New Mexico Coach Helping Players Become Officials

Officiating is one of the most important – but often most challenging – jobs in the sports world. From the hours spent learning the rules, to the increased heckling from fans, parents and players, it’s no wonder why the nation is facing an officials shortage. However, one coach is trying his best to combat that.

Jory Mirabal, the head basketball coach of Magdalena (New Mexico) High School, has been helping his basketball players become officials for 15 years. “We started [officiating] our youth league games as far back as 2009. Then they started refereeing more of our tournaments for youth leagues by 2012,” Mirabal said.

Mirabal’s efforts have been in concert with the New Mexico Activities Association’s (NMAA) campaign to register more officials in the state. Not only does it allow for the players to understand the game of basketball better, but it provides a natural transition for the players after their high school careers end.

“By the time we got to 2016, we really jumped in, got them certified and working with the NMAA to be able to officiate our sub-varsity games,” Mirabal said. “They don’t just do it [officiating games] for our community, they do it for the surrounding communities as well.”

Mirabal himself is an official. He officiates track and field and is a former basketball official. His experience in the field allows him to provide some valuable insight for his players.

“They know that I’m there to support them. When things get to [a tough] point, I’ll step in and have some conversations and we sit and talk after the games. Even sometimes during the games, they’ll come over to me and ask me about certain situations or a specific call, just to make sure that they have things correct,” Mirabal said.

Mirabal believes the players’ officiating experience has had positive on-court effects, too. Since implementing this idea into his program, his team started winning more and has been able to maintain remarkable success. The team has not lost more than one regular-season game since 2018-19. In 2009, after his players began officiating the youth games, the team went from a 15-11 record to a 20-7 record.

“I think we’ve won 10 district championships in a row, and I think we’ve only lost one district during the last 12 years,” Mirabal said. “We’ve won three state championships and been runners-up twice. We’ve been in the semifinals at least eight out of the last nine years. We have seen a lot of success on the court. And I don’t know if it’s a coincidence that our kids are involved in this type of activity that leads to them having a better understanding of basketball, but I do think there’s a correlation.”

With the success of this program in boys basketball, Mirabal, who is also the school’s athletic director, has started to implement it in other sports, including girls basketball and volleyball.

Some of his players have gone on to become college officials, and some of his current players are some of the more well-known officials in the area. However, officials don’t always receive a lot of support from players or fans.

“Unfortunately, they get to see kind of dark side of adult behavior. It’s just reality and they get to a point where it doesn’t really affect them. I’ve lost some kids because they don’t want to deal with it. It’s hard to deal with that negative behavior. But you know how it goes. We can’t let it discourage us from getting our kids involved,” Mirabal said.