Door County Pulse
By Eleanor Corbin ,
“I think it would be good for every player to have to officiate a game,” said Sammi Winker, physical education teacher at Gibraltar High School.
In her Careers in Health Exercise, Fitness and Sport class, Winker provides students that very opportunity, leading them through the process of becoming a licensed Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) student official.
WIAA student officials are allowed to officiate any sport except hockey, up to and including the ninth grade level, according to the WIAA website. In her class, Winker teaches students to be basketball referees and volleyball referees, alternating sports each year.
This year was basketball, and four students ended the fall term as certified officials: Aaron Brey, Mikala Gorham, Liam Lindenberg and Kuper Tesnow.
The certification is already paying off for Brey, a junior. In addition to playing on the varsity basketball team, Brey now referees for elementary and middle school teams, like the Peninsula Youth Basketball Club.
The experience has helped him better understand the rules of the game and the difficulties of officiating, he said.
“Once you get into it, you kind of see ‘Oh, this is actually pretty hard,’” Brey said.
In order to become a WIAA official, students must study the rules and guidelines of a sport and pass an online exam. Senior and varsity basketball player Lindenberg said he learned much more about the game over the course of studying for the test.
“There were plenty of different, tedious rules that I just didn’t even know,” he said. “Once you get in the game, you finally realize all the stuff that you didn’t know, and you’ll start correcting yourself.”
The certification process is hard work, Winker said, and requires detailed note taking. Students must answer questions like what size the number on a jersey can be, or what is a flag versus a technical foul.
While not a requirement for licensing, Winker incorporates hand-on lessons into her class. Students practiced by officiating sixth grade physical education class scrimmages.
Brey said he is glad the class got the chance to practice on a scrimmage before he officiated real games.
As a junior, Brey’s certification is valid through his graduation, Winker said. As a senior set to graduate in the spring, Lindenberg’s certification is valid for a full year. If either wanted to recertify as adults, they would need to take the exam again and pay a small fee, which student officials don’t have to pay.
Reffing games is a fairly lucrative side gig for students as well, Winker explained. For three games, Brey was paid $150.
Lindenberg said he hopes to make the most of his year of certification by officiating games in the La Crosse area, where he will attend the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse next year.
In addition to benefitting students and teaching them more about the sport, licensing student officials benefits the larger school sports community, Winker said.
“We have such low numbers of officials nowadays,” she said. “I think because they get it from the parents, they get it from the coaches, they get it from the players.”
Student referees can help fill that need.
In response to the often confrontational work of a sports official, Winker encourages her students to own the decisions they make as a ref.
“People are always gonna argue with you all, but if you stay confident in your call, stay true to it, it’s gonna give them a little bit less,” she said.
Winker offers her class in the fall term of each year. In addition to guiding students through the process of becoming a licensed WIAA official, Careers in Health Exercise, Fitness and Sport discusses the career paths in these fields and helps students build a relevant resume.
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