If you're 18 years old and following in the footsteps of your father in a sport you both love, there's no better two-word description in the kid's eyes than how this dad describes his son.
"He's awesome."
That's how Hank Weil sums up his 18-year-old son, Anthony. The Tampa, Fla., residents both hold USA Football Officiating Memberships. In addition to occasionally working on the same crew as his dad, Anthony will often join his dad on road trips. With the University of South Florida traveling to play the University of Cincinnati this weekend, a trip to Cincinnati, Hank's hometown, beckoned.
"We have a real good relationship and like to do a lot of things together," said Hank, a former Marine who now works as a human resources manager. "It feels very good to have him want to be an official. We're always in need of officials, and we're trying to start them young."
Anthony has spent enough times watching his dad on the gridiron to realize it was probably in the cards that he would someday don the pinstripes.
"Since I was a little kid, I've been going to games on Friday nights with him and then going to youth games on Saturdays," said Anthony, who is taking classes in the Fire Academy at Hillsboro Community College. "When I was 12 years old and playing Little League baseball, they needed umpires for the little kids, so I got into then. Then I picked up football when I was in high school."
Now in his third year of officiating, Anthony figures there's no better way to spend a Friday night or Saturday afternoon.
"I started doing youth football games in my junior year. I felt pretty well-prepared. I had been watching my dad for so long, and I always asked him why he made the calls that he made," Anthony said. "I had my dad come with me to my first game and asked him to critique me, to find out what I did wrong and what I did right."
Those conversations usually have more favorable comments than unfavorable. After watching his dad for so many years, Anthony seems to have a grasp of the business. After all, there aren't too many high school seniors who could serve as a back judge, which is what Anthony did last season.
"It's got to be hard when you're officiating kids your age. People look at him like, ‘Are you old enough to be out here? What's this kid doing out here?'" Hank laughed.
"At the high school level, it's a lot about trying to gain respect from coaches and players at this age," said Anthony, who also officiates basketball and his passion, baseball. "I was just in high school last year, so it is kind of difficult. As soon as they see how I'm doing, it's OK. So far, I've been treated pretty well. I was a little skeptical going into it."
Hank, celebrating a decade in the profession, traces his love for the game back to his roots.
"I grew up in Cincinnati and played football at Elder High School," Hank said. "I was a nose guard. Gerry Faust was the coach at Moeller back then when we played them. Elder wasn't as good back then as they are now, ranked No. 12 in the nation."
After seeing the world as a Marine, Hank was stationed in Hawaii before settling in Tampa.
"I had coached football at the middle school level when we were in Hawaii, and then was president of the Little League here in Temple Terrance after we moved here," Hank said. "I just wanted to get back into football because I love the sport."
Now the booking commissioner for the West Coast Officials Association in Florida, Hank has seen the football season develop into a nearly year-round fixation in the state.
"We have a new eight-man tackle league with 30 teams at the eighth-grade level and below playing from March through May, to offer something to the kids who don't play baseball," Hank said. "Last year they had 12 teams."
In his area alone, Hank is currently booking 36 games on Saturdays, starting at 8 a.m.
"We have one facility that does 16 games a day, and the concession stand does about $10,000," he laughed. "It's incredible how much football there is. It's a stretch to try to fill the slots every week."
An increase in the number of teams playing football at the youth and high school level in Florida has inherently brought on a lack of officials. That's why the Florida High School Athletic Association has turned to TV personality Dick Vitale to tout the benefits of officiating at http://www.becomeanofficial.org/.
A typical official will do a high school JV game Thursday night, a high school varsity game Friday night and youth or small college games on Saturday. Hank and his cohorts have found success by turning to the local college to get more officials involved.
"We've gotten a lot of students from the University of South Florida," Hank said. "It's good money at $40 a game for a youth game. We've gotten a good share from there, and we have six or seven high school students who have gotten involved."
Anthony, of course, took his dad up on the offer years ago. Hank hopes his son finds the same qualities in America's favorite sport as he has found.
"Whatever game I do, I tell myself that this is the best game in town," Hank said. "It doesn't matter if it's a low-level game or a high-level game. First, I like being around my crew. And next is the excitement of the game. I was honored to work a Class 6A state semifinal last season. I think I threw two flags. The skill level of those kids is incredible. It's easy to officiate and enjoyable to watch that level of football. That was the ultimate for me."
Anthony took on a full slate of JV games this season. A shortage of back judges allowed him to step into that spot.
"I'm looking for pass interference, looking for 12 men on the field, not getting beat downfield, helping my referee with time management," said Anthony, a graduate of King High School. "I've been working on my dad's crew, and those guys are all married and 40 or 50 years old. I don't have a lot to relate to with them right now. But it's a lot of fun to work the youth games on Saturdays, because we have so many USF guys out there. It's kind of cool that I'm younger than they are, but I'm teaching them. I like going out and helping them like that."
The two are on the same four-man crew for youth games "quite a bit," Hank said.
"Usually I don't like to officiate high school games with him, because I want him to learn from other people," Hank said. "We had a shortage, so this year we're doing more together. He's doing well. We have an evaluation system where evaluation forms are filled out on the officials. He did one varsity game that was the highlight of his life. His game film got reviewed and he got a 90 percent on it. And film doesn't lie."
Part of the officiating enhancement program in Hank's association involves giving every high school six DVDs. The school makes a copy of games on their home field and mails it to the officials association. The films are then graded and mailed to the crew official.
Similar best-practices tips are offered to officials who become members of USA Football. Hank's introduction to USA Football came courtesy of an officiating clinic that USA Football hosted in May. USA Football Director of Officiating Tony Michalek spearheaded the clinic, a three-day affair that was held at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' training facility.
"There were 18 NFL officials in attendance," Hank said. "It was incredible. We had spring scrimmages that weekend, so the NFL guys went with the local crew to each location and evaluated them, and then they broke down the film for everyone on Saturday morning. It was first-class."
Ever since, Hank has been hooked on the benefits he receives as a USA Football member. There was no question that his son would also become a member at the same time.
"The training and the education that USA Football offers for officials is proven," Hank said. "There's a lot of information and self-training devices that make it valuable to the young and old referees. I'm very impressed with the amount of information they have for officials."
With just a click of the mouse, Hank uses the services to make the playing experience better for everyone involved.
"I love reading the articles on the Web site. I take certain articles, like the play of the day, and bring them to the pre-game meeting on Friday nights," Hank said. "Sometimes when you get new material, it's refreshing as a crew to go over it. Football has so many weird situations, sometimes you might come across it only once in a lifetime. But the material, you can't beat it."
Hank and the rest of the Tampa-area officials became so grateful for the attention that they will host the NFL officials for a dinner during the week of Super Bowl XLIII at Raymond James Stadium. The officials-only event will likely attract 150 officials from the area.
And at least one father-son combo.
Story courtesy of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
