Episode 3: Want to be an NBA Referee?

We welcome Randy Ricketts, co-founder of New England Officiating Services, to the Locked IN! podcast to discuss the ins and outs of officiating and how someone can become a referee and possibly set a course for the NBA!

Transcript

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Welcome to locked in podcast your source for everything basketball. My name is Nick to fail alongside my cohost. Jason Shea. We dive into all things. Hoops from recruiting tips to training advice, hot takes, and the latest news, whether you're a player, coach, parent fan, and now referee, we've got you covered. Don't forget to subscribe, follow us for more great content and share with friends, family time to get locked in. Coach and other great guests today, Randy Ricketts. Official. Randy let's play. Let's run down the, the, uh, the resume here. Um, two years in the ABA grassroots system. Correct. 10 years, overalls and official seven years of the division three level. Yep. 2019, we found Neos. Founder with Austin Nolan. Correct quickly tell everybody what Neos is code for free, dude. Just put that mic up a little higher. I mean, I'm sorry, not coach Randy. Oh, can you put that? No, no. Closer to your mouth. Yeah, it's a little, can you hear me now? That's better. Yep. Randy's here. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Neil's new England fishing services and development. Um, it's a referee platform. We emphasize on education and development for basketball officials from youth, all the way to pro um, helping our coaches, helping our fans, just understand the game, giving them some educational components to understand what we do throughout the game. Typically game management. Oh mail, most likely just keeping it off here and, um, you know, being patient with the fans, just community service. Uh, service and, um, just, you know, just putting out a little product. Yeah, it's great. And we've had a couple of experiences together and you guys have been doing some really great stuff. Um, You know, w w with Neo specifically, um, you guys do like local AAU tournaments, national AAU tournaments. Tell, tell everybody what you guys do in terms of the levels that you officiate. So, um, I want to say thank you. Thank you, Jason. All for giving us the opportunity to work with particle hoops. Um, we've seen vertical, who's grown tremendously in the last couple of years. So on, based on Jason, Shane vertical whole sedan team. And they've done a really good job. on that, given the opportunity to, um, see younger, official and older officials. And be able to help each other on a peer to peer level, um, just to service these games better. We all on the same page. Um, but like you said, the question was we service. Um, AAU vertical hoops on mainly 15 to 20 on park and rec organizations, some travel clubs. We have a four year deal with the on national air force and handcuffs. And some air force base. Dealing with just more than basketball. Uh, seven other intramurals course. Um, from the boss from volleyball across, uh, Amanda list goes on, that's also sports where it's not just refereeing. All. We go into life supporting operation. So we were emphasizing a heavily on basketball efficient, but now we're going into like, score-keeping. Shot clock. Um, the table personnel. Um, even podcast what you're doing. Yeah. So we try to give off. People opportunity to understand and the holding escape. Basketball. If you don't want to ref if you don't want to play because of the opportunities for individuals to. The same place or so we provide that platform. Um, but yes. Um, not a basketball that counts. Um, we love the basketball, but we trying to get people more because we know basketball is and everything. Well, we do a great job on this side. And as the terminal operator here. You know, with vertical, I could say that having NIOS and Randy and Austin. Coming in and being able to call them and just. Have the tournament scheduled for you? Not worried about, you know, calling a few officials here that's that's people wonder how you get it done. How do you get it done? I just have to send them the schedule and then they're going to put officials in place. For the games, Randy, talk about like, And we've mentioned this on our last podcast, we were talking about AAU coaches and sometimes the things that they could work on, maybe. And one of the things we highlighted was their treatment of officials. You know, a lot of AAU coaches are, and they do a great job, but they're younger coaches. They're getting into it for the first time. And, you know, sometimes it can be a little bit over the top. And they forget that. They're working with younger referees. A lot of times it was, oh, we're also learning the game and they're going to make mistakes. Just like they're making mistakes as, as coaches. How do you guys deal with that? In a leadership role, dealing with the officials that are working for you, and then your own experience coming up as an official, did AAU help you become a better official. Uh, ready those games as well, but at big levels, You know, in the high school level and college level in the past. So talk about that a little bit with dealing with young officials and how they handle. Top coaches. So I'm first. We started with the standards. What are standards, you know? You're going to respect each other and we're going to communicate. We're going to work hard and we're going to let the coaches know that, Hey, we're trying to get this all right together. Um, you coach our team we're clutch coach, our team, me and the other referee and the other coaches on the coach, our team. So we tell them to be patient, what does this communicate? We don't have to yell. Um, Is it the right time to be talking and having a conversation? Um, Trust us. Like we like parents are trusting you with their kids because we care about it just as much as they do on their end. So just being patient and have that conversation with the. We're not saying we gotta be best friends or buddy, buddy. Well, this half respect when we have dialogue, let's be human first. You know, we don't have to put the best referees out on the court, but we want to put the best people on the court. How are they going to handle those? Um, those conflicts. Situations. Um, how are they going to, you know, not being impulsive on their response, we want to be professional, but at the end of the day, And the culture of ref. The host, we all human. We all want to go home at the end of the day. And we all, you know what I mean? We have feelings too, so I'm just being patient with one another. And for, for us, it's for our gods, we prepare them with the right tools. How to communicate, how to play, call, how to be in the right position. Some may call the accurate call name. And again, if we kick up play week, No ego, no pride. Hey coach. I miss one, but I'm gonna get that next 10. Right? You know, so it's all about being patient and just, you know, being human and respectful to one another, because we all got a job and we all want to be happy at the end of the day. And when you. Uh, do you talk to your guys too about demeanor and like just how you communicate? Because I feel like there's a. The perfect official, especially in AAU. It's certainly not taking the attitude like this doesn't matter because if you take that attitude with a coach it's not fair to the coach or the program either were. You know, a smart smile at him, you know, like this, you know, what are you talking about that doesn't help. Right. But at the same time, coach has some perspective. Yup. Right. This is a 9:00 AM game. Yup. On Saturday morning, this is not the, you know, the national championships. So you've got to have that perspective, but how do you talk to your officials about having a great demeanor. And ability to communicate that to the coaches in a way that doesn't. Escalate something or cause more problems. We, we have a real good group of referees may have very good, diverse referees without a big background in a lot of professions. Um, we go tell our guys to go be yourself. You know, go have that conversation with that. That woman, that male, that coach whoever's on the other side of what? Having a conversation at the appropriate timing. And it's just winning, going back to our fundamentals is like, what are we doing? You know? The coach is saying something might be a little bit of truth. Let's see what they're saying. Let's let's take accountability first and then put it all on us then. We got to go talk to have a discussion with the coach, let him know, you know what I mean? We're here to run the game and manage the game, you know, so we give coaches a fair shot and we just give them a good understanding that, Hey, your herd. Um, but we're not going to let you go overboard. Uh, we got a game to ref. I can't answer every single question that you have. I'm not going to talk about every whistle. Um, that I upload one. Um, so like, again, let's have a fun game. We put the game first. It's not about us in our fitness. We try to put the game first and we will let the coaches and the players to figure out why they out there. Yeah, and I love how you put. Let's be human beings first. Let's, let's have a conversation first before one side raises the voice and then both people are raising their voice and we're having a logical conversation. So is that something that you see that similar with, with fans, especially at a U. Infan interaction. And how do you, how do you guys teach your referees to deal with fans in certain situations? Um, the fans payday money to be here. So again, it's about them too. They got, they, kids are playing, they're paying them, wanting to get inside the facility for the event. So they have a right to have a voice too, but we're not going to ever disrespect one another, you know what I'm saying? Um, you know, BFN sandwich, you want to say half pawn and you supposed to. It's a nice, beautiful day. You chose to spend the whole vertical hoops. So come here. And be respectful to the referees and our guys are good enough to even give you explanations. And when it's the right time, we got nice, good guys out there. It's not really about that refereeing. We have really great guys in our team. And we are feeding to, most of us are former player, former coach. We love the game of basketball. We just not here to be here and we admire the fence because we like geesh. We'd rather be, I'd rather be watching my kid play. So we give them, we give them grace because they paid their money. They're emotional. They don't understand our side to it. So it was just like a baby of the baby. Don't understand the dope. I ain't going to be upset with the baby. You know, so they, you know, It's a different lens that they see the game in. And again, we get to have fun with them, but again, during a certain moments, don't engage with the fan or if you feel like, um, there's a safety concern or. The fan is. Over the mark. Let's look at a site and read the list, deal with it the right way we have, you know, we have a procedure that we want to address her and things. I tell my guys, that's not your job. You guys are focused on that rectangle. If you can't handle it, hop on your phone, send us a text. Look for a site director they're always walking around and listening to this handle the situation the right way. We don't want to have people watching a game from the parking lot. It's not fair to them. And again, we want them to come back next time. We don't want that either. Yeah, that's never fun. And everybody have a great experience. That's what it's about. This is the community here. We see these fans all year round. You know, this is not a one tournament thing. You know, we see it's a family and I was a kid. So we have to be kind to one another. We're going back to the same hub. We're a part of it. You want to have a good time? I want to have a good time. Everybody wants a good time. So it's really about, you know, um, not seeing eye to eye, but we don't have to agree. We can disagree, but we can get along till. It's about the game. It's about the community. It's about the event. It's not about me. It's not about the fan. Are you interrupting this environment? Appearance rubbing the sandbar. Me. You really can't. You know, This, this check-in and no idea. We had figured out the limits because I think that you bring up a great point. What the entire goal here is to provide an opportunity for the young. So the young men and women through. To play basketball. And have a great experience doing that. And the officials are such a huge part of it. And we talk about all the time. You know, You know, you and I go back and forth, but we'll have, you know, a culture, a fan who yelled to me or the site supervisor. How could you let that happen? Change the call where like the referees have control of the game. Once the game begins and we're going to back the referees a hundred percent. But they're out there just trying to provide a great experience for your kids. Fair enough. And that's what they're doing and they're not going to be perfect. Just like your son's not going to make every shot and it's okay. You know, as, as long as they're not agregious and they're hustling and they have a great personality, then that's, that's what matters. Let me just change it up here, because I think this is an interesting one. You're you're 22 years old. You're just out of college. Give me the track. For my son is not 22, but if I'm a listener. Hypothetically, how does it become an NBA official? And VA, I want you to take me all the way through, and then tell me the pitfalls where you, where you end up stopping alone. So, this is perfect for me, man. Um, I got into fishing at 22, 23 years. Years old. And my career with skyrocketing real fast. Real real fast. I got a lot of good supervisors watching out for me. I'm on their radar. And again, Um, due to me not being professional. I mean to understand the landscape and the business of it. Um, not having the right etiquette, not having those right conversations and really not holding myself accountable. Um, that was what kind of slowly all my career down. And again, no regrets, but you gotta be professional and you gotta be a big listener, you know? Do everything that you could control. But at that 22 year old kid or young man wants the opportunity to MBA. He needs to ref, um, he needs a rap. I have some games, um, get a mentor to. Or some film. Take care of his body and just be a sponge. Get around. Good people. Don't waste your time hanging around. Uh, such and such, because they're fun to hang out with. If you want to take anything serious. Um, get around those people in that profession, come to Mohegan sun and watch a w MBA game. Do you know, um, Jeff Smith? He's a great. Um, asset to Neos. He's an a w MBA 20 years of NCAA division one basketball man and a one man. So, um, He's the example. And if you want to, if you want an opportunity again, Be professional. Dominate every opportunity you get, you're not going to make every call, right. But if you take care of your body, you win that rule book. He watching film you study in plays. And you're being good to individuals. I believe you'll get an opportunity. We got a few long, we've got a few referees that are in the NBA system, whether it's the w the G league. The MBA. So, um, being from Connecticut as possible. Um, you really just have the buy into it and, you know, But the main thing the first day, you know, so keep the main thing, the main thing and just dominate your opportunities and you'll get one. So my ready, I'm listening to everything. He was going to see me on his podcast, big and single, but we're also still running the event. Hey, we're live here. Give me questions. You guys can't see behind us, but this is like a hotspot here. Randy's a star. Everybody's looking at him while he's talking, but that's. It's such great advice. And you're talking about your body, like you're in great shape. If you want to be an official and you want to go to those high levels, you got to be in great shape. I look at these guys in the NBA and I'm like, man, they eat right. They do it right. You know, it's, it's, it's amazing when your body is when you feeling good. Off the court, you bought it. You got to feel good off the court mentally and physically. But when you end up pouring you physically. Engage in, in the shape. You, you got, you're not going to miss. You're not going to miss man. Like put your body first. Take care of your brain. And your accuracy goes up. You being in a right position, goes up. You just feel good, you know? On days. I talked a little bit about that may use different. Yup. You know that the high school official, the college official you're going in for one game. I might be a freshman and JV official goes in for two games, but you're going from one game. Yeah, you get all your focus on that game. You're ready to go. You do a, you talk about that day, a typical day in a. Officiating. I use a different breed. So you got a couple of different tiers of referees. So you've got some horses. We call them. That could do maybe seven, eight games and we would get bad feedback. Can I say, Hey, those guys shouldn't be doing seven, eight games, but then again, you got some new experienced guys that want to come in and do two or three, just get some reps. And then you got some guys that want to come in as your shadow was, but again, you want to make sure if you have enough again, if you haven't a laundry, if you're reffing a game, You got to eat, right. You know, the night before you want to get some rest. Um, maybe have one to two different pair of shoes, because again, you being on the poor, you walk in. You want to change it up? Um, but mentally you want to be prepared. You don't want to get so engaged about what everything goes around you. You got to focus on what's on the court. And you got to run your games that may show you and your partner on the same page because it gets laws and tough. Like you said earlier, you've got the coaches. Don't stop being here from eight in the morning to eight at night. Um, you have the fans that ain't. They saw the, they done. During her son lose a game. I wanted two points and now it's a rough fall. All the rest of the day. So they'd taken out, you know, certain comments on you. So it mentally and physically. You want to be prepared and we're just ready for those moments. It's not easy. People think all the rest of taking it easy, but you know, it just like that duck in a pond, he probably is full in and sell it. But on the water, he's really kicking really hard and I'm again. That's why we, we, we tell our guys and prepare our guys, Hey, this is a long day. If you have any issues leading up to the site and the writers, you know, your business, but all this stuff outside the court, leave it up to the site. Directors book calming in. Um, working those long days or even short days, you just want to be able to give 110% commitment and, um, just service the game the best way you can. And you know how I don't do things. We typically wouldn't do on a normal day. It's awesome. What's it like working for you guys, you know, as more experienced now, when, when you kind of have to work with the guy who's been only in for one or two years and he started to get used to it and then vice versa. What was it like for you? In the early stages, working with the season better, uh, referee. And what did you learn in that situation? Ref? and it's so tough, man. It's an art, it's an art to it. So for me, where I'm at my career. I want to work with all the young guys, but don't get me wrong. I'll work with the vet too, because it's a different experience. I can't tell you how to officiate. I can just say, Hey, this is how I do certain things. If you want to take some stuff for me, I would take it because when I was coming up, I won't work with you. Even if you are younger than me or, or to me, I was like, oh, I like that. Even your mechanics. Hit. You know, just how you communicated with coaches, maybe your run. Maybe your block charge plate. It was. It's an art to it. So again, I think you have to take from everybody washed it. Good. Washed it back. Remind yourself, oh, I ain't doing what that guy did and it's not to say he's a bad rep, but we not perfectly. We make mistakes. We glitch. It's okay, but you can't have a lot of those glitches, you know, but again, Uh, Different different caliber referees. And again, learn from everybody, soak it all in you. Don't got to take everything, but learn something, be able to put something in your tool bag, and I'm sure you have had, and we will wrap up this as a coach. I've got. Luiz acknowledged some bad officials once in awhile. You know, I'm sure he's worked occasionally with a guy who really does struggle. And baby's not in the game too long, because not every last. How do you deal with that in that game? Cause you. Are you making more calls that are a little bit out of position? Here's a game. You got to take care of the game. Um, at the end of the day, you want to help your partner out. You want to help the game. I put the game first. And when we, when you put, when you put your shoes on and you tie them, You go out there with your whistle. You put the game first. I don't care. Who's on the other side, but. Do you trust people? I'm gonna give them my opportunity. You know, if he's struggling, I'm like, I'm not going to put us in trouble because of, he looked bad. All the bad, the game goes bad. And then now there's more work to do. Um, You want to, you want to put the fire out before it gets to the ceiling? And now we, now we got nominee. Three engines instead of you though, now, instead of just taking it out, throw it in the house, you know, so you don't, um, I just want to keep it simple, honestly, like it could get bad out there if you don't take care of business. And you learn it as you go on a brand new official might not, not realize it, but again, as you work with Morris spring, his guy, may I pop that one? So they won't back off. They're not going to be reaching out. 94 feet throughout the court, all rebound. Boom, hit it early. They gone back off, take care of the game. So you have to do less work. Early. You know, take care of the business. Don't try to hide from it. Um, A lot of referees that play basketball, say, oh, whenever I caught it, I could've played through that, but you can't do that. Filed as a file. You got to call the obvious and again, Just put the game for us, take your emotions and how you feel about the situation. Out of it and take care of business secrets. Great advice. You sound like you should be coaching officials. So. That you are. It's a good thing. Hey, one day, we got a lot of stuff. We got a lot. We. Nails had a lot of stuff coming, man, we're working. We're trying to get into the schools to make it a credited class with the school districts. Um, we try to make an apprentice program for younger dose and. And referee and here you could make money. Yes. Part of sports, but there's a lot of transferable skills when it comes to officiating. Um, all about the customer service, how you communicate the self perspective, all those interpersonal skills that you, what you want as a human. If you don't have those. Like, and in life is. It's kind of tough, man. You have to have those. And again, no matter what age you are at, we can, um, we can instill some that NAU. Do like the worst bake smart in a. Well officiating, it's just not, you know? Yeah. It's falling in travel, buddy. That's best. That's the surface level. We could go, you know, 4 3 0 1. 4, 0 1 we could keep going on and on, but, um, we just want to make sure that, um, We just understand the basis and we can take care of the game. If you take care of the game, you're going to be all right. That's good stuff. I'd really appreciate it real quick. Before we wrap up here, let's go quick, rapid fire. Let's explain to the people, uh, what's a travel. Explain what a travel is. Shovel is so high school, right? Two steps pass. Shoot. That's it. That's it. A few, two steps to get the ball off your hands. That's. I say an MBA. People see the guys old James harden. God they're step. The first step is step. Zero. And then you get one too. You know, so. Again, you gotta be patient. You want to see play start. Develop. Finish make a decision. It's not, oh, when you see something, jump on it. No, let us start to develop, but a finish. And, um, I'm heading right there with what the block charge call. Explain to the people, what a block is and what a proper charges. Uh, block is. Um, Uh, defender not being established. And he's eating. Um, the progress or were there more speed of all offensive player? Uh, charge is a defender. And legally guardian position. What teeth. Two feet down towards the office, a player, but again, Uh, culture say he's moving, he's moving. Once you establish a two feet down at your shoulders, you could move obliquely or you could move back. He'll play your offense of defender. Isn't allowed to go through anybody. That's perfect, man. Last one for me. Craziest situation you've been in as a referee could be a, you could be high school, could be college. What's one of the crazier situations that you see. I've been in some crazy situations. It's been a lie. Or, or the one you remember. Oh, well, I'll tell you my worst, my worst call though. Oh, the worst call that first phone call I got from a division three supervisor. Uh, Mateen travels, four hours away, um, four hours away to play a team out of upstate New York. Um, I don't stick to my, my basics and my fundamentals by staying sideline attach. I try to see a play. I try to see you play a play through the court. With Kenny kiss his leg on a three point shot. He makes the contact with the defender, all call, follow them defender. That team's shoes. Three shots. That team. Loses by me making her all fought in the buzzer. And now they're knocking out our locker room door at the end of the game. Um, you know, it's just a bad, when the supervisor calls you, you don't want to supervise and following you all clips that, you know, it's like, you didn't. Uh, food to stay sideline attached just with your trainings, didn't take your training. You're trained to go here, go there. Don't try to do something you don't do. So if I just stuck to my training, um, hopefully they got to play it right. And I can tell you, I'd never keep the call to the end of the game ever again. And my career only because all the, Hey, I got to stick to the training and I don't want that phone call. Parents, please listen to this podcast. Did Greg get a good perspective on the other side of it? There's a lot that goes in and these officials are passionate about it. The majority of them are just doing a great job and they love to be a part of their learning every day. So this, this is great insight. Thanks, Randy. I appreciate you. Oh, I appreciate you both. Randy, Rick, it's a Neos. Randy one more time. Explain what Neos is. Neil says. Officiating platform will be trained to develop. Basketball officials, but now we're leading into other sports as well. Hosting camps and clinics locally. Um, We got a website, Neos officials.com. Please check us out. Um, we can help you obtain the opportunity. We can help you get your education and your skills. I'll be want you to get a credential. We want to help anyone out as looking for opportunity Northeast officials services. Yeah. Services new England, new England. Excuse me. New England. Uh, fishing and services and development. Were we able. The fish shaky services, Randy Ricketts. 10 years as a referee, uh, Neos founder with awesome. Uh, Austin Nolan. Nolan Austin. No. It's the Nolan. This is locked in. Podcast is rose for everything basketball. Once again, my name is Nick to fail. Co-host Jason Shay. We dive into all take soups. We appreciate it. Subscribe, share. Appreciate it, Ray. and stuff. Thank you.