This is Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk.
Here are your hosts, Dr. Tim Slecker, and Dr. Johnny Lupinacci,
educated educators talking education.
And welcome to Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk,
educated educators talking education.
Dr. Johnny Lupinacci here.
Special weekly segment.
Love this.
I'm excited about it every week.
First downs in Friday night lights,
or as my guy Tim likes to sometimes say,
Busted Balls here at Busted Pencils.
But awesome stuff we get to talk about.
Extra curricular, especially around sports and community
and the ways that young people through our school systems
participate in so much more than just the stuff
we're always always usually talking about.
They're learning their classrooms, all those things.
So got a guest today.
Can't wait to get into talking with him more
about a dimension of sports for our youth
that we often pretty much forget about.
Like we talk about coaches on this show.
We've talked about parents and fans.
And I've even mentioned the importance of trainers
and all the medical people who often volunteer
their time to making sure our young athletes are safe.
I'm unhealthy, but guess what folks?
We got a special topic of conversation today
because I can't have these competitions without officiating.
And I'd like to introduce our guest today, Chad Schultz,
right, the assistant director
from the Wisconsin Interest Classic Athletic Association.
Chad, how's it going today?
I'm doing great.
Thank you so much for having me on today.
I'm very excited to talk about officiating.
It's one of my big passions and really excited that
I get to do that in this role.
And so excited we're going to shed some positive light
on officiating today.
Exactly, right, Chad?
As a coach and as a player and everything.
It's like, I've learned to value and respect referees.
But I'm always like kind of odds with them,
which isn't really true.
It's just the nature of the game.
And it wasn't until a few years ago
I had become an official that I learned so much more about the game.
So I'm going to plug that listeners out there.
If you haven't in your life and you're close to a sport
or you want to give to a community,
it's a great way to learn even more about the sport.
I mean, you'll never look at the game the same way again
in a really good way.
You'll understand so much more.
If you want to have a conversation about this
and drop a line to the either Chad or myself
or really anything related to first downs and Friday night lights,
you can give us a call at 608-557-8577.
That's 608-557-8577.
And you can leave us a message in the mail bag.
We'll check it out.
We'll talk about it and we'll address it
on one of our future drops.
But Chad, before we even get into it,
I mentioned I had become an official learned so much.
I don't do it anymore because I also learned
it's one of the hardest things I've ever done
in the sports I coach and play.
But Chad, what, what, call us a little bit
about how you got into officiating?
So how I got into it,
I was going into my senior year of high school
and I thought, I wanted to learn how to officiate basketball
and thought that it would help out with my plane,
being able to talk with the officials
that were out on the court and try to get
basically a leg up advantage.
After that, though, I was hooked
at my first kids tournament that I worked
that it was a different way to stay connected and involved.
Then when I went off to college,
I started working intramural basketball
and at the college and rec program
and then from there,
also started to work out in the community working,
freshman and JV level games.
And then I found out that I could kind of turn this
into a career and passion for myself
where I worked in collegiate rec and intramurals
for the last previous 12 years.
And then in July, took this job here with the WIA.
Yeah, Chad, so tell us a little bit more
about this dimension of the work
that you do at the WIA and really kind of
our listeners' importance of the association.
Yeah, so the importance of the association,
it's membership driven.
So all of the member schools across the state
were basically helping to enforce the rules
and regulations that they set forth.
So besides overseeing a handful of sports,
I'm also overseeing our licensing
of all of our officials across the state,
also making sure that we're meeting
certain educational requirements
and then working with our conference commissioners
and officials associations all the way across the board.
Last year, we had over 10,000 licensed officials,
which is the most that we've had in WIA history,
which is great.
But if you were asked to school,
you're still feeling that pinch right now
of not having enough officials
for some of their games and contests.
Yeah, so we need more referees.
That's kind of been the case.
And even though we've got the most ever that we've had,
we need even more, which is good
because it just means there's more competition,
more young people participating in these activities,
all of the sports.
Chad, we got lots to talk about,
but before we even move on to other things
I'm curious about, maybe our listeners are,
I just think if we need officials
and someone's listening, they're like,
hey, I think I could do that or I might want to do that.
How do they do it?
How do you become a referee or an empire
or whatever you call them in the different sports?
Yeah, so each sport has their own language,
whether it's a judge, an official referee,
whatever it might be.
The easiest way is to just log onto our website,
www.org and on the homepage,
there's an officials tab.
Click on officials and underneath that,
you'll be able to register and license then at that point.
Now, once you've licensed, you pay your fees.
All that's required from a licensing standpoint
is you take the rules exam
and you watch the rules video that we put on
that coaches and officials have to watch for each sport.
From there, the best way then
is to get connected with local officials' associations
that will help with your education,
but then we'll also help to get you in the mix
and hooked up with people to get assigned games
and contests then at that point.
So there's a couple of different moving pieces
that come with it,
but the easiest way to get signed up
is head to our website.
All the literature is there that you need.
You're able to go ahead and sign up today.
And Chad, if I understand it right,
this is one of the things, too, it's not volunteer.
This is hard work, it's paid.
It's certainly not like handsome pay,
but you know, you're compensated for your time
to use competitions, right?
Yeah, so each school district or each conference
they have set fees that they assign
for either the sub varsity level
or for the varsity level.
Some of the conferences are able to pay mileage
because they know they have to recruit
from a wider scope.
And so each official is actually an independent contractor.
So you basically are running your own business.
And so that's one of the things
that we also like to highlight, too,
is that it's a profession, like you're a professional
because everything involved is how you're communicating
with school administrators, setting up your contracts,
the way you look out on the court in field.
It's all part of you're selling a package, essentially.
You know, I always like to say to my players,
you know, you're playing this for life,
not for like the next level necessarily.
And you know, I'm always given the speech about,
you know, we're becoming better human beings
by being part of a team.
We're getting leadership skills that will help us
and our families and our communities
and then our jobs as we move forward.
But every so often it is also true
that some of our players in our programs are
that will be their career.
This will be their profession.
And that's one of the also the beauties of this
from just the sports angle, too, as well as
some of our players will be professional baseball players.
Some of them will be professional basketball players
or very high level.
And officials are right in the middle
of making decisions that determine outcomes.
And it is stressful.
Believe me, I've never really refereed a high level,
like high stake situation.
And I can't imagine the pressure on it.
So it's really, it's really hard to do
and like a decision is a decision.
And then those decision have implications.
So, you know, they can make their way
when challenged all the way up to court, you know.
And so it's an interesting time
and like Chad said, precedent setting.
That said, I would say almost 98.899
was just making a really big number,
almost close to 100%.
Even with all of the tension of like,
what do you mean that's a foul of like,
you know, and it's a better watch it, buddy,
or you know, I'm going to toss you,
you know, all the banter between coaches and referees
at the end of the day.
It is just an awesome and essential part
of our athletics programs and our extra curriculum.
And I like Chad that you also threw in there like judges
because I have to imagine outside of my area of expertise,
there are officials in debate.
There are officials in, you know, there's a fish eating.
Gymnastics.
Yeah.
Gymnastics is a big one for judges.
Yeah.
So this is awesome stuff, Chad.
Just a couple of things before we wrap up with you,
you know, if folks are listening
and they're thinking about, you know, all of this,
I would say what is what is the most exciting part
of the work you get to do with officials
and officiating and judging?
I guess we could just call it officiating.
I was calm, the refs, the stripes,
but those are my so.
So this week is a big week.
So at the national federation level across the country,
it's an official's appreciation week.
And we're running one in the fall, winter,
and spring season as well.
It's just a way for schools and everyone to say thank you
and give back because for a lot of the people
that you're seeing out on the courts or the field,
they're your neighbors.
They're the ones that you'll see in the grocery store
and they're in the community.
And for a lot of people, it's not about the pay.
Initially when people get started,
that's one of the perks and bonuses.
But really, what ends up happening is people find
a sense of community, a brother or sisterhood.
And so people are participating
and really getting connected with other like-minded people
that love to enforce rules and just love to see
great high school sport athletes.
And it's a way to give back.
And like you had mentioned earlier,
without the officials, it's not a game anymore.
It's just a practice, essentially.
Yeah, I love that.
And really all of the dimensions,
here we are Friday nights and first downs,
the segment focused primarily around sports
because Tim and I love sports.
But also around, like you said, check community
and the strength of democracy that comes through
all of the ways we come together in our community.
And our public schools, our districts,
our sports programs, theater programs, art programs,
all of these things, those extracurriculars
that our students are involved in
is really kind of so special to us
in such a part of this country's strength and democracy.
So love chat that you're part of that
and sharing it from the perspective of the work
that you get to do with officiating and officials.
All right, so before we wrap up, folks,
remember if you want to join the conversation,
maybe you have a story about an experience
with an official or anything,
this is Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk here
with Chad Schultz from the WIA and you can call
or text us at 608557, 8577.
Leave us a message, we'll get to it.
And we'll funnel that right into our first downs
and Friday night lights, segments here weekly
at Busted Pencils.
So Chad, before we wind down, right,
which we're probably just winding up
because I'm getting so excited from this conversation,
what's your top moment from officiating?
Will each share a top moment
and kind of close out today?
So I've been blessed to work the state tournament
on the basketball side
and definitely was always one of my biggest goals
and something I wanted to reach that pinnacle.
But once having a taste of that,
I've enjoyed bringing other people with me.
And so at my time at UW-Madison,
I would take many students with me to games
and it would be their first varsity game
or their first JV game contest, whatever it might be.
And just watching them work through the whole part
of the gaming contest,
there's nothing better than that
where they're going to experience that something
that I've done thousands and thousands of times now,
having them experience that
and that feeling of accomplishment
that you've done something great like that.
That's definitely probably my proudest moments
is how many people I've brought into the game as well.
That's awesome, Chad.
This is always a fun way to end.
I don't even know.
I think it's for me, my top moment of officiating
is how humbling it was to become a referee.
I played hockey at a high level,
I coach hockey at a high level.
And at a time, I was coming back into a new era of the game.
I thought, what a great idea.
In fact, in my coach training,
they have like annual great coach training at USA hockey
and USA hockey said,
we like all of our coaches at a certain level
to be trained as officials.
One, you can give back to the game in a lot of ways too.
We just have found your coach better
and you better understand the game if you've been an official.
And I thought, oh, come, you've got to be kidding me.
But you know what, they're right.
We need so many officials
because youth hockey is growing where I'm at
and we just don't have enough officials in the region.
And so in order for them to have competitive hockey
we've got to have good officials
and they have to have a certain skating level
and that's the other hard part
is you have some folks who are really good with the rules
but don't necessarily have the ability
to keep up with the game skating-wise.
So we came in official, Chad.
Yeah, just half of it.
On the worst official there ever was.
I was terrible at it.
I was missing calls left and right.
Coach is really like, what are you doing?
I was like, guys, I have no idea.
I studied it in the book.
I'm just not good at this.
I got better at it.
But it really put a perspective on the game for me
to honor and admire what officials at all levels do
because it's so different than being in the game
as a player, a participant, being a fan or being a coach.
It's a whole new dimension.
So I was humbled by the experience.
Chad, I cut you off.
What were you going to say, my guy?
Yeah, half of it is just being in the right position
to see what you need to call.
And that's honestly a good chunk of being a good official
is making sure that you're in the right spot to see it.
That's a good advice from Chad.
Listener, if you want to become an official,
you know, hit that rewind button a little bit
and there's information for how you can become an official
listening to this podcast.
But also we'll have Jess drop it into the description.
Jess, Chad, thanks for being here with us.
Chad Schultz.
Thanks for busting pencils with us.
And now for your moment of Zen.
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic.
It is based on the fact that human history is a history
not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice,
courage, kindness.
Thanks for joining us on busted pencils.
Remember, grab us on Monday when we drop the home room.
Talk to y'all next week.