Donning a black-and-white striped shirt for the first time, Travis Blomberg stepped onto the court with the presumption that his success as a player would translate into his officiating abilities. But that confidence was smashed faster than a just-emptied beer can. The three-sport athlete quickly realized just knowing the rules didn’t mean he could make the calls.
“I wasn’t a very good official when I stepped on the court the first time,” Blomberg says. “I wasn’t a good official because no one taught me before I actually officiated. I was a learn-on-the-go guy. And I realized, you can’t do it that way.”
A freshman in high school making the calls for 8th graders didn’t exactly help build up Blomberg’s credibility either. But within the year, he developed the vision to help young officials, like himself, break into officiating with a reputation for excellence rather than a black cloud of stereotypes over their heads.
Getting his start.
Growing up in Colfax, a town in northwestern Wisconsin with a bustling population of around 1,000 people, Blomberg had athletic aspirations of a different nature.
“When I was young, I never thought I would be an official. I always thought I was going to be a player,” he says, adding that he wanted to play basketball through college. But when he began coaching his little sister’s basketball team in 8th grade, he started to see a part of the game that needed improvement: the officials.
In the state of Wisconsin, officials for youth tournaments often are not Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) certified. Therefore, they are not held to the same standards. The officials for many youth tournaments are simply people who know the rules, but do not necessarily understand the ins and outs of officiating.
Blomberg moved into officiating during his first year of high school, but maintained his big-time basketball aspirations. He obtained WIAA certification for officiating and started working as an independent contractor, doing tournaments here and there around his schedule as a three-sport athlete.
The summer between freshman and sophomore year, he started talking about summer job opportunities with two of his friends, Logan Kiekhafer and Brady Isaacson, and his brother, Jeremy Blomberg. They decided to take their individual officiating experience to the next level. Naming themselves the Stripes Officiating Agency (SOA), they started making cold calls to tournament directors to find jobs to fill their summer. Their success that summer pushed them to continue and narrow in on the niche of youth tournaments.
An unexpected challenge.
These young entrepreneurial referees didn’t initially realize what they were getting themselves into. How hard could it be to referee 4th through 8th graders? But soon, Travis and his friends learned that while officiating youth tournaments may seem like a fun learning experience, players, parents and coaches add an unexpected intensity to the games.
Travis says they’ve seen it all. While officiating a 5th grade girls basketball tournament, the coach for one of the teams was being unruly and was given two technical fouls throughout the course of the game. When the officials finally threw him out, the coach slammed his clipboard on the ground, where it ricocheted off the floor and hit one of his own players in the face.
Despite crazy coaches and parents, SOA officials love what they do when everything is said and done.
“You get rowdy fans. You get rowdy coaches, but at the end of the day you’re just reffing a basketball game,” Kiekhafer says.
Jeremy Blomberg says SOA will typically go into a tournament and work the same court or two for the entire eight games of the day, which is beneficial for the players because the officiating is consistent and they understand how the game will be called.
The youth players come into tournaments with minimal skill and knowledge. Jeremy says they capitalize on teaching moments with the players, which is appreciated by parents, coaches and tournament directors.
“We work hard so everyone else can play hard,” Travis says.Why the youth market?
Travis Blomberg (right) plays around with his brother Jeremy (left) pretending to scold him for an improperly made call.
Youth tournament directors often face the daunting task of scraping together enough officials to work a multiple team tournament. WIAA officials are frequently tied up at the high school level or cannot make the time to do an entire tournament. Kiekhafer, La Crosse regional director for SOA, says he used to help his dad organize a tournament in Colfax and most of the time he was hiring kids’ dads and old high school friends who had little to no knowledge of officiating.
“When people are looking to get refs for a tournament, you have to get two here, two there, one here, three here,” Jeremy says. But with SOA, tournament directors can make one call, write one check and the hassle is over.
In August 2009, Blomberg received a scholarship from the University of Wisconsin Office of Corporate Relations that helped him turn the Stripes enterprise into a full-fledged business.
SOA’s business model is set up in such a way that tournament directors pay Jeremy and he deals with dividing up the money and paying his officials.
“It’s beneficial for our officials, too, because we already maintain these contacts so instead of looking for tournaments to work on your own, we find it for you, and you’re guaranteed work,” Jeremy says.
But this structure isn’t the only thing that sets SOA apart from the traditional model for hiring officials.
Reliable. Educated. Fit.
While SOA is still in its start-up stage as a business, Travis says the foundation is strong because he holds his members to strong standards. He trains his officials to be reliable, educated and fit, an acronym that accidentally spells REF. These standards are helping build SOA’s credibility as an organization.
Working on a contract basis with the officials, Travis requires officials to be at games 20 minutes early, dressed in the proper gear and ready to officiate. He says new officials are built up on an outlined pay structure, so after successfully officiating 40 games, they’ll get a raise.
Perhaps the most important standard with respect to Wisconsin’s current model for officiating is education. All SOA officials obtain WIAA certification and attend a yearly training clinic run by Travis and the regional directors.
“I run into a lot of older officials and their mechanics are all wrong,” Travis says. “They’re good officials, but their mechanics are terrible.”
By mechanics, Travis means how a ref calls a call. For example, some officials use two hands rather than one when reporting the number of a player who just fouled. SOA focuses on training officials correctly when they first start so they do not learn bad habits.
“We’re trying to start off with a lot of young people and get them interested and understanding it at a young age,” Jeremy says. “Then they’ll feel confident enough to ref any game.”
But to ensure good technique, SOA directors get “nit-picky” because they do not want to be stereotyped by older officials. Drawing on his own experience as a young, naïve official, Travis says just knowing the rules of the game does not mean you can officiate.
“Knowing the rules and officiating, sure they go hand in hand, but I’ll tell you, it’s different,” Travis says. “It’s just a different way of looking at the game.”
Kiekhafer says he oversees five officials in La Crosse and makes sure they are keeping up with WIAA standards.
Finally, SOA officials stay fit. One of the driving forces behind Travis and his friends getting into officiating was because as athletes, they would get frustrated with referees who would make calls from across the court and wouldn’t run and keep up with the players.
All SOA officials get a three-day per week training program that consists of running, lifting weights and recreational activity. Since many of the officials are in college, the fit standard helps them stay in shape and motivates them to get to the gym.
The REF standard sets SOA apart from other officials in the state, Travis says.
“When people see how good we are, all of a sudden, being a part of our organization means something,” Jeremy says.
Expectations
Travis has high hopes for SOA’s success in Wisconsin and beyond.
“The fact that it’s gone this far makes me believe it can go farther,” he says. “Our foundation is so strong. I think we can take our idea to the next state, to the next region, to the next city.”
For this UW-Madison political science major and aspiring environmental lawyer, starting his own business was not the path he expected to take. But like his change of heart toward officiating, Travis Blomberg is just trying to do something he loves and put himself in the best position to succeed.
“Everyone should do something that you love,” he says. “Something that when you’re sitting in class, it’s all you think about. I’m so pumped about what I’m doing that it doesn’t feel like a job.”