The SIUC Officials Association offers opportunities for student referees to officiate at sporting events and even to compete against other referees to get more experience on a national level.

The officials association is fairly new at SIU and places referees at intramural games, including flag football, basketball, dodge ball, softball and volleyball.

Nicholas Delaney, a junior from Wood Dale studying accounting, said the organization primarily trains referees and holds meetings to discuss specific instances and how they should be handled. They teach officials how to call games, and they quiz each member on the material.

“We are an organization that helps officials that want to work in the community,” Delaney said. “We help train them, we help send people to regional tournaments and we try to make officials as good as they can be.”

Club President Michael Ingram, a senior from Richmond, Ind., studying marketing and sports management, said members sometimes travel to regional competitions to compete against officials from other schools. Various clinicians who are usually collegiate officials themselves judge the participants. They rate, rank and select a number of officials to officiate the national intramural tournaments. Students are judged based on quality of officiating, and how fair they keep the game.

The association is similar to other club sports in many aspects, one being dues.

Brian Hankey, a sophomore from Steger studying civil engineering, said members pay $30 in dues, and $60 when they compete against other officials. However, officiating games is a job, and members get paid for the games they officiate.

“If you do a game out in the community, on average you’ll get paid $50 a game,” Hankey said. “So you’ll make your money back the first time working out in the community.”

Ingram is also the president of SIU’s club baseball team and said the officials association is more laid-back.

“Baseball requires more of my time,” Ingram said. “Every time the baseball club does anything, I am directly involved. With the officials association, a lot of what (members) do is on their own.”

Members usually officiate games when they are needed and when their schedule allows it.

Delaney said he heard about a national flag football tournament he wanted to participate in, and said he figured refereeing was his best option to do so.

“I was really interested in the fact that there was a national flag-football championship,” Delaney said. “I wanted to stay involved in football somehow, and I figured refereeing would be the best way.”

Delaney said he referees an average of 100 games a year between intramural sports and games in the community.

Refereeing that many games can lead to questionable calls, and sometimes athletes argue the calls he makes.

Delaney said when an athlete has a problem with one of his calls he does listen, but he does not let them walk all over him.

“I will hear them out,” Delaney said. “I have been on the other side where a ref won’t listen to (me). I will listen to them and let them vent, but there is definitely a certain point where I draw a line.”

Hankey said officiating is one of his top three hobbies. He has been officiating since he was about 15 years old. He said he hopes to continue officiating as long as he can.

“I am only starting off at high schools and junior high schools,” Hankey said. “I would love to make it to the college level, and if I could even go beyond college, I would love to do that if I had the opportunity.”

Delaney said his favorite thing about the association is the knowledge he gains from being a member. Each member likely officiates around 10 games between meetings, and share how they worked out certain situations.

The group is open to anyone interested. For more information, please contact Hankey or Ingram for further questions.