This is a short book full of advice, insight, commentary, methods, and strategies for managing a game and improving as a lacrosse official. I want any official who reads this book to feel more confident when they next step onto the field. I am looking forward to putting out future editions of “Advancement Rules” every two to three years. Those editions will go into more detail of specific officiating techniques, interviews with top NCAA officials, and more strategies that I’ve implemented in my game.

This book has been a great labor of love for me, and it could not have happened without the contributions, advice, testimonials, and stories from numerous officials. They are, in no particular order: Wade Lenicka, Brad Lapinski, Rick Eltz, James Eubanks, Dave Adams, Jim Kennedy, Stuart Smith, Jeff Green, A. Nick Brown, Bill Powell, Jon Oschner, Don Stoppenbach, Jeremy Redmon, Tony Rouse, Lou Diaz, Andy Halperin, Topher Lawson, Eric Sanders, Mike Gossett, Patrick Fecke, Harold Buck, and Brian Higgins. Any omissions are the fault of the author.

To the Georgia Lacrosse Officials Association – It has been one of the great pleasures of my life to officiate with the individuals that comprise this fantastic association.

To those that have shared a LAREDO event with me: Jeremy Redmon, Topher Lawson, Jeff Greene, Kurt Trampel, Jon Cisowski, Jeremy Bofman, Dave DuBan, Pat Finn, Nic Herriges, David Redfern, Ben Voskia. We went through the crucible of training and came out better officials. I had a blast working and hanging out with all of you.

Special thanks to the men who have mentored me over the years: David Clements, Peter Fleury, Trey Towery, Jeff Bruso, and Dale Hall. If it wasn’t for you taking me under your wing and advising me after games I would never have reached the goals I set for myself.

To every official I’ve ever worked with. I’ve learned something from all of you that helped to improve my game.

A special thanks to my sister, Caitlin Corsetti, for her hard work editing this book.

Finally, to my parents. My mother, Mary Jo, for all of her support and belief, and my father, Lou, who has always been my biggest fan.

I decided to put a little teaser of the book up on the AYL blog so here is the introduction to “Advancement Rules!”

My career as a lacrosse official began in the seventh grade. I helped run the scorer’s table during youth games at Atlanta Youth Lacrosse, one of the earliest youth lacrosse leagues in Georgia. On the final game of the evening, the scheduled officials did not show up. The players and coaches were ready to go, but we had no one to ref the game. I was the only person around who had read at least part of the rulebook. So I stepped down from the elevated scorer’s platform, grabbed a whistle, and soldiered onto the field for my first game.

I was alone, petrified, and had no idea what I was doing. I knew what a slash was, but I had no clue how to report it properly. I had a vague notion of the proper enforcement of a flag down slow-whistle. I had zero idea of how to conduct a play-on. At the very least, I knew how to signal a goal. I distinctly remember angering the head coach of the home team. A person who, up until that point, I had considered a friend and mentor in lacrosse. He was incensed that I did not award a free clear to his team after a foul by the opposing team in his team’s defensive half of the field. This is something I do without hesitation now, but I had no clue what he was talking about then. All I could do was stare at him as he yelled and gesticulated emphatically that I was the single worst official he had ever seen on a lacrosse field. That was the inauspicious start to my officiating career.

Despite that coach’s opinion of my officiating abilities, I found that I liked wearing the stripes for two primary reasons. One, I liked getting paid. It was a marvelous first experience to be handed cash after the game by the league administrator, and I was making a terrific hourly rate at roughly $20-25 per game. It definitely beat working retail. Two, I liked the authority. Not many middle and high school students get to exercise authority and command. The authority of being an official was intoxicating. I blew my whistle and play stopped. I threw my flag and handed out swift judgment. I reported fouls and people listened. For a young kid, the general deference people showed me when wearing stripes was just plain cool.

While my officiating career began in my early teens, I did not consider it a profession until I joined the Georgia Lacrosse Officials Association, GLOA, in 2008. When I hit the field for my first game as a newly certified GLOA official I was a nervous wreck. But, game by game I got a little more confident, and a little more sure of myself. I was also incredibly lucky with the officials I was partnered with. Those individuals, many of whom contributed to this book, were my first mentors and they helped navigate a hapless first year official through the treacherous terrain that all new officials must go through. By the end of that year I was a better official. Mainly due to the experience I gained on the field and the advice I received from my mentors. However, I was far from being the official that I wanted to be.

That off-season I was consumed with improving my officiating skills and reaching that next level. I read as many books as I could find on officiating. I watched the college officials on television. I called my mentors after fall ball games if I had questions. I even practiced signals in the mirror. My goal was to get assigned varsity games, and I wanted to do everything possible to get to that level. Eventually, I put in enough work and started seeing assignments pop up every so often with a varsity tag next to it. To say I was both thrilled and nervous is an understatement. Having reached my goal, I needed a new one. Which became how do I become the referee on games instead of the umpire? Once I started getting referee positions, the next thought was, “Maybe I could be a college official.” I am proud to say I was recently recommended to become a collegiate official, and will have some college games in the 2013 regular season on my schedule.

Every year there is a new goal, a new level to reach or place to advance to. The question you must ask yourself is how do you get to the next level in lacrosse officiating? Whether you want to move from youth games to junior varsity, JV to varsity or varsity to college. This book will help you advance and reach your goals in this fantastic profession.

I’ll do another post once the book goes to print and is available on Amazon!

Cheers,
Gordon

Cheers,
Gordon

Then there is this:

That video of an adult coach tripping two youth hockey players is one of the most despicable actions I have ever seen. SportsCenter did a piece on this video, and apparently the coach was sentenced to fifteen days in prison for assault, 12 years of probation, and a lifetime ban from youth hockey coaching. One of the players that he tripped suffered a broken wrist.

I do not have enough negative words to describe the depths of my contempt for this coach. All I can really say after watching that video is that he broke the sacred trust between teams to not carry resentments from the game into the handshake. He also assaulted at thirteen year old – let’s not forget that.

In nearly every lacrosse game I have participated in as a player, coach, and official I have witnessed two teams cheer the efforts of their opponent and shake hands like gentlemen shortly after the final horn. I believe it is an essential element of a lacrosse game. Those handshakes put the game firmly in the books, and signifies the transition from competitors to citizens.

That transition is important for players of all ages. The handshake marks the end of all the trials that the players and the teams went through during the game, and shows that all the players on both teams are willing to move on no matter how the game ended. The hockey coach in that video decided to sully a sacred moment while the players on each team had their guards down. That is cowardly, cheap, and flat-out dirty.

Let’s all commit to giving the respect our opponents deserve by giving a firm handshake, and congratulating one another on a game well played.

Cheers,
Gordon

The goal of the following notes is to provide our coaches with another resource to improve their coaching and teach their players more effectively. If anyone has any additional strategies that they’ve found useful over the years please comment in the comments section below!

Practice Observations (2/5/2013)

• Warm ups
  • If you’re at a loss on what to do to warm up your players here is a short warm up that I’ve been using for years: http://ayllax.com/dynamic-warm-up. It is important to get your players moving their bodies in preparation for the work they are about to do. Take five minutes at the start of practice and get everyone warmed up.
• I liked the ground ball work
  • Many coaches started right off with ground ball drills, which I’m a big fan of for youth players. Let’s face it, it takes players time before they are humming the ball in the air, and it makes sense to teach players how to effectively pick up a ground ball. There were many different drills that each coach preferred, but they all taught the same technique. Here’s a post on proper ground ball technique if anyone needs a refresher: http://ayllax.com/the-basics-ground-ball-pickup
• Two minute explanations
  • I felt that there was a lot of explaining going on at both age levels. This is a common occurrence on the first few days of practice, but it can be a practice-killer if a coach takes too long explaining what the drill is. A good tip is to practice how your are going to explain a drill to your players, and try to keep that explanation under two minutes. Any longer and kids start going off into la-la land instead of paying close attention to you. Here is a post on keeping your explanations short and to the point: http://ayllax.com/three-steps
• Have a practice plan!
  • I cannot emphasize this enough. Put your practice plan on your phone, on paper, or on and index card. Plan out drills that are eight to ten-minutes in length. Any longer and the kids get bored. Any shorter and the kids don’t have enough time to work on the skill.
• The basics
  • You can’t go wrong if you focus on the basics for the first two weeks. There is no need for complicated drills that have a lot of moving parts. Before you graduate to transition work all your players need to be able to pass and catch. Focus on drills that give players lots of touches on the ball. Partner everyone up and pass and catch for ten minutes. In that amount of time they’ll get over a hundred touches on the ball.
  • Passing and catching, ground balls, running to space, shooting, and breaking down on defense. Those five things should be what a youth coach focuses on for at least the first two weeks. Let the experienced kids shake off the offseason rust, and let the beginners get a bunch of time with the ball in their stick.
• Standing around
  • If you have a drill that involves half of your team standing around and watching the other half participate in the drill you are not using your time effectively. Use drills that get everyone working at the same time and keep standing time to a minimum. That means having four line drills instead of one. If you have more than three or four kids in a line you have a problem. The kids standing around will not be paying attention to anything. Remember, kids want to move so keep your explanations short and involve everyone in the drill.
• If you are unsure – ask
  • If you are not 100% certain that what you are teaching your players is correct then wave down Coach Halperin or I. We are there to help you coach your players if you need some assistance. If you want to work on passing and catching but aren’t sure which drill would work best then get our attention and we will get your players into a new drill.

Too often we coaches can get wrapped up in getting our young players to execute a ridiculously complicated, but very cool, new drill. Remember to start with the basics and lay a strong foundation for your team by getting everyone to a level where they can perform those fundamentals consistently. Only then can you start coaching the more complex strategies of lacrosse.

If anyone has any questions you can put them in the comments section below or email me at rules@ayllax.com.

Cheers,
Gordon

If I’ve learned one thing coaching lacrosse it is that kids do not like being told no. They also forget that you said no very quickly if you get them moving into some sort of drill. Then they’re more focused on the drill than the fact that they aren’t scrimmaging. You have to be strong as a coach to resist the urge to scrimmage instead of completing drills because scrimmaging should be used sparingly.

Look at high school teams in Georgia. They usually scrimmage another team once prior to the regular season starting up. In practice they rarely do full-field scrimmages unless they are working on a particular transition from defense to offense. What I find strange is the number of youth coaches that just scrimmage their kids on almost every practice. Just scrimmaging is the mark of a poor coach and an even poorer teacher.

Our job as coaches is to teach the game, not officiate a scrimmage each and every day. If all or most of what you are doing at practice is scrimmaging you are doing your players a disservice because you have no control over what happens. Drills allow coaches to put players in unique situations that they are likely to face in a game but in a concentrated way that get the players focused on what to do when something happens. Drills, especially when conducted in a confined area, teach players that space is valuable, which translates to kids finding space when they play a game. Practices where the bulk of time is spent scrimmaging is a very passive way to coach a team. You cannot focus on teaching the kids any one thing because as soon as something happens, something else happens that demands their attention.

Drills are a scalpel, while scrimmages are a broad paintbrush. You can accomplish so much more in a practice that has ten drills designed to simulate in-game situations than scrimmaging ever will. Even more, you will be able to focus on individual players more often because you will see their mistakes more clearly. For instance, in a scrimmage a couple of kids will shoot the ball, but in a shooting drill every kid will shoot the ball over two dozen times. That allows you to see the problems in their shooting mechanics and correct it immediately and then the player can apply your teaching for the next two dozen shots.

My other beef with scrimmage-happy coaches is that scrimmages tend to highlight the better players at the expense of the less-skilled ones. The better players tend to get the ball more often and the less-skilled players are often left standing around wondering what they are supposed to do. Drills include every single player regardless of ability. So what if your least-skilled player misses every pass to him in a line drill? He at least got to see passes. If he were in a scrimmage he would likely never be passed the ball because the more-skilled players don’t want to chance him dropping the ball. These scrimmages reinforce to the better players that they are better than they think they are, and tell the less-skilled players that they aren’t worth much.

Finally, my biggest problem with scrimmages is that it is a telltale sign that the coach didn’t put in any work for the practice. Forget to put together your practice plan? Scrimmage! Don’t know what to do? Scrimmage! It gets the kids moving and the coach barely has to invest any energy for the entire practice. As I said earlier, doing this is a disservice to your players. They deserve more. Coaches need to plan out their practices. Spend an hour on Sunday night planning out the three, four, or five practices you have that week. Your players may be bummed that they don’t get to scrimmage, but they will appreciate a well-run practice that keeps them moving and learning something new.

Cheers,
Gordon

Now why am I talking about a science fiction book on a lacrosse blog? Well, there is a lesson I learned from these books that has helped me overcome my fears on and off the lacrosse field. Let’s face it, lacrosse can be a scary experience for kids. Especially kids just starting out. I remember being afraid of screwing up or disappointing my coach. I was really afraid of looking like I didn’t know what I was doing out of the field or at practice.

These fears were perfectly normal for a young kid learning the sport. The more I played and practiced the less powerful those fears became, but I also had a mantra that I borrowed from Frank Herbert’s writings called The Litany Against Fear.

The Litany Against Fear goes like this:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the litte-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Eight short lines with a powerful message. Face your fear, let it pass over you until only you remain. Sometimes I would just repeat the first line when I was especially nervous before a big game. Stating “I must not fear” was my way of telling myself that fear was a natural thing and that I can choose to not let it hold power over me.

While my playing days are over I still have fears as a lacrosse official. The fears are still the same: fear of screwing up and the fear of looking like I don’t know what I am doing. Every official gets butterflies in their stomach before a game. It is human nature to get nervous, the trick is turning that nervous fear before a big game into fuel that will improve performance.

I have used The Litany Against Fear many times over the years on and off the lacrosse field. The point is to directly face whatever it is you are afraid of. If you are afraid of using your off-hand during the game because you are pretty sure you will drop the ball, then start practicing with your off hand. If you are having trouble catching the ball over your shoulder off an outlet pass from your goalie, then practice those over the shoulder catches.

One little tip if you are afraid for whatever reason at practice or at a game. Just show up and start moving. Action tends to create more action, whereas inaction allows your mind to think and dwell on the negative.

I’d like to know how the readers of this blog deal with their fears on and off the lacrosse field. So if you’re interested in sharing feel free to comment below!

Featured image credit - http://lsgg.deviantart.com/art/DUNE-SIETCH-211570558

Cheers,
Gordon

Many coaches are preparing to tell their payers and their parents this line: “Everyone will get to play as much as everybody else.” Don’t say that because you will fall short. In the heat of your last regular season game which determines whether or not your team gets the higher seed or the lower seed, you will leave your best players in at the expense of your less talented players game time. Am I judging you in saying this? No, because I have done exactly the same thing. I have told my players and parents that I will play everyone equally regardless of circumstances. Then, during a close game, I favor some kids over others. This is the Coaches Lie, and I believe it has to stop.

It needs to stop because equal playing time is a myth at the youth level. While we say we will play everyone equally it is usually the last thing on our mind when the whistle blows to start the game. We become more concerned with our team’s win/loss record than with what is best for all of the players on our team. Consider the following statistics from Sports Illustrated for Kids:

95% – said that the number-one quality in a coach is the ability to help the payers improve their athletic skills.

64% – said that they would rather play on a losing team for a coach whom they liked than to play for a winning team with a coach whom they didn’t like.

62% – said that they wanted equal playing time for all the kids on the team.

61% – said that it was okay for the coach to yell during the game – but only if the yelling was of a positive nature.

93% – said that they wanted and needed the coach’s full support, regardless of the kid’s athletic ability.

Ninety-five percent of young athletes surveyed said that the best quality in a coach is that coach’s ability to help the player improve athletically. Winning a lot of games wasn’t even in the ballpark for the players surveyed. One statistic that I find telling is that kids would rather play for a coach they liked and lose, than play for a coach they didn’t like and win. This data tells us that kids do not rank winning as high as adults do. So why do we as coaches feel the need to win at the expense of all of our players? It could be simple human nature. Perhaps it is our win first ask questions later culture. I think it is our mistaken notion that kids want to be on a winning team, despite the data showing us that the kids truly do not care about winning. They care about getting better.

How then do kids get better? Getting onto the field is a good start. Regardless of their athletic ability or sport-specific skill set, every player deserves to play as much as their buddy next to them. I will go so far as to say that every kid has a right to see the field. Who are we to say that Johnny doesn’t get to play as much at Michael because he is less skilled or can’t run as fast as Michael? As one astute young player quoted in Sports Illustrated for Kids said,”Everybody should play the same amount so that everyone has the same amount of fun.” Is that not the most perfect statement on the necessity of equal playing time in youth sports? Our job as youth coaches is not to win games. It is about improving our players as athletes and as people.

I’m not going write about the importance of equal playing time without leaving you any guidance on how to successfully play all players in a lacrosse game. So here it goes:

• U9 – The best trick I’ve learned on getting little U9 players as much playing time as possible is called “The Bump,” which is a simple substitution process that occurs every three to four minutes. When it is time to substitute the players from the box go onto attack, the attack players bump to midfield, the midfielders bump to defense, and the defense bumps off the field. “The Bump” continues every three to four minutes and guarantees that the little players will get maximum playing time.
• U11 – Now we are playing full-field with a substitution box, and most kids are gravitating to the position they like the most. “The Bump” may still work well if your players have not found their favorite position yet. However, if your players are set on their positions and are happy with them it is important to have a stopwatch. Every time you substitute you start your stopwatch again. Every three to four minutes do a wholesale substitution. Switch out your midfielders with the middies on your bench. Tell your defense to switch up with whatever poles are on the sideline. Finally, get your attack group to sub out for any short sticks who are still on the bench. Whenever possible, do a wholesale substitution. It is a great idea to talk to your opposing coach about your substitution plan and see if he is on board with doing the same with his team every three to four minutes.
• U13 – Now most of your players are probably set in the positions that they most enjoy so the bump will not work for your team unless it is a brand new team with players who have no idea what position they like. Now it is time to start subbing your players piecemeal instead of wholesale. Sub your midfielders every four minutes or whenever they are slowing down. Every six minutes sub your defense and attack through the box while they stay onside. This will teach your players how to properly substitute through the box, and get them ready for their middle school teams when they will be doing that kind of substitution often.

To recap: Kids want to play, they would rather get better than win every game, and they would rather play for a coach they like and who is confident in them. Do  kids want to win? Certainly, but there isn’t a kid in the world playing pickup soccer or basketball that is keeping track of their group’s win/loss record throughout the spring. They just go out there and play and then do the same thing tomorrow. It is about playing not winning.

So if you are going to say anything to your players and parents do not tell them the coaches lie. Instead say the following, “I promise that I will do my best to play you all equally, but if I mess up one game and don’t get everyone in I want you to let me know so I can fix it for the next game.” That is a promise any coach can live up to.

Cheers,
Gordon

I thought the entire convention was a fantastic experience. I learned a ton from top officials from around the country, hung out with many different coaches, presented my very first topic on youth lacrosse, and became a certified lacrosse officials trainer. I cannot express enough my gratitude for the effort the speakers put into their presentations. It was clearly evident that everyone I saw present had a passion for the game of lacrosse and wanted to give back to the game that gave them so much.

This convention was a little different for me because I was selected to present. I decided to speak about a topic that I am very passionate about, which is team building in youth sports. I titled my presentation, “Putting the ‘I’ in Team: How to get Individuals to Play for One Another.” During my talk I broke the presentation down into these four sections:

• Practice Drills – solid drills that work well for U9 and U11 teams
• Set Plays – a few plays that young players can run well
• Managing Parents – how to integrate parent and team goals
• Coaching Philosophy – how my coaching philosophy has changed since I started coaching and what I believe is most beneficial to the players at that age

I presented for one hour at 8:00am on Saturday morning to about 25-30 youth coaches. My dad recorded the entire speech, which I will post on our AYL YouTube page as soon as I can. For now though you can Click Here to download the PowerPoint presentation that I used during the speech.

Speech aside I got to meet the guys from Wheelchair Lacrosse once again, and I am stoked to report that they are expanding rapidly across the country. At the Marriott Lobby I ran into Charlie who told me all about Fields of Growth. An organization that completely blew my mind. This organization is bringing lacrosse to countries all over the world that have never even heard of the sport, let alone seen a lacrosse stick or goal. So far they have brought lacrosse to Uganda and Jamaica, and you can read more about their efforts here: www.fieldsofgrowthintl.org/our-wor/overview/. I was enthralled by Charlie’s stories of his recent trip to Jamaica and how much the young players enjoyed the game. He said it was one of the most rewarding experiences of his life and I can certainly see why. If you are interested in supporting Fields of Growth head to their donate page!

Overall the convention was great. I learned a bunch, laughed a ton and enjoyed seeing everyone excited about the upcoming lacrosse season!

Cheers,
Gordon

There is no substitute for a reasonable degree of skill in stick handling and superior conditioning. To play lacrosse you have to have that.  However if a weaker team can understand and develop the 2 on 1 they will have a distinct advantage. Utilizing team techniques in the clearing game, fast break, extra man and general offense will allow a weaker team to produce good results.

At all times one major objective in all team play should be to utilize the extra man concept of lacrosse play i.e. finding the 2 on 1.  In clearing, poor coaching shows up quickly when the fourth man is not included in the clearing outfit. Without the use of the fourth man, the defense has no extra, and clearing success is dependent on the laziness of the opposition or a dodge and run, always risky and generally unnecessary. In the fast break, the breaking middie or the defenseman is the extra for a fleeting moment, and success or failure depend on proper use of him. In normal offensive (settled) play a well executed pick or screen results in a temporary extra man or 2 on 1. Even on loose balls, the two on one situation frequently creates a momentary extra man.

Perhaps the greatest weakness today in the playing of lacrosse is the failure to appreciate the importance of gaining an extra man and using that extra man advantage momentarily to accomplish a purpose the easy way.

In my opinion there is no game in which teamwork is more important in lacrosse.  In settled situations PLAYS should be of minor importance. Plays take away the beauty of the game as well as the creativity of the game. From a players standpoint plays are more of a nuisance than a pleasure. The effectiveness of a coordinated six man attack in which each man plays a integral an essential part in each and every effort to score a goal.

This weekend Coach Gordon and I had a small group we worked with and we introduced the concept of the 2 on 1 in a game I call Tic Tac Toe.  I presented this at the US Lacrosse Convention about five years ago and it went over very well with the coaches in attendance. Tic-Tac-Toe emphasizes the 2 on 1 scenario in a 4 on 3 situation. The purpose is to move the ball quickly and try and get a shot. The defense with one less man has to work very hard to disrupt the offense and work as a team.

Native Americans who invented the game of lacrosse called it the Creators game so get creative and find the 2 on 1.

Hope you enjoy!
Coach Lou

When I was a less-experienced official I was definitely bigger than the game mainly because I didn’t know any better. I was like Leslie Nielson impersonating a major league umpire in the clip below.

While Mr. Nielson was doing a parody of umpires, that clip illustrates an official being bigger than a game and making a mockery of the game in the process. While the clip was a joke about baseball umpires it could have been done with any official in any sport. The potential always exists for an official to be bigger than the game, which is not a good spot to be in. It is a bad spot to be in because other officials really disapprove of a showboating, or overly officious, officials. So do fans, players, and coaches especially.

After my second year officiating for the Georgia Lacrosse Officials Association I went to an officials training clinic at UNC, Chapel Hill. I thought I was a real hot-shot official and I set out to prove that I knew what I was doing. As it turned out, I knew absolutely jack squat.

My evaluators at the training clinic ripped my officiating abilities apart. My positioning was terrible, my mechanics horrible, and my game management skills were non-existant. To top it all off one of the lead evaluators told me that it looked like I thought the fans came to watch me officiate. I was devastated and spent much of the drive back home thinking of quitting officiating.

It took a month before I stepped onto the field again. Since I decided to continue reffing I had to change my mindset. I had thought I was some reffing prodigy who knew everything there was to know about officiating. That old mindset contributed to the perception by my evaluators that I thought I was bigger than the game. While I could not change my training evaluators’ perception of me, I could certainly ensure that no one perceived me in that way ever again. So I made it my mission to become a student of officiating.

I decided to approach every game as a learning opportunity. Each and every game was a chance to get better and get my officiating to a new level. However, I also needed to work on removing my ego from my officiating. While it is a good thing for an official to have a high amount of self-confidence, I think it is important for officials to keep their egos off the field. If we don’t, we give the impression that we think we are the most important people on the field. To be fair, officials are necessary for the game, but as I said earlier no one pays for a ticket to watch us ref. Fans come to watch the players. The coaches come to coach the players, and the players come to play each other. The officials are meant to filter out bad behavior and leave a good game in their wake. If we leave the field of play and no one can remember we were there, then we did a good job.

Some officials call this blending in, or being “green.” All that means is that good officials are rarely noticed. They seem to blend into the field. Only appearing when a foul needs to be called. That is what good officials strive for. We don’t want people to remember us. We want fans, players, and coaches to remember the game and how it was played. Not how it was officiated.

It is a little strange to think that we aspire to not be noticed. That my fellow zebras and myself don’t want any recognition from anyone during or after the game. We don’t want applause for a job well done, we just want people to forget we were even there.

Cheers,
Gordon