Young women shouldn't have to look at officiating, or so many other traditionally male-dominated professions, as rarified air for only the chosen few. Subscribe to get the Referee.com Review every week plus periodic free training and special offers on the sports you officiate. Areas like these come to the forefront as the NBA continues to strive for an earned reputation as a progressive organization. There won't be a number anymore. However, her journey was slightly different from some of her female counterparts. (See the clip below.) WNBA. Ashley Moyer-Gleich, 33, a former Millersville University college basketball player who debuted as a full-time NBA referee in 2018 after working in the WNBA, took years of mentorship from Kantner; both are from cities within an hour of each other in Pennsylvania. Palmer's focus was internal. There's simply a desire to make this world, and others like it, more accessible. WNBA 2020 Playoffs: Points of Education (Part 1) WNBA 2020 Playoffs: Points of Education (Part 2), 2019 WNBA Inside the Rulebook: Screens These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Rather, Hopkins said afterward that in general the Liberty got the short end of the stick, both in this game and all season long. By. They get only $180,000 a year or $425 per match. Cheryl Flores and Dannica Mosher have been promoted to the level of full-time staff officials, the NBA said Thursday. (Suggested reading: Floyd Mayweather interested in buying NBA team). I wanted to do as many games as I could to prepare me to work in the NBA. Durant, a four-time scoring champion, now sets his sights on Hakeem Olajuwon in 12th place. "It's almost normal now. With no big distinguishable difference between the referee pay for men and women, it's still clear that being a referee is a high-paying job. Fahy walked into Ndour during the second quarter while looking in the opposite direction . As our numbers are increasing, that sort of noteworthiness is becoming more about this collective experience and collective momentum that is here and thats just really, really rewarding.. But now, in 2021-22, the NBA has six female referees on its full-time officiating staff, the most ever. 12 12. to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about Professional basketball has broken world barriers by having star players from countless different countries and broken the gender barrier as well. Sun Belt apologizes to Troy for refs' late blunder, Irish move past Wolfpack as Miles still sidelined, Spirit make NWSL history by signing 15-year-old, Volynets stops Stearns to reach first WTA semi, Shiffrin 4th in super-G, still chasing 86th win, Sheldon gives Buckeyes lift vs. Michigan in return, White out as Pitt hoops coach after 42-99 mark, All in the family: how three generations of Jaquezes have ruled West Coast basketball. "And I say that very positively. Flores has spent nine seasons in the G League and 10 in the WNBA, and is also an accomplished women's college referee with two Final . Its just fantastic. "There are a lot of things I want to say about the officiating . Holtkamp officiated six seasons in the NBA G League and four seasons in the WNBA. I think when I got hired, that had its own sort of significance and same for all the women after me. "Once [my peers] saw that I was about the business and the work and wanting to learn the craft, they were more than willing to open themselves up to teach me.". For female basketball referees, men's college basketball may be the bleakest of frontiers. The setting was a local recreation center in her home state of Missouri, where she'd previously played four years of college basketball at Drury University before becoming a referee. According to a warrant for Morrow's arrest, he's facing charges of assault by strangulation, second-degree kidnapping and communicating threats. Copyright 2023 NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Below is the 2020-21 NBA roster of officials with each official's uniform number, name, years in the league through last season and hometown. Seven women have worked as full-time NBA referees. She got her professional start in the WNBA, which was a big deal for her because she grew up idolizing players such as Candace Parker and Diana Taurasi. They allow the league's scouts to evaluate larger swaths of the population and identify greater cumulative talent. Jul 6, 2018, 01:32 PM EDT. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. "We are a very empowered group of women," Jelks said. While standing on the free-throw extended line during a timeout, Lauren Holtkamp-Sterling recalls a quiet yet powerful moment early in her NBA officiating career. We [officials] are human, too. The NBA has made significant alterations since Palmer and Kantner's day, where the league would have to improvise a makeshift women's locker room in arenas that weren't prepared for them. 2023 Getty Images. To its credit, the NBA hasn't been satisfied at simply hitting numerical targets for the sake of appearance -- although no one's saying it's been perfect, either. New to motherhood another around-the-clock job Moyer-Gleich remembers getting hired in 2018 as the jumping-off point for the league, which has now been a domino effect of more women coming through the officiating pipeline. Professional referees in the National Basketball Association are divided into three distinctions: Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), entry-level and Senior. And as the first to reach this plateau since, she's turned around and served a similarly important role for those following her. This season has seen a record 7 female referees officiate at least one game in the NBA. Now in her third NBA season, she feels this is a whole new grind in comparison to her journey but there is no place else she would rather be. This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. But Holtkamp-Sterling believes shes the one paying homage and praises Palmer and Kantner for breaking barriers as the first two women officials in the NBA. Moyer-Gleich played basketball at Millersville University in Pennsylvania. "Here we are in a very male-dominated space, and the league was very proactive to make sure I had what I needed.". She was working a high school AAU tournament one weekend when a bystander approached her with a simple question: Why dont you do this for a living? From coaches to players, we have it all. Chicago Sky centre Astou Ndour was walking down the court in . No portion of NBA.com All that self-affirmation has finally come full circle. It hits harder now after years of reflection. They all worked between 20 and 26 games as non-staff referees last season. And this is exactly what a true meritocracy looks like., More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports, Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. NBA adds 4 new full-time referees, including 2 female NBA referees . Cheryl Flores and Dannica Mosher have been promoted to the level of full-time staff officials, the NBA said Thursday. Sago would eventually work with all three superstars during her path to the NBA, which included stops at various levels including high school college, the G League and the WNBA. In addition, referees are paid bonus money for working the playoffs and NBA Finals. Those changes include separate dedicated locker rooms for women officials. Certainly not. "But did it bother me? Referees: Katie Lukanich, Darren Krzesnik, Kyle Bacon. WNBA 2020: Points of Education (Part 2) "Dee did it in a day where I'm sure she didn't have that support.". Facebook. The referees had to be ready and so did the players, coaches and fans. 3 Nick Buchert, Smithfield, Ky., 10. To order I had absolutely no idea you could be a referee and make a living out of it. Despite women entering the professional sports ranks in historically all-male leagues - Jen Welter was an Arizona Cardinals assistant coaching intern this summer, and former WNBA star Becky Hammon . By accessing any information beyond this page, you agree to abide by the Privacy Policy / Your California Privacy Rights and Terms of Use. As a proud Black and LGBTQ woman, Palmer especially was a barrier-breaker in more ways than one. Jelks describes one of the many attributes of being a great NBA official is holding players and coaches accountable for their actions. 4 Sean Wright, But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Referee Position. Schroeder explains the disparities within the NCAA when women officials were not being paid the same as the men and how that growing theme troubled her. Add four from the list of nine part-timers and the share of female refs bumps to 12%. Natalie Sago didnt watch much NBA basketball growing up. Instead, the Farmington, Mo., native spent most of her time traveling with her dad, a high school and collegiate basketball referee for 35-plus years, to all of his games and tournaments. San Diego State. Im so happy for you.. "There's no reason why we shouldn't have more women as officials, coaches and basketball executives in our league," Silver said. Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. It stuck for good, always as a term of endearment. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Scott, the daughter of college basketball officials, was promoted Monday to the full-time NBA staff referee roster. Lifelong bonds have been formed within this group. Natalie Sago, 31, a 2018 addition to the league, had a birthright motivating her: Her father, Dr. Shelton Sago, was a 35-year high school official in Missouri, a local legend in both basketball and football. Erica Ayala. (Suggested reading: Blake Griffin trolled by YouTuber courtside), Be the first one to comment on this story. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Katie Patterson. Referee. The other five Sage, Schroeder, Simone Jelks, Lauren Holtkamp-Sterling and Ashley Moyer-Gleich are active in the league today and among . Not that anyone is counting or, at least, needs to be. "Middle child" is perhaps more fitting; as the only one of the five, current full-time women in the league with a direct connection to the Palmer/Kantner days. Captaincy chaos and Waldrum ultimatums - Will Nigeria be ready for World Cup. While top NBA stars such as LeBron James and Steph Curry pocket about $38 million to $40 million annually, the highest-paid WNBA stars don't even broach half a million. The women that are coming on the scene now are helping us -- we're not helping them.". $425. Individual game assignments for referees are posted at NBA.com/official at approximately 9 a.m. She is the leagues longest-tenured woman official. Referees in the National Basketball Association (NBA) oversee 120 pre-season games, 1,260 regular season games, and four rounds of playoff matches.These officials "oversee competition in real-time between 10 exceptional athletes, making calls with 95% accuracy.". :-). In the WNBA, an entry-level referee makes an average of $16,000 a year, or $425 per game . "Did I hear it? Floyd Mayweather interested in buying NBA team, Blake Griffin trolled by YouTuber courtside. They congratulated me for getting hired and being in the WNBA, I was like, thats crazy because I was watching you guys when I was 12 years old and now were working together.. In recent years there has been a massive uptick in female referees in the NBA. Michaela Gilmer is an Interactive Producer for NBA.com. Holtkamp reffed in the G-League for six years before eventually getting the call-up to the big stage. That doesn't bother me, because we're all just referees and we have to be able to co-mingle. . As the NBA continues to normalize the notion of women officials in this male-dominated space, Holtkamp-Sterling is confident the league is moving in the right direction. So, we make mistakes out there on the floor, but the main thing is we have to just move on and reset., For me, if something goes wrong or if I can do something better, I look at the clock, then memorize the time on the game clock and time on the shot clock and just reset.. Listed is the 2021 WNBA roster of officials, along with their number. Several of the full-timers are close friends off the court. "I'm not sure how it was that it remained so male-dominated for so long," said Silver last month. Palmer recalls all the media hubbub that surrounded her and Kantner when they entered the league; when Holtkamp-Sterling did the same 17 years later, there was hardly so much as a press release -- something Palmer delighted in seeing. In terms of explaining certain officiating calls during live games, Moyer-Gleich uses her past experience as a player to translate and articulate the rule book into basketball jargon that players and coaches will understand. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. I see the competitive spirit of coaches treating everyone the same, he said. Lauren Holtkamp-Sterling is the NBAs longest-tenured female official. My ideals completely match up with the NBAs and I think it would be difficult to work for a company if your ideals didnt and I just feel very fortunate that they believe in everything I believe in.. Who will win nationals? Holtkamp officiated in numerous collegiate conferences, including the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East and Colonial Athletic. Penn Manor wrestler Trinity Mowery taking part in the PIAA junior officiating program referees a match at the Elizabethtown Optimist Club Junior High wrestling tournament at Elizabethtown High . Mosher has . According to Career Trend, those who officiate WNBA games earn a salary of $180,000 per year to start. It's needed that we strengthen each other emotionally, and just have that good support team.". With the average salary for a player in the WNBA being just $102,751, the fact that first-year referees are making so much is pretty surprising. ET. It was the first time that women officiated regular-season games in an all-male U.S. professional league. The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. Im sure we would have been open to it, said Sam Perkins, forward/center who played for four teams from 1984 to 2001 and is now the treasurer for the National Basketball Retired Players Association. To amplify your resume, you can try to get involved with your school's basketball team as either a student manager, player or referee assistant if possible. She will return for her 10th season in the WNBA, all of which have been in Phoenix, after she missed last year because of a 10-month detainment in Russia. Twenty-four of the G League's 57 referees are women, plus several who jump between the NBA and G League (all NBA officials with under four years of experience are commonly assigned as crew chief for G League games to gain experience); 15 of the WNBA's 33 referees are women, nine of whom also work games in the G League. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Flores has spent nine seasons in the G League and 10 in the WNBA, and is also an accomplished women's college referee with . The Pennsylvania native has four years of collegiate officiating experience, with stints in the ACC, Atlantic 10, Patriot League and Ivy League, among other conferences. Similar to Holtkamp, Jelks played basketball at a highly competitive level before entering the world of officiating. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. We won't send you spam. The Australian was the first female to officiate the A-League series in 2015. Within several years, for the 2014-15 season, Holtkamp-Sterling would become the first woman hired as a full-time NBA official in nearly two decades. In its . 2019 WNBA Inside the Rulebook: Continuation More than anything, it's that normalcy that today's women NBA referees aspire to. Her husband, Johnee Gleich, is currently an official in the NCAA. All rights reserved. Referee - August 12, 2021. Rather, they've tried to go further. And to the people who run the NBA's officiating program, efforts in recent years to open recruiting pathways and increase diversity are far from merely symbolic: They're practical for a league always striving to improve. And thats the way our society should be, McCutchen said. "I have always shown great respect for the referees and my career supports me," Ndour wrote on Twitter with a clip of the incident after . Each game crew consists of three on-court officials and one on-site alternate. This is the league's . By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of all the cookies. It was early in Holtkamp-Sterling's young basketball officiating career, years before she'd ascend to the NBA level. Boger is the only referee to retire this offseason. Although she considers herself a basketball junkie, the former collegiate softball player is also a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan and follows the sport closely. Select referees by season: . Our paths are all different but we all got to the same end goal.. "I always had that mentor, a role model on how to be successful in a male-dominated field," Schroeder said. Tickets for the WNBA's first-ever preseason matchup in Canada featuring the Chicago Sky and the Minnesota Lynx go on sale Wednesday, March 8, on International Women's Day. She also has five years of high school officiating experience in her home state. We can look at data, say from the 2011-12 season, to get an . As a young girl, the basketball court was one of the only places where Simone Jelks could simply be herself. And if it were male officials, you wouldnt call them sensitive.. The first female NBA referees. Conley was in the G League for seven seasons, Schwab for five and, like Scott, they also worked WNBA games this season. "Because I answered those questions early in the process for myself, it helped me create a career that is sustaining and meaningful.". Active referees are listed in bold. Holtkamp-Sterling has become a big sister figure to the other women in the program. Were capable and not just capable but like beyond excellent and can do the job just as well as our male counterparts.. After all, she could have stayed in women's basketball, where she was one of the top officials in the college world. We all started somewhere. Although there's no word on what their yearly raise looks like, after three to five years of working as an entry-level referee, officials are eligible to be promoted to the next level. "I see little girls sitting courtside, parents asking me to take a picture with their little daughter," Moyer-Gleich said. Please try again. Those who followed them still faced real challenges. Note: This article is archival in nature. She played in high school and college in Croatia and Puerto Rico before returning to the States and becoming a ref. All Rights Reserved. "I said to the guys: 'You can curse! Kicking off the list is Lauren Holtkamp. Jelks describes people telling her that their daughters tune into NBA games she works and won't even focus on the players; their eyes only on her. Referee data is available for the 1988-89 through 2022-23 seasons. "Kids have to see that things are possible," Jelks said. WNBA 2019: Points of Education (Part 2) "[The NBA] worked closely with me to make sure that the locker room was where I needed it to be as a nursing mother," Holtkamp-Sterling said. And Silver . The second category of referees are the Entry-level NBA referees. Referee, the worlds original sports officiating magazine, educates, challenges and inspires officials at all levels. Tap into Getty Images' global scale, data-driven insights, and network of more than 340,000 creators to create content exclusively for your brand. But now, in 2021-22, the NBA has six female referees on its full-time officiating staff, the most ever. She told The Daily Telegraph she almost quit officiating due to A-holes in the crowd yelling derogatory things to her. Both entered the league fully in 1997, and Palmer, now 56, got the honor of making history when she donned the whistle for a late October game that year. The NBA promoted Danielle Scott to a full-time official on Monday, making her the sixth woman on the league's current staff. They were audible conversations for Palmer and Kantner, and sometimes more. She became a professional referee in 1999 by officiating matches in the Women's Bundesliga, after that she was selected to officiate in the Regionalliga. Sago, 31, and Schroeder, 35, were two of the three people on the officiating crew . expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Mosher has four seasons of G League officiating experience, five seasons in the WNBA and worked both the G League Finals and the WNBA Finals last season. In 2003, she was the main referee for the 2002-03 Women's DFB-Pokal final between 1. Bonner already had started working NCAA Division I women's . If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free), Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. Effectively the glue for a crew through consistency, teamwork, and communication - makes partners better by carrying a larger portion of the crew's load than an Umpire. After finishing up her studies in physical education at the University of Missouri-St. Lois decided to make her way into a career of reffing basketball. All we have to do is find the best referees and open our eyes to half of the population.. She also enjoys Bikram yoga and swimming. You can e-mail himhere, findhis archive hereandfollow him on Twitter. Ashley Moyer-Gleich (gleash) has officiated 110 regular-season games in four seasons as an NBA staff official. N BA commissioner Adam Silver wants more female referees in the NBA. And despite having to transcend this gendered space, the officials recognize that the job of refereeing is not actually gendered work. Palmer and Kantner smashed this barrier; those who came after them are trying to stomp on its remains. Players, Teams, Seasons, Leaders , . But Palmer and Kantner's influence on today's generation is immense and undeniable. Access the best of Getty Images with our simple subscription plan. Cheryl Flores and Dannica Mosher have been promoted to the level of full-time staff officials, the NBA said Thursday. "In that moment, he was being very clear -- there was no micro-aggression or anything: 'I'm going to tell you exactly that I don't think you belong here doing this.'". All As it turns out, there are three categories that NBA referees fall into. However, her journey was slightly different from some of her female counterparts. I dont notice whether coaches are hands off. I havent seen any [bullying]. Career Explorer Guide also estimated . #NBA #NBAReferees twitter.com/i/web/status/1. may be duplicated, redistributed or manipulated in any form. Basketball Referee Salaries for Other Leagues. I feel like women, especially women in male-dominated industries, always in the back of our heads, theres a little space, no matter how well we are doing, like Am I good enough? and the answer will always be yes.. Officiating In Perspective with Barry Mano, 2020 Womens National Basketball Association, 2017 Womens National Basketball Association Roster, 2016 Womens National Basketball Association Roster, Next Level Softball Umpiring Free Email Series, High School Volleyball Officials Quiz 2023. Kantner's NBA career was the shorter of the two, spanning until 2002 when she was released by the league. Holtkamp-Sterling finds comfort in having close working relationships with other NBA officials. The first category is WNBA referees, the second is entry-level referees and the third is the top of the line senior referees the best of the best. And to this day, I dont think people know that thats actually a thing.. She served as a WNBA referee in 2018. ), Aggressively and accurately calls plays in the primary area of responsibility, Responsible for basic mechanics including rotations, positioning and clock and team foul awareness, Strong rules knowledge coupled with contributions to in-game discussions/issues regarding adjudication. 4091. Today, Palmer counts men she worked with among her best friends. The NBA now has the most . And thats not where the NBA or any other meritocracy wants to be if its goal is to have the most talented, hardest-working members get the most opportunities and rise highest. "She'll always say, if I did it, you can do it.