Another plea for referees

“I started reffing when I was 16,” Clay said. “After playing college ball at San Francisco State … I wanted to stay connected (to the game).”

Clay, who essentially serves as an athletic director at Meta, is also the president of the Silicon Valley Sports Officials Association, which provides officials for most sports in the Peninsula Athletic League. He is trying to hook the next generation of officials on the game now. As part of the organization’s recruiting efforts, SVSOA is hosting a youth basketball officiating camp, for ages 14 to 18, at Red Morton Park in Redwood City. The workshop, which began Tuesday with five new recruits, continues for the next three Saturdays.

“We’re just trying to do anything to collect people to come (train to be a referee),” Clay said. “Go out to a soccer game or baseball game and at a young age, you have young officials. Basketball has been behind the times. You watch all these youth (basketball) games, there is no one young (officiating).”

Like the changing of the seasons, so goes the call for sports officials. In the spring, it’s baseball. In the fall, football and with winter looming, Clay is looking to fill out SVSOA’s officials’ pool.

Clay said the continued reluctance of people to get involved stems mainly from the horror stories regarding officials and fans in incidents around the country.

“The fear of getting yelled at is huge. They say 70% of people who decide to officiate quit in the first three years because of verbal abuse,” Clay said. “If we get them at a younger age and get them through those first three years and help them get that tougher skin, you might have a referee for life.”

Having worked on the Peninsula for as long as Clay has been officiating, I can tell you that fans are fairly tame when it comes to riding officials. Sure, there are going to be moans and groans when a call goes against your team, but for the most part, fans in San Mateo County, in particular, and the Central Coast Section, in general, are pretty well behaved.

There is also the fear of being embarrassed because a rookie official may not know all the rules or mechanics of the job. To that end, Clay said officials’ organizations provide preseason training, match new officials with veteran ones and his group has set up a mentorship program.

Clay said SVSOA provides a six-week training course, one a week for two hours in the evenings, for new officials. At the end of training, new refs will work a scrimmage — usually between two freshmen basketball teams. Veteran officials attend as well to provide feedback and answer questions. The new officials are then graded and assigned games based on their comfort level.

Clay wants the general fan base to know that these people are not just off the streets and that they have been trained to officiate high school games. The organization has worked with parent groups to give them an idea of the training involved before taking the court.

“Parents did see we put in the work,” Clay said. “I’m trying to humanize [referees] more. Get to know us more. Sometimes we’re going to make mistakes. … Nobody who comes out to do this wants to mess up.”

There are costs involved with being a referee and the pay is not something that will make you quit your day job. But if you’re a high school or college student looking to make a little bit of coin, get some exercise and stay involved with the game, officiating is a great way to do it.

I was a middle school basketball coach and referee in college and while I didn’t get rich, it certainly kept me from hitting up more parents for more spending money.

“I tell these (high school) athletes, if you go off to college and you’re done playing, (refereeing) is a good way to make a little money,” Clay said.

And who knows? Maybe you can get paid decent money to be an official.

“They always there is a shortage of officials. It happens for a multitude of reasons,” Clay said. “But one that doesn’t get talked about enough is there are some officials who have moved up the ranks and are now working college only. … We’re now trying to fill out the back end.”

Clay is simply trying to get people in the door — whether it’s for basketball, football, baseball or volleyball. He said once a person is in the officials’ fold, the hope is that they will then want to expand to different sports. There are many officials on the Peninsula who officiate two sports. The hope is that once people get the bug, they’ll want to continue to hone their craft and be in it for the long haul.

“When you learn to be an official, it’s translatable (across sports), outside of the rules and mechanics,” Clay said. “Once you’re an official, we hope you get the bug and want to do multiple sports. I think that’s where everything is going. People are coming from being specialized, to just being an official.”

If you are looking for information on joining SVSOA or are interested in the training camps the organization offers, go to svsoa.org.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117. To report scores or tips, email sports@smdailyjournal.com.