(PHOTO BY JACOB KESSLER / THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
GIVING BACK … Abby Mohre (left) and Jodie Arkwright are giving back to the game they love and encouraging others to get involved and help with the official shortage.
By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
There is an old-timer in more places than not, who still believes there are things sacred to men only, with males officiating sports as one of them.
Well, those old-timers better get with the new times and understand if you aren’t making change, you are getting left behind, as two former female greats on the hardwood are showing.
Abby Mohre and Jodie Arkwright have become two of the best and sought after high school basketball officials in the area.
Both Arkwright and Mohre, who were excellent athletes and also coached, each explained they turned to officiating to give back to the game that has been so good to them for much of their lives.
“I started off as a player, then a coach. I guess the natural progression was being an official and doing every aspect of the game,” explained Mohre, who just finished her eighth season as an official.
“When I stopped coaching, I still loved basketball and I thought, ‘hey I’ll become an official’, it kind of went from there, the next step of the game.”
“It wasn’t really a hard sell,” Mohre laughed. “I loved basketball and still love basketball, and I wanted to be a ref. The game has been my passion since I was five years old.”
“It was the same for me,” Arkwright, now a four-year official, echoed. “I was a player, a coach, I was a spectator and yelled at officials. The next natural step of progression was to officiate.”
“My dad bought me a basketball before he bought my older brother a basketball, I guess he saw something when I was a little kid that I loved the game and now it’s our turn to give back.”
“I talked to my younger brother who was also an official after I finished my last year of coaching. He said that I needed to get into officiating because we need more people who understand the game.”
“That aspect helps being an official and working the games is another way to show appreciation of the game of basketball that has given me so much as a person.”
“The game has taught me how to work through adversity, being a leader as a coach and all of that kind of translates into being a good official.”
Everywhere you go, there are people who officiate…from the stands. Ninety-nine percent don’t realize the number of rule changes that happen each year in every sport, and how much of a difference there is in the games from the high school to the college level, to the pros.
Football for example has 160-plus rules differences from high school to college, and another over 150 from college to pro.
Basketball is comparable. Mohre and Arkwright both explained that situation causes most of the erroneous comments that come from the bleachers.
“Most people don’t truly understand the game they are watching, quite as well as they would like to,” Mohre said. “Things have changed so much over the years; every year we have (numerous) rules that have changed.”
“There are always changes,” both Arkwright and Mohre said in unison. “If you knew a rule when I was playing 20 some years ago, that rule maybe doesn’t even exist anymore,” Mohre expressed.
“There are a lot of misconceptions where maybe the public or the spectators don’t know rule changes that have happened.”
“That probably frustrates them, and they yell ‘that’s a travel’ and they don’t realize the change.” “There are many, many calls we could talk about that are different from the time we played.”
Arkwright had an idea to help alleviate some of the negative comments that come in error. “I think it would be super beneficial at the start of every season for an official or someone from the association to go into the mandatory parent meetings and cover the rule changes.”
“The more people who are knowledgeable, that are sitting near the people who might not be so knowledgeable could be very helpful.”
“The one thing for us who played, then coached is we don’t hear the fans,” Arkwright said. “You really don’t hear too much of what is being said to you unless it’s something you shouldn’t be saying in a school setting, which is something that doesn’t happen very often.”
“If parents who go to these meetings could help educate people around them, then that would lead to less of the stuff that comes out of the stands like ‘over the back’, which isn’t even a rule anymore.”
Both Arkwright and Mohre already explained they wanted to “pay it forward” to the game of basketball by becoming officials.
They also had feedback to, whether a person is male or female, address the shortage of people in the officiating pool.
“It’s a great job to pick the days you want to work for one thing,” Mohre said. “You can pick how many days you want to work, as many or as few as you want, so you have flexibility there.”
“It is a decent paying job as long as you are willing to do it. You can get games in your area, so your driving times aren’t unreal.”
“After you get certified, get involved with someone in your area in youth tournaments,” Arkwright suggested. “When you are a high school athlete, you get to know who some of the officials are, so get with your athletic director and find out how to get that officials email so you can talk to them about what being an official is all about.”
“Getting your license is not difficult. The class is online, but you still have to do ‘ref-reps’ to graduate and be certified. The association we are in (Northwest District Officials Organization) is very good at helping develop the young officials who are coming in.”
Mohre and Arkwright both gained a high level of creditability from the OHSAA in that they received tournament assignments in the recent postseason, a level that only about at best, 30% of officials each year receive.
Neither said that getting tournament games is the end-all for them goal wise. Both expressed that the goals are to keep getting better each year as officials by doing everything they can to continue being involved in the game for a long time.
Arkwright and Mohre also both stated that if they can influence a few more girls to stay in the game, then that would be a big positive. How many more young people will have the fortitude to become officials in the coming years will yet to be seen.
No matter whether if the person is male or female, if you can do the job, then you can do the job. People like Mohre and Arkwright are already in the 1%, rather than yelling from the stands, they had the backbone to put on the whistle and use it and do the job well.
Because without those people who have the guts to officiate, NO ONE would be watching the game of basketball that many people, including Mohre and Arkwright, have grown to love. Change is good.
