Sports officials train, study to be at right place, make right call

Staff photo by Teesha McClam Giles Poole referees a girls soccer game between Carroll and Bellbrook last month.

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Contributed photo by Peter Wine Football official Fred Brentlinger signals during a game this season.

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By Kyle Nagel, Staff Writer 12:18 AM Sunday, September 25, 2011

By the time Fred Brentlinger reached his Bellefontaine home at 1 a.m. last Saturday, he had been through an eventful night for which his 35 years of Ohio High School Athletic Association officiating and updated skills training had prepared him well.

Fairborn’s 40-36 defeat of Fairmont that included two scores in the final 39 seconds was plenty. But there was also the 90-minute drive, which is usual for the Greater Western Ohio Conference regular. And the uniform whose updates he estimates cost him several hundred dollars per year.

Brentlinger has paid his dues — literally, about $55 per year and part of $800,000 officials pay the state in dues for materials, medical insurance and other expenses. He studies the rules nightly, attends the five mandatory interpretation meetings annually and knows the multiple levels of the support in the OHSAA system.

“Back in the ’90s, they started having consistency statewide,” Brentlinger said. “We’ve developed a great system to make this the best we can.”

Brentlinger is one of more than 15,000 varsity-level officials who are trained, assigned and updated by the OHSAA officiating machine that is called one of the best and most unique in the country. Through a network of instructors, assigners, interpreters, district representatives and directors of development, the OHSAA arbiters focus on one goal: Being at the right place at the right time to make the best call possible.

“Obviously, no one can tell you that by doing this, officials won’t make mistakes,” said Jerry Fick, who wears several OHSAA hats including Southwest District Administrator and Director of Softball Officiating Development. “But we’re doing as much as we can to work with these groups.”

Officials undergo 25 hours of pre-licensing training and a regular stream of meetings, manuals, newsletters and the unavoidable verbal punishment from the stands. The end results are checks ranging from $50 to $65 for regular-season varsity games and, most say, a continued connection to sports.

“We surveyed our officials about five years ago, and we asked them, ‘Why do you do this?’ ” said Henry Zaborniak, an OHSAA assistant commissioner in charge of officiating. “The No. 1 reason, and it wasn’t close, was a love for the sport. We’re trying to help them continue that to make this the best sports state we can.”

Return on investment

Zaborniak, a Big Ten Conference football official himself, came to the OHSAA in 1989. He quickly determined that the state’s method for recruiting and training officials was, to be frank, wasting plenty of people’s time.

“We would send them an application, and they would send it back with a check to get books to study for a test,” Zaborniak said.

“For every 100 people who applied, about 90 showed up to take the test, 45 would pass and over the first three years about 75 percent of those 45 would quit. We were spending a lot of time and not getting much return on the investment.”

By 1991, Zaborniak and the league office implemented a class-oriented education format that was the first of its kind in the country, statewide officials said. The goal was increasing involvement, and statistics say it has worked. The officials corps has grown from about 10,000 in 1990 to 15,140 in Class 1 (varsity) with more engagement, feedback and encouragement, Zaborniak said.

By rule, incoming officials must take 25 hours worth of classes from a licensed OHSAA officials instructor before they can even take the exam. That group of hundreds of instructors includes Mark Hoying, who is in a unique spot to recruit and develop officiating talent.

As the assistant director for intramurals and sports clubs at the University of Dayton, Hoying is on the younger end of OHSAA instructors at 29. He also teaches UD students to officiate the intramural games, which provides a large pool of possible OHSAA candidates.

He splits 25 hours of classes into nine days that include rules study, mechanics and position practice, on-court experience and testing. His class costs $90 for UD students and $140 for non-students, underlining the OHSAA’s commitment to continue feeding its officiating machine with recruits.

“We try to be as honest as possible,” said Hoying, who is also a seventh-year OHSAA official. “You’re going to get yelled at, but we have a system in place to help you through it.”

Quality control

After several years of watching officials from different parts of the state handle mechanics differently, the OHSAA produced another first. The state appointed 12 people to Director of Officiating Development, whose roles serve to communicate across the state and constantly update Ohio-specific instructions.

Despite having more than 15,000 officials, Ohio wants them all operating the same way.

“Ohio is top two or three in the country as far as the emphasis placed on officiating,” said Bruce Maurer, a former NFL official and the OHSAA’s director of football officiating development. “It’s a very serious commitment.”

Maurer’s updated Ohio mechanics and rules booklet — called the Gold Book for its gold cover — has become the primary piece of football officiating literature. He also creates weekly bulletins throughout the season for continuous feedback and answers.

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Class 1 (varsity) officials
Sport	Number
Basketball	3,866
Football	2,891
Baseball	2,316
Softball	1,917
Volleyball	1,199
Cross Country	1,044
Track and Field	1,044
Soccer	905
Wrestling	588
Swimming	357 and Diving
Ice Hockey	212
Source: OHSAA