2023
YOUR OFFICIATING STYLE SHOULD EMBRACE PERSONAL GROWTH
It’s been one of those games. Every stop in play, someone from each team is complaining, and that doesn’t even include the coaches, who have been riding you since the start. If that isn’t enough, you have players bickering with one another as well. A few times things have gotten so heated that pushing was close to becoming a full‑out brawl. And then the brawl happens …
You need that like a hole in the head! You’ve done your best to control the climate of the game, but inside you are reaching a boiling point — the danger sign light is flashing!
You knew the game had the potential to get ugly and out of hand. You rationalized that you were “just the official” and not the warden. After all, it is just a game, so you should just let the players do what they do best — play!
Hopefully, the game would come and go quickly, and you could leave. After all, if things did get too bad, actually like they were now, you swore to yourself you would throw down the gauntlet, show everyone who is boss and reel everyone in. Unfortunately, raising your iron fist doesn’t seem to be working — too little too late, things are far too out of hand.
What type of official are you? Some believe it is the “tough times” that define who you really are. Others feel it is the other way around — you define who and what you are, and how you perceive the moments that you are experiencing. Why allow things to “get tough” or out of control when you have the ability to lead and manage? After all, you are the one who is there to officiate and facilitate the happenings in a game.
