CIF-SS Officials Appreciation Week 2024

Officiating is a passionate and demanding job that requires dedication and love for the sport. Jenn, John, Jeff, and MaryAnne shared their experiences and perspectives, highlighting the importance of ensuring player safety and providing a fair competition. They emphasized the satisfaction of doing something well, teaching others, and giving back to the community.

Interviewees:
Jenn McCall
John Moore
Jeff Taylor
MaryAnn Menlove

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my name is Jen mall and I am a water po
referee my name is John Moore and I was
a u basketball official for about 28
years I actually was a high school
basketball coach for U I think about 17
years prior to that now I assign the CIF
playoffs and I assigned the games down
in South Orange County my name is
Jeffrey Taylor I’m a South Bay Area
football basketball
I’ve done softball and I’ve done
baseball I’m a 35y year basketball
official for South Bay I’m a 26 year
football official for South Bay my name
is Maryann menl I am the CIF State rules
interpreter for girls flag football also
the cfoa instructional chairman for
girls flag football and I currently
umpire High School softball and
officiate High School football I got
started through a gentleman named Royce
kie who is my mentor he was he he this
is what happened I played in the
basketball game and I was pretty good at
at basketball and I was playing in the
game and he was officiating and I didn’t
like a call he made and I I was
Notorious for being on the officials and
I was on his case and finally but he
knew me since I was a young man so
finally I guess I frustrated him but he
was frustrated from the night before and
he took the Jersey off and threw it at
me and he left now now everyone’s
looking at me like Jeff what did you do
so I’m like oh wow so first I had to go
apologize to him first of all cuz he was
he was a mentor of mine and I apologize
and he told me if you’re interested in
officiating come to this address Tuesday
night and I went and the rest is
history just love watching sports I just
love it so after a few years of just
continually badgering the television for
no good reason my girlfriend encouraged
me to become a basketball official and I
reached out to local basketball
officiating
organization and became involved with
them in my first year of
coaching I think I was about 23 years
old I yelled at one of the officials and
they told me to learn the
rules and so I went and grabbed a rule
book and I looked and I was wrong and I
thought my God if I’m going to coach
this sport I probably ought to know the
rules so I told a story to one of the
varsity officials that year and he said
well you should come to the meetings
with me if you want to and you can learn
the rules and so I always had in the
back of my mind like I said that if I
quit coaching I would get into
officiating well finally in about 1985 I
think it was um the coaching ran its
course with me and I got into
officiating and it went well and within
about 5 years I had been accepted in the
pack 10 program I was doing it for extra
money and and then it became it just
became a passion I was running
tournaments and had become a certified
referee um but never signed up to
actually referee a game and so while I
was running a tournament a referee had
an emergency his wife fell at home and
had to leave and I said well I’m a
certified referee so maybe I can go grab
some white clothes really quick and ref
the rest of the day so um did that and
the rest is kind of history definition
of being an official is hard work being
an official means giving back to the
sport that I love time my only job when
I step onto any court or any field is to
ensure that the players are safe and
that everyone gets a fair chance rules
knowledge but just being out there and
being able to see the 10 and Enders the
12 and Enders you know learning the
sport and kind of getting their feet off
the ground with their friends and what I
now know that I have lifelong friends
from mechanic knowledge being able to go
out and know that I’m serving the sport
that gave me some of the best memories
and opportunities of a lifetime and
dedication I want the winner to be the
winner and the person who competed the
best at that time and dependability
those are good words that put in the
definition of a of an official very good
words yes I get little Goosebumps when I
think about it uh it’s such a special
thing to be able to participate with
the youth in our communities today they
are amazing amazing human
beings and bring so much to my life with
their smiles and their efforts and teach
me in ways that I didn’t even know were
possible I wanted to be an
official because I wanted to I used to
like I told you I used to be notorious I
used to oh man I was on an official if
he didn’t call a call for me I was on
him I was on him so I wanted to be that
official to make every call then I
realized you can’t make every call you
can’t you’re not going to get every call
correct people don’t understand that we
make
mistakes and we’re not perfect we feel
just as bad when we’re wrong or we make
a
mistake because we know it might cost
the team a playoff a game it might cost
that if we file someone out might cost
that might be the last time that that
student athlete ever
plays and that’s something that it
weighs heavy on a lot of them we’re
trying our best and um you know no one’s
doing it to spite anybody that we do it
because we have the same passion for the
sport that the players and the coaches
have um but I think referees kind of get
the short end of the stick sometimes a
lot of the fans coaches players if they
even just come to a class and see what
we’re learning and see you know what we
go through prior to the season that
would change a lot of the the negativity
we see on these on this new social media
Outlets the the attacking of officials
the berading of officials there’s the
times where something weird happens in
your game and you know something you
know we have rules but some of the rules
we never use because those things don’t
come up right there for the special
moments and those happen in your game
and you have to refer back to your rule
book and then and you remember that
player forever and you’re like yep
that’s happened to me before and I’m
going to get it right the next time and
hopefully it doesn’t happen the next
time one thing I I would want to tell
the youngsters is that think about
officiating after you finish High School
everyone’s not going to get a
scholarship a lot everyone’s not going
to be able to play the sport that they
love Beyond high school so maybe you can
officiate that Sport and still give your
love and passion to that sport you
played as an official one of the most
difficult things about our job is that
everyone else wants to do our job but
nobody wants to actually step on the
field and do our job I could you know do
the job of editing this video from my
couch at home but it’s not going to be
what it would be if a professional’s
doing it um the same way that people try
to do the work of officials from the
stands or from their couch at home I
dedicate
probably 300 hours to officiating prior
to the season starting and that was
basketball football it’s even more cuz I
go to officiating clinics camps so I
spend my own money to go to camps
clinics to get better 99% of us this
isn’t a full-time job this is something
we do because we love it we love giving
back it’s meaningful in our lives and
it’s part of what we want to be and do I
work for the state of California I work
for the state of California for 30 years
and um for me the time
commitment it it was rough cuz I was
raising two sons this is a hobby for me
um obviously it’s a paid hobby it’s
something that I enjoy doing so we can
say it’s a second job uh I’m a full-time
paralal which is a very demanding job
I’m at a very high-profile firm so work
anywhere from 40 hours a week to 60 or
70 hours a week of in the week um
whether we’re preparing for trial or
something and um so I always say like
you know sometimes we get yelled at
during games and people are like well
this is your job and I’m like it’s not
my job it’s my hobby and you know maybe
your hobby is reading out at the beach
and no one yells at you when you’re
reading out at the beach right so I
always you know people people like to
compare it to a job and although we do
get paid for it is you know it’s
something that I like to do and it’s fun
for me to do and it’s fun to walk away
from my computer and go and head to the
pool deck my personal favorite part
about officiating and I’ll start with
basketball
it was amazing that the kids the respect
at that time when I first started and I
started in the early ’90s
1990 it was a lot of respect toward
officials you might not see it on TV you
might not see it at the professional
ranks but at the high school ranks there
were there there was a lot of respect
and admiration I mean they wouldn’t call
Us official or something they call us
coach right now in my life uh being an
official means everything to me it
really does and that may sound grandiose
or or something but it means that I have
opportunity to give back to my community
cly it had its moments of excitement and
rush and uh it beat watching TV for sure
on a Friday night um I had a lot of
friends in basketball and so it helped
me stay with the game number 26 of the
defense going to get CJ La J the sopore
across all sports Across the Nation
we’re um very very short on officials we
need officials um we would do everything
we can to ease you into the profession
even if you don’t know the game Beyond
sitting on your couch on a Saturday
afternoon watching we will teach you the
game we will help you become the kind of
official that you would be proud of when
I talk to younger referees or people
that think about considering it um
they’re always hesitant and I was
hesitant myself you know I got certified
and then never signed up until kind of
hit me in the face one day um so I would
say go out and do it obviously I would
recommended it for crying out loud I did
it for 28 years days are going to be
hard for sure and you’re going to walk
off the deck thinking I’m never going
back but go back because the next day is
probably not going to be as bad and
you’re going to have a good experience
and it’s going to be worth it at the end
officiating is fun y’all I I have this
smile on my face every time I step onto
a field I have this smile on my face
even if a Coach is badgering me about
something
um I feel very lucky CIF supports their
officials greatly they give us backing
they allow us freedom and flexibility to
call the rules as we see fit at any
given moment in time they allow us
opportunity to be educated and teach us
how to do our skill and you would get
the same from them I promise you that on
a Friday night while someone else is
sitting at home trying to find a good
movie on TV without luck you’re out
there exercising and and maybe working
hopefully a nice game in front of five
or 600 people and uh walking out of
there having done it well and thinking
wow that was kind of cool from my
perspective and from where I sit we need
more females involved we would love for
you to come join pick your favorite
sport you only have to pick one one will
help us out tremendously and then just
spread the word
and and again it’s at the CIF Southern
section website cifss.org
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don’t be shy um you know jump into the
profession and we’ll do everything we
can to ease you along and uh but you you
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so oops