While many athletes participate in sports representing the school, several others choose to participate on the sports field in a different role. Several Central students talk about their own experience officiating in the sports world.
“I referee flag football and basketball at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) for kids grades kindergarten to about 3rd grade. This will be my second year of refereeing this upcoming winter,” Junior Matt Stern said.
Stern enjoys the knowledge he has gained about sports while refereeing. He has recently come to appreciate the new emotions he experiences while ruling the court or field.
“The experience gives me the insight of what it feels like to be in charge of the game, or to have the game in your hands,” Stern said.
Senior Zoe Wolkowitz, who is also a referee at the JCC, believes officiating basketball, the sport she plays for Central, has truly started to make a valuable impact in her own game.
“Being able to see the game from the referee’s point of view has helped my game greatly. I do play the sport that I referee, and that has helped me learn to be able to play up to where a call is legal, which helps me improve my game,” Wolkowitz said.
Junior Brain Wilson is also a basketball and flag football official for the JCC, and believes his short stint in refereeing has already made a long-time impact in his social interactions.
“It has helped my social life because I talk to older people who think they are always right, so I have to ‘fight’ to prove my point,” Wilson said. “Sometimes I have to admit to my mistakes which is always hard for anyone to do but I feel better to do it.
Refereeing has started to make an impact in students’ lives in situations both on and off the sporting field.
“This experience has helped me a lot in social situations because some of the coaches in both football and basketball are jerks. I can now put up with almost any false statement that anybody makes because most of these coaches I deal with are wrong 9 out of 10 times,” Stern said.
Wolkowitz recalls a challenging time while refereeing that really tested her and her family’s will power.
“There was one game where I had to referee my sister’s basketball game. A man on the opposing team was ripping on me the whole time, saying things like, ‘This is why girls shouldn’t play sports! This ref is horrible,’ Wolkowitz said. “My dad had to listen to it all without defending me. It was a very memorable experience.”
Wilson has developed his own, new view of referees on the professional sports stage based on his own personal experience running sporting events.
“My experience in sports changed me because I now understand how difficult it can be to make the perfect call and I have also learned how much pressure refs have on a daily basis,” Wilson said.
While he enjoys watching kids play sports that he loves, Stern’s most valuable gain from officiating has been the underlying message the kids display, and how that stretches long above the field.
“Kids show the best sportsmanship out of any athlete, including pros, win or lose,” Stern said. “They’re fantastic, and although some aren’t as athletic as others, they all show equal amounts of incredible sportsmanship.”
