Referee

Unpublished, February 14, 2001

About once a week, Jason Currie has a nightmare that terrifies him. He is the field referee of a soccer game and sees a foul committed. He blows his whistle several times but no noise comes out. As he fumbles to get the backup whistle out of his pocket, the scuffle between the players turns into a bench-clearing brawl. Desperately, he blows harder and harder into the backup whistle, but still nothing. Standing helpless in the middle of the free for all, one of his biggest fears as an official is coming true. He has lost control.

The twenty-year old Currie has spent six years officiating everything from Pony league baseball games, to varsity basketball games, to college intramural flag football, and he takes his job very seriously. He's a full-time student at Carnegie Mellon and when he's not in class, it's a pretty sure bet he's on the field.

When he gets home at night, he heads to the computer to check the online referee bulletin boards where officials across the country swap stories and argue over the finest nuances of rule interpretation. He subscribes to magazines and newsletters for officials, including Referee magazine, which is full of articles with titles like "Technical Fouls are Not Created Equal", "Exercising Safe Bat Removal", "All About Your Plate Brush", and "Mechanics Illustrated: Counting Players Before the Ready Signal." There are quizzes for referees to hone their skills further, which Jason memorizes. Not only can he recite the correct answer verbatim, he can also give slightly different scenarios where the ref would make a different call. While most people are routing for their favorite team, Currie is routing for the umpire.

He started officiating in high school, refereeing soccer games in New Castle, PA, his hometown, as a way to earn some extra money. “It seemed like an interesting challenge," he says. "Plus that’s back when I was into running and I noticed that they [referees] ran a lot and thought, ‘Hey, I can do that.’” A few months after he started officiating soccer games, a substitute teacher was looking for umpires to work local little league games and Currie needed a summer job. He worked his way up to become an officer in the local umpires club, and later became certified to referee Pennsylvania high school baseball, basketball, and soccer games. When he moved to Pittsburgh to go college at Carnegie Mellon University, he continued officiating to help pay his way through school, working local high school games, adult recreation leagues, and even CMU intramural games.

In his years of officiating Currie has learned that not everything is black and white, and that there is more to being a referee than blowing the whistle at the right time. “The art of officiating is keeping your head while however many other people are losing theirs,” says Currie. “You’re really a diplomat while you’re out there.”

Just like a talented player can alter their playing style against certain teams, Currie will change his officiating style depending on the situation and the environment. When he’s refereeing a grade school soccer game he's almost more like a big brother than a referee. He'll give kids second chances, patiently explain why he made a certain call, even give kids suggestions to help improve their game. In these games his job is mainly to make sure the kids are having fun, that no one gets hurt, and to keep overzealous parents and coaches from getting too out of control. Although he wants kids to enjoy themselves, safety is definitely his most important priority. "If a kid sweeps the legs out from under another kid, it's still a foul no matter how much fun he had doing it," Currie says.

When the players are older, Currie’s job gets more complex. He starts to be more concerned with the competitive aspects of the game, like advantages and disadvantages. “You can fudge around with some of the rules for the sake of game management,” says Currie. This doesn’t mean making up rules or not calling blatant fouls, but in the rulebooks much of what is considered a foul is left to the referee’s discretion. A skillful referee can enforce the rules in a way to ensure that the game runs smoothly, and to eliminate conflicts before they get out of hand. But, in sports, when emotions are running high confrontations are unavoidable and referees are usually the first targets of the frustration of the players, coaches, and fans.

“Everybody and their mother thinks it’s the goddamn Superbowl,” says Currie. In the past year he has been physically attacked twice during games, both during Carnegie Mellon intramural games. The first time, earlier in the school year, he wasn’t actually the referee- he was the scorekeeper for a three-on-three basketball tournament with no referees. After one of the games he noticed that players on the losing team were being disruptive, and asked them to leave. One of them grabbed Currie by the neck, and started shaking him. The second time he was attacked was again at a CMU intramural basketball game, when a player Currie had ejected earlier came back and started pushing and hitting him.

Despite confrontations like these and just the day to day bruises from baseballs and pulled muscles that are a natural part of the work, Currie still loves his job and has even considered becoming a professional umpire. Becoming a professional umpire is similar to becoming a professional ball player. They go to a professional umpire school for about 5 weeks, where they are scouted, and then if they’re good, they can try and work their way up through the minor leagues and possibly into the major leagues. However, it's extremely competitive. For the 200 people that go to the school every year, there are only on average twelve openings in the minor leagues.

But for right now Currie is happy officiating local high school games. The basketball season is winding down, and Currie is looking forward to the change of sports that comes with spring. “I can’t wait until baseball starts,” he says, practicing the umpire’s trademark strike three hand gestures.