When David Grant decided to become a football official, he didn't know where to turn. In fact, he spent nearly a year doing research on how to join the ranks of the officiating profession. He read nearly every book that's been published on the profession and peeked at dozens of articles online.
So Grant, a USA Football officiating member, knows how fortunate prospective officials are today when they decide that they'd like to offer their services wearing the black and white stripes. USA Football provides them with everything they need.
"USA Football really is the ticket now," said Grant, from Goleta, Calif., near Santa Barbara. "There's nothing like it for leagues, coaches, administrators and officials. There's nothing like it now, and the future is huge for what USA Football is doing for officials."
Grant's road to the gridiron was quite circuitous. The 45-year-old always wanted to be an attorney. An infection in his leg - which to this day remains undiagnosed and nearly caused the leg to be amputated - sent his law school plans awry. After being home-bound the first six weeks of classes, Grant dropped out.
"Law school wasn't going to work, so my wife said, ‘Why don't you be a football official?' I said to her, ‘Why don't you be a rocket scientist?' I knew that it was something that you just don't do overnight," Grant said. "It didn't take me long to realize there was no place to go if you wanted to become an official.
"Unlike most people who do this, I was not drafted by a friend, so I had no way of knowing how to get started. I finally contacted [longtime official] Dick Honig out of the clear blue sky, and he put me in touch with the local officials association. He helped me get my foot in the door. It was a game changer for me. I'm doing a lot of things I do now because of officiating."
Thanks to his experience, Grant is doing everything he can to turn people on to the benefits of USA Football as it relates to officials - and prospective officials. When he's not calling games, he works as a network architect in the information technology industry. On the side, he's combining his passions by working with USA Football Officiating Director and NFL umpire Tony Michalek on officiating mainframe projects for USA Football.
"I'm a huge fan of USA Football and what they're doing," Grant said. "We're trying to take what USA Football is doing and develop it into the grassroots officiating level. It's going to change how officials associations communicate and how they advance into the future. Officials want to get more sophisticated, and from a technology standpoint and from an officiating standpoint, I get it."
Grant plans to make things easier for officials who have the USA Football officiating member status. The Certified Officiating Education Program (C.O.E.P.), which is offered to both high school and college officials, provided Grant with a reason to join USA Football.
"From a development standpoint, it's like getting a college education," he said. "There are so many things you can learn on there as a member. The ability to sign on and view materials, take the tests and track your program, it's unmatched. Everyone out there in football can benefit from the USA Football infrastructure."
Grant's work will include developing the Web site so that local officials associations can use usafootball.com as their own host site. "It'll essentially create Web sites for local associations, just like teams can do now. It's like taking what we have and bringing it to the next level," he said.
Grant, who played football through the high school ranks, encourages his fellow officials to consider the USA Football Officiating Membership.
"Once you go online and do everything that officials want to be able to do, they're all over it," he said. "They like that you don't have to wait until a meeting a couple of months down the road to watch a video of a specific situation on the field. The rules interpretation and video is where I spend a lot of time on the site. It allows you to see what the application of the rule is supposed to be.
"The mechanics pieces are fantastic also. The videos in the mechanics section will show how you should work as a crew - where you should be, and what you should be looking for as the play develops, where your keys are. I've turned my ability to see things on the field almost instantly since I've been watching the videos."
Grant's work extends from the youth level through junior college.
"I absolutely love it. I don't know where you can go to find such a great group of people both on the officiating and coaching side," he said. "I'm old enough where I'm going to make more of an impact on the infrastructure side as opposed to on the field, which is why I'm stoked."
Challenges for officials, Grant says, are off-season training programs for beginning officials. Again, he's been there, done that. Grant operates his own officiating clinic (http://www.zebraschool.com/) for new officials.
"There are so many guys new to officiating that want to go to camps, and they're either not there for the beginner, or they're not financially feasible," he said. "You can watch video and read books, but nothing's going to beat going out and showing some guy how to run the chains."
Grant believes technology will play a large role in turning on prospective officials to the sport.
"Technology is also a challenge for us. Guys coming behind us are going to be bringing their iPods or laptops to meetings and will want to connect to the Internet to get their information. They're going to ask, ‘What are these handouts? We don't do handouts! Give it to me electronically.' That's just what they've been brought up on. The technology is there - it's the integration that's the challenge."
For Grant, the respect that comes from officiating a game makes all of his pursuits worthwhile.
"The crew that I'm with - regardless of who they are - know what I've gone through to get there, and I know what they've gone through," he said. "I want to earn their respect when I'm out there. I feel a deep responsibility to the sport to do that. And the coaches and players also show great respect to the sport. If it was a bunch of junk being played out there, it wouldn't be any fun for me."
Story courtesy of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
