The Official View: The Next Generation
By
Brent Rice
MHSAA Assistant Director
October 27, 2020
By Brent Rice
MHSAA Assistant Director
At a time when we continually hear about the aging population of our veteran officials, it is refreshing to have an entire varsity crew made up of officials under 30.
The MHSAA continues to push to recruit the next generation of officials. Current officials can do their part by signing up someone new each year … and of any age.
We kick of our October installment of “The Official View” with this photo of one of those up-and-coming crews.
Pictured above (left to right) are Nick Wallace, Joey Lapinski, Dan Dobrosielski, Nick Meyer, Zach Ferguson, Austin White and Kevin Klein.
It’s Official!
Postseason assignments: Officials in cross country, football, soccer, swim and volleyball are being notified of their postseason assignments. Especially during a year when it has been difficult to find officials to conduct our sports safely and fairly, we appreciate all of those who have been able to put on the uniforms for both the regular and postseason. For those who were not able to officiate this year, we understand; and we look forward to having you back as soon as we can get back to normal.
Meetings & exams: Rules meetings for winter sports have been released, and tournament exams will soon follow. Please make sure to mark Dec. 10 on your calendar as the date when winter postseason eligibility requirements are due for officials.
Guidelines: Officials for all sports can keep up-to-date on facial covering requirements by CLICKING HERE, and stay current on policies for your specific sport by going to the sport-specific officials page of the MHSAA website.
Know Your Rules
SWIMMING For an event requiring a forward start, a swimmer requests permission to start in the water.
Ruling: This is permissible. In order to remain legal though, the swimmer must enter the pool feet first.
It’s Your Call
Last month’s IYC involved a trick play with Team A players leaving the playing field. First this is a no goal, and each of the players that left without the permission of the official should receive a yellow card. However, since the cards occurred during a stoppage of play, and before the kick was made, Team A retains the corner kick when play resumes.
VOLLEYBALL The newest “It’s Your Call” comes from the volleyball court. Team A’s kill attempt is blocked back to its side of the net. As the ball is about to hit the floor, A13 lunges her leg out and kicks the ball in the air. Then, the libero instinctively kicks her leg out, doing the same. Finally, A3 makes a diving dig back to the other side of the net. The ball lands in, near Team B’s end line. What’s the call?
The Official View: What’s in a Uniform
Officials in most sports are identified by the style of their shirts. Soccer referees are well-known for wearing shirts in a variety of bright, stunning colors. For many years, baseball umpires were so closely identified with the color of their uniform tops, they were (and often still are) contemptibly referred to as “Blue.”
But perhaps there is no more iconic uniform shirt than the black and white stripes worn by officials in a number of sports over the last century. In fact, this easily recognizable pattern associated with referees has its origins in Michigan high school sports.
That’s right, the first reported occurrence of any official wearing stripes goes back to the 1921 Michigan high school basketball finals. That referee was Lloyd Olds, and he was a multi-sport official out of Ypsilanti. The idea came to him following an unfortunate incident in a college football game when the Arizona quarterback mistook Olds as a teammate and threw him the football. You see, the Arizona team wore white uniforms, and were very similar looking to Olds’ own officials uniform – consisting of black slacks and a white dress shirt with bow tie. It became apparent to him that officials should wear a uniform that distinguished them from the teams.
When Olds returned home, he sat down with friend and sporting goods store owner, Greg Moe, to design the first black-and-white striped uniform. He decided to pull the uniform shirt out of the closet for the final game of the high school basketball postseason, and soon began wearing it when he worked both basketball and football.
This new outfit quickly caught on at both the high school and college levels, and it wasn’t long before this became the norm around the world and across all levels. While officials’ uniforms regularly change these days, some form of stripes will likely be around forever – and it all started with a Michigan high school official.
If you have an interesting story or an official you’d like to see promoted, send details and pictures to [email protected].
Northern MI Officials Honor 'Pioneer'
December 30, 2016
By Mike Spencer
Special for Second Half
TRAVERSE CITY – Barb Beckett was in a familiar spot – center circle at the Traverse City St. Francis gymnasium – for a boys varsity basketball game.
The longtime Michigan High School Athletic Association referee was not tossing up another ball to start the Dec. 17 contest with visiting Cadillac, but she was nonetheless the center of attention.
The Northern Sports Officials Association, and St. Francis athletic officials, honored Beckett for her decades of officiating service at halftime. A 34-year official and longtime president of the NSOA, she received plaudits, a trophy and a bouquet of flowers.
“To be recognized by your peers is probably the greatest thrill that one could hope for,” Beckett said. “It was a totally unexpected and humbling experience.
“I could never give back as much as the NSOA has given to me. And looking up and seeing a sea of officials and generations that I had officiated in my career was amazing.”
"Barb has been instrumental in mentoring, developing, and coaching officials to be the best they can be,” said Bill Parker, who succeeded Beckett as the association’s president earlier this year. "She has always had a great passion for high school sports and her way to stay involved has been officiating and as a leader in NSOA."
Parker said honoring Beckett was a great way to show her that the NSOA appreciated her efforts.
“When someone devotes so much time to an association, it is great to acknowledge their contributions,” Parker said.
Beckett is well known in statewide officiating circles. The first woman to officiate an MHSAA Boys Basketball Final (1995) was awarded the MHSAA’s Vern Norris Award in 2000 and Women In Sports Leadership Award in 2013.
“Barb has been a true pioneer in what she, along with the other leaders of the Northern Sports Officials Association, has been able to accomplish in areas of recruiting, training and retaining sports officials,” said MHSAA assistant director Mark Uyl, the association's director of officiating. “At her core, Barb is a people person. The relationships that she has built with fellow officials, school administrators, coaches and student-athletes have been exemplary.”
Uyl said he was not surprised to see Beckett honored by her fellow officials.
“It’s a true testament of the kind of person Barb is,” Uyl said. “She has blazed an incredible trail as a leader in high school officiating. We need more people like Barb that are true advocates and supporters of those that are officiating games in school sports.”
Although Beckett turned in her whistle more than a decade ago, she is still involved in the NSOA as an assignor, advisor to the board and mentor.
“I knew many years ago that I was here to serve,” said Beckett, who also has been the program director for the Grand Traverse Bay YMCA. “I have been able to fulfill that life expectation of myself.”
Beckett, who officiated numerous high-level basketball and softball tournament games, said getting the association to assign games through a web-based system and getting officials better trained are two major accomplishments from her presidency.
“The assigning system has completely changed the way in which we operate and so has the training,” she said. “We emphasize the importance of educating and we wanted our officials to have the best and most comprehensive rules, mechanics and game-situation knowledge of anyone in the state.”
Beckett said she got into officiating just like a lot of others because she thought she could make a difference and do better than those that she had watched.
Beckett said working her first MHSAA Softball Final and the Class C Boys Basketball Final were among her officiating highlights.
“The boys Final was the best experience ever,” Beckett said. “I didn’t get any sleep the night before the game and I was never comfortable with all the attention of being the first female to work a boys Final.
“I saw myself as being just another official, not a female official.”
Beckett said she’s always had the “greatest partners ever,” and “they made me look way better than I actually was.” Among the greats were Joe Lemieux, Tom Post, Kenny Allen, Scott Jones, Clint Kerr and “many more, too,” she added.
As far as accolades, Beckett said she’s not a fan of self-recognition nights. But she’ll remember the cold, snowy winter night of Dec. 17, 2016.
“I like casual and homey nights like that,” she said. “My NSOA family was there with me so it was extra special.
“It’s a bond that we have as officials. We are all brothers and sisters.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Barb Beckett stands along the sidelines with her trophy and bouquet of flowers after the ceremony in her honor Dec. 17 during halftime of the Traverse City St. Francis boys basketball game against Cadillac. (Middle) Northern Sports Officials Association members, from left: president Bill Parker, assignor and mentor Barb Beckett and secretary Mark Stewart. (Photos by Mike Spencer.)