Minnesota’s largest sports officiating association has a message for anyone thinking about becoming an official: Give it a try.
At a time where headlines detail referee shortages and poor sportsmanship, the Minneapolis Officials Association (MOA) says they’re pleased with where numbers are, but they are always happy to welcome more officials.
“I think our numbers are as strong as they’ve ever been, especially in football,” said Zach Gustfason, Director of Basketball Operations.
“We can cover all of our games with what we have. We don’t have a huge footprint in the football landscape of things so it’s not as much of strain on the association.”
The MOA is over 300 members strong, with 262 total basketball officials as of early February. The MOA is directly responsible for scheduling officiating crews across the metro for the high school winter sports season.
Tuesdays during the winter sports season remain the toughest challenge when it comes to scheduling basketball officials according to Gustafson. Last summer he met with the St. Paul/Capital City Officials Association and Gopher State Officials to ask each metro conference not to play on Tuesday and Friday during a specific week of the 2022/23 winter sports season.
“We are going to make it through this basketball season without moving any games,” Gustafson said. “That hasn’t happened for a few years in the metro because we haven’t proactively done this moving ahead of time.”
The MOA has built a well-oiled machine when it comes to providing new and veteran officials the resources they need to grow and gain confidence on the floor. That includes a mentor/mentee program and an official’s development program that takes place once a month.
“We go through items, talk about what should be done, how to be a good official, and we show video on plays and how to recognize certain plays to make the proper call,” said Lamarr Sullivan, MOA President-Elect. “The big deal isn’t getting officials, the big deal has always been retaining them.”
According to Sullivan, who retired in 2022 after 18 years of officiating, most officials leave after two years.
“I was going to leave after my second year. I was tired of being yelled at,” Sullivan said. “When I decided to come back, I realized that if they say stupid things to me then I can say stupid things to them.”
For Sullivan, he sees his ability to learn how to talk to coaches as a valuable skill to teach up and coming officials.
“We actually had our official’s development meeting and had a section on how to communicate with coaches,” he said. “That’s what we’re trying to teach our officials. If coaches talk or ask a question, here’s how you respond. My brother always told me, ‘If a coach asks you a question, always respond in rulebook vernacular because they haven’t read it and don’t know what you’re talking about.’”
Recruiting new high school officials is a never ending commitment for Brenda Holmgren, the MOA’s president whose term expires this year.
“When I’m out there, I’m always recruiting,” Holmgren said. “There’s always that one person that says they’ll think about it. I try to indicate how much fun I’ve had and how much I’ve enjoyed working with the people that I worked with. This is a great association.”
Harry Kitts joined the Minneapolis Officials Association in 1969 and spent 33 years as the basketball assigner. He still gets questions now and again about ow to handle unruly fans, mouthy coaches, and players who disagree with calls.
“The best way to get better is to get older,” Kitts said. “The best way to get better is to get experience. The best way to get better is to work with people that you have respect for and you think they’re doing a good job.”
And for Sullivan, whose last game was in March 2022, his time as an official may be over, but it’s the memories made with his colleagues that will last a life time.
“I wanted to make sure my last game was a girl’s game because I started officiating because of my daughter,” he said. “I knew where all the gyms were because I went to all those gyms because I was going to all my daughter’s games. My last game was a championship game and it was important to me for my daughter to see I ran just as hard and it was just as important to me to get into position to see calls as it was the previous year when I did the boy’s championship. I remember my partners, the banter we had in the locker room before we started, and it’s the comradery. If you start officiating, you will enjoy the comradery of officials, you’ll even end up enjoying working with coaches. It’s amazing.”
You can learn more about becoming an official through the Minnesota State High School League's website.