school losing team are just classier and more adult than the parents/fans of the public school losing team. Who knows.

The public school State Semifinal game was this past Monday night, under the lights. The game itself was weird to officiate but for some reason, it didn't seem nearly as bad as the private school A conference semifinal a few days earlier. The game went great overall even though the losing team fans would tell you I was officiating a wrestling match, and I received a patch to commemorate the fact that I was a Championship Official. I'm supposed to wear that patch to any future public school games I have. Neat-o!!

So I guess in the high school referee circles, I'm moving up in the world and making a name for myself. That's pretty cool, frankly. Queston is, am I ready or maybe more importantly, do I want to move up to the college level?

I think I'm ready, but I don't think I want to. I'm really enjoying the level of play at the high school level, and I'm enjoying being involved with it. Field Hockey in the Baltimore metro area is better than a fair number of Division III college play. There's something to be said for that.

P.S. Huge CONGRATS to the McDonogh Field Hockey team for winning the IAAM B Conference championship!! I'm sorry I couldn't be there to watch in person... was officiating a few tournament finals for the youth leagues.