“I Am Third”: Learning to Find your Place on an Officiating Crew

With all due respect to Gale Sayers, I chose this title because I sometimes feel this sentiment when preparing to officiate a varsity basketball game. It is not a scary feeling, not a defeated feeling, it is an honest feeling. In fact, I believe it can be a very healthy feeling.

I would submit that you could have this feeling in officiating with crews of two, three, five or more. It is simply an acknowledgement that on this particular crew, on this particular day, you are not the lead dog.

In Indiana, most officials still book their own games with the schools and form their own officiating crews. This creates opportunities to work with new people or rely on the comfort or regular partners.

I love the challenge of being in the pregame and realizing that for this game, I am third. It immediately encourages me to raise my effort. It creates a desire in me to work harder so that no one else in the building will think I am the weak link in this crew. Think of the power an officiating crew can have if all three enter that pregame thinking they are third and work to avoid that appearance. It probably will be one of the best games those fans have seen.

We all appreciate working with officials that might “better” than we are, but they don’t act that way. They work to ensure everyone on the crew is comfortable, challenge us all to be our best, and make each individual better leading by example.

For example, there was a time when walking into the locker room and meeting a frequent state-final official had my stomach in knots. One instance stands out.

Every official I had spoken to told me he was one of the best. What would I look like on the floor with him? Would he wonder why he was burdened with me? Would every fan know he was that much better? Almost immediately, he put me at ease and worked to mesh the crew in the time we had before our game. I worked my butt off to demonstrate I belonged on that crew, on that game, and to not offer any disappointment.

Sadly, however, many officials have worked a game where we entered the locker room and there was “that official.” In my experience, he left no doubt about who the best official on this crew was, he told you repeatedly it was him! His attitude, his words, his pregame actions were all within the context of how you could never be as good as he was or work as many big games as he did. I can’t honestly say the teams and fans weren’t well served that night because of the tone coming from one official.

Perhaps you have experienced a night where you realize that based on experience you are the leader on this night. What is it you do to make the official that feels “third” perform at his or her peak?

For example, I worked with a young official that was new to the varsity level. He was only in his fifth year of officiating and was almost too excited to be at this venue for a conference match up. His friends had told him that he should follow me and I would get him through the game. While I appreciated the compliments, it was now my responsibility to help him channel that energy into hard work on the court and for him to be a full member of our crew. I think we had a very good game and other than a couple of nerve-driven moments, nobody noticed who was third that night.

One of the benefits of working with regular partners over time is that you know that on any given night, your roles and rank may be changed. My regular crew with Pam and Brian is a great mix. I am confident that each of us has said, “I am third” on a regular basis and have each worked to keep up with the others. We are also able to challenge each other when necessary with a word or gesture that says, “Get back in the game.” We have never had the perfect game, but we had some really good ones because we were working for each other as well as the athletes.

Every official should strive to be the best each night, no question. Every official should work to make his partners better each night, do doubt. Every official should be humble enough to realize they may be third that night, no problem.

From the diamond to the court to the field, officials are involved in the contest. The athletes and fans know the names and numbers of the players on the teams. Good players usually make themselves known during the contest. As officials, we should strive to be the team where the top official can’t be distinguished. If officials do their job well, the phrase, “I Am Third,” should simply refer to the crew as the third team involved in the contest.