Why You Should Make the Leap and Start Officiating Football

Deciding if you want to take the leap to officiate football and getting started in officiating can be the hardest part. When many people are deciding if they want to officiate, they think about the pressure they will be under, the people yelling at them, being busy and traveling on Fridays and Saturdays and if they can know the rules well enough to do a good job. But what people don’t think about is the good that can come from officiating. I am here to help show you the positives of officiating and help encourage you to take the leap and decide to officiate football, or decide it is something you are going to continue if you are already starting.

Besides the fact that for the amount of time you actually work a game you get paid very well, there are many other benefits. Being an official will undoubtedly help you develop many skills such as communication, composure, test taking skills, teamwork and keep you in shape! Knowing that you will have to be keeping up with very fast students will give you some extra motivation to make it to the gym even when you really don’t want to! But all the other skills mentioned are extremely important as well. Getting experience talking and explaining things to coaches and players will help you learn how to communicate effectively even in sometimes stressful situations.  

Throughout your officiating career, you will have the opportunity to take weekly, monthly, or even yearly test and quizzes to help you better understand football rules. These are complex questions that require a great bit of concentration. If you are still a student, after you spend some time taking these, when you go back to your school tests they will be a breeze! Finally, through football officiating, you will learn a lot about teamwork and how to collaborate with people. You can’t see everything that happens on the field, so you have to learn how to work with your crew mates and communicate with them.

I hope I have shown you some of the good that can come out of officiating that you may not often think about. I can tell you first hand, if you are a student and looking for internships or jobs, you can draw heavily from this experience in job interviews and help set your self apart from others. Now that you know the good, what are you waiting for!? Go out and start officiating football! 

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