Teach Junior Players to Officiate

By Janet Cairns
CAP Level II Coach
Oklahoma Region Volleyball Association - Team Tulsa Volleyball Club

Teach them, support them, and encourage our junior players to officiate. I am a proponent that our junior players should learn the rules and participate as responsible officials. Officiating is part of the game from juniors to adults. Taking officiating duties seriously is an important part of sportsmanship. We have many participants who enjoy officiating and some who do not feel comfortable. I believe that if we teach them, encourage them and challenge our young players along with explaining the importance and responsibilities, they will become well-rounded volleyball citizens for years to come. It does, however, take time, patience, practice, emphasis and support.

Those who agree with this idea might wonder why I am writing about this topic. I am constantly surprised when I hear about areas or regions that do not let their junior players officiate (I am hoping that this is changing). I am surprised when I see junior players placed in the R2 position without a whistle. And, I am surprised in conversations with coaches who suggest that players, especially young players, 14 and under, should not be allowed to officiate. I am aware that we have tournaments that put a blanket request for adults as officials. These rules are likely made because the adult participants may think that our youngest of players are not capable or responsible enough to officiate. And, yes, I, too, find it frustrating when junior officials lean against the pole or do not know the basic rules. Junior officials will seek to officiate better with higher expectations and appropriate training.

Everyone understands that officiating is part of USA volleyball for youth and adult competitions. Fortunately, at the young ages, our players want to try officiating and often enjoy it. Therefore, by make officiating a way of life at our youngest of ages, then hopefully our junior players will become our future knowledgeable adult players, coaches, referees and spectators.

Rules 6.1.1, “Participants must know the Official Volleyball Rules and abide by them”, and 6.1.2, “Participants must accept referees’ decisions with sportsmanlike conduct” (from USAV 2002-2003 Rule Book, p. 11) require each participant to be knowledgeable and accept officiating as a good sport. What better way to teach our players the rules than by encouraging them to officiate as R1 and R2 officials, scorekeepers, and line judges.

Besides being more knowledgeable about the rules, there are other benefits to having our junior players officiate.

• They will participate more responsibly and be encouraged to be respectful of the officiating crew not only as players but as future coaches, spectators, and parents.
• They will learn the game in more depth. I believe that officiating will help juniors become better players by increasing their game knowledge similar to adult players improving their play through their coaching their experiences.
• Some players find their importance to the team through officiating. I have found that sometimes those players who are not the most successful on the court find an important place on the team with success on the stand.
• They will develop confidence in their abilities while developing leadership skills.
• Future officials will hopefully be developed.

We can do things to help our players become good officials. In order for our players to work diligently at becoming good officials, we need to place an importance on learning and performing officiating responsibilities. There are several ways that the junior officials can learn and adults can support their efforts.

• Attending a junior oriented clinic is important for every player to understand the rules.
• Officiating in “mock matches” helps the junior officials to prepare and build confidence for the live matches. This can be accomplished during scrimmages. The challenge with this is that takes valuable time. But, it will take less and less time if we begin with our youngest.
• Coaches can also seek those players who are interested in becoming referees and emphasize learning.
• Hired officials at different tournaments often take time to work with our junior officials before, during, and after the match. They commend them when appropriate which further helps in encouragement. I am thankful to them as their valuable time spent not only helps to further teach our juniors but it also encourages to them to keep working hard and responsibly.

While many of the players enjoy officiating, there are those, who, unfortunately, lose their confidence. Why does this happen and how can it be helped?

• The player does not feel comfortable in decision making.
• Neither the officiating team nor the coach knows the rules adequately causing the competing teams and spectators to lose confidence in their abilities. This is very challenging situation for junior officials. Officials must read the rulebook.
• An event happens that the junior officials do not know how to handle and the coach is no where to be found for support. For our young officials to be comfortable during the matches, we need to support them during their duties. Educated coaches should take every opportunity to train their young officials by positioning themselves near the referee stand or opposite behind the R2 during the competition. If a coach is by themselves, I suggest finding a few parents who will work to get certified as scorekeepers.
• Coaches and/or parents forget that the competition belongs to the players. Oddly enough, the adults tend to be more non-accepting of the officiating than the competing players. It is true, that we all make mistakes. It is how we as the adult representation of the competing and officiating teams handle the situations that often makes or breaks our young officials. We must show patience and confidence. If we believe and remember that officiating is beneficial to our players then we should be able to execute more patience.
• Parents – often the first question is why they feel the need to yell from the stands but that has already been a subject of many papers. The second question is why do they yell at junior line judges, why do they shout rules at officials not to mention our junior officials. I submit that while we coaches cannot control everything that our parents say, we have a responsibility to educate and encourage our parents to leave the discussions to the officials and the coaching staff.
• We discriminate against our younger players when tournament directors declare that adults must officiate; this mostly applies to R2s. The truth is that some of our players are better officials and more knowledgeable than their adult support. They only lack the physical maturity to convince other adults that they are capable. Probably a better approach in these situations is to request the desire for adults to officiate but will accept a qualified junior official with adult supervision.
• Adult participants must demonstrate patience and demand sportsmanship from our on-court participants.

Not all players feel comfortable initially but in many cases, if trained and supported properly through their many years of juniors competition, they will become comfortable supporting the team effort in some officiating capacity. Some players enjoy and prefer R1, some would rather R2, or score keep. Require them to learn one of these, and let them do what they feel comfortable; provide strong encouragement and support. I advocate that officiating duties are a team effort and that all players must work towards understanding the rules and participating in the duties.

In summary, mentoring and educating our players as officials will not only help their volleyball play, it will help them to develop confidence and leadership skills. But we have to teach them how to officiate and support them while they do it. When we have high expectations of our junior officials, they will rise to perform their duties well. I know that working with our players on improving their officiating skills is time consuming. The opportunity to officiate our matches is unique and an extremely important feature of our game. By giving our players a whistle and showing confidence in them while teaching them, I believe that not only the players will win, but the volleyball community will win by developing well-rounded volleyball citizens.