A Note from MWSRA’s President: Supporting Female Referees

UncategorizedMatthew Popkin

On May 14, 2019, I met with the Maryland Referee Committee alongside Fran Gavelli (MWSRA board member) and our peer referees Erik Endler (CASRA president), Lucia Allen, and Alla Stepanov. As a group, we advocated for new programs and opportunities supporting Maryland female referees. Following this meeting, we sent a list of our top 3 priority recommendations for the committee to embrace:

  • Language Matters – Adopt Terminology of “3-Ref” instead of “3-Man”
  • More Broadly Incorporating Female Refs in State-Directed Mentoring/Instructional Programs
  • Endorse and Help Initiate the “Maryland Female Referee Task Force”

This effort was the culmination of over 15 months of surveys, interviews, conversations, and meetings, including an initial survey shared in this group which received over 175 unique responses. This is only the first milestone of what I hope to be many in the coming years, and we look forward to collaborating with the state on this. In fact, earlier this August, two female referees were appointed to the Maryland Referee Committee’s new term – the first time in recent history, if ever, that the Maryland Referee Committee has had female members.

My challenge to each one of you this fall is to make an active effort to embrace the following and better support our community of referees:

  1. Better manage dissent by coaches and spectators in accordance with new state guidelines for addressing spectator abuse. Note, the 2019 updates allow technical staff to be given cards
  2. Communicate in game reports and to assignors/MWSRA leadership if you witness harassment towards another referee from a referee or any individual in a match environment.
  3. Adopt Terminology of “3-Ref” instead of “3-Man” for your matches.

All that said, we certainly acknowledge that many recommendations in the report are not unique to female referees and can help all referees, regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation.  This desire to support all refs is why MWSRA launched our New Referee Development Program back in 2016.

If you are interested in learning more or getting involved in this statewide and regional effort, please email me at mwsrapresident@gmail.com.

Thanks,
Matthew Popkin

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