UNOFFICIALLY THE TOUGHEST ROLE IN LACROSSE
There’s a reason domestic teams in our sport often share the struggle of finding officials for games. Whilst I don’t have precise numbers, I can make an educated guess that there’s far more people who have completed their umpire or referee course than there are active officials. You only need to turn on Sky Sports or ITV once in a while to understand why: being an official is tough. Officials face scrutiny from players, parents, fans, and coaches for pretty much any decision they make. Almost all calls by officials in any sport are in favour of one team or individual over another, so even when they make the right call, someone will always be unhappy. I’ve been guilty of it too many times to count if I feel I’ve been unfairly penalised on the pitch for a back-check that I deemed safe, or a push that was most definitely a push but I thought I’d hidden it fairly well. But since becoming an official (although I try to officiate as few games as possible for aforementioned reasons), I now approach things much differently as a player.
But from junior to international level, there will always be struggles that officials face when trying to keep lacrosse safe and fair. One well-accomplished official knows precisely how tricky it can be to navigate the pressure which comes with wearing the black and white stripes. Emma Jones is an official based in England who many reading this may know. The Manchester-based talent first donned the zebra stripes whilst studying at Bangor University, admitting that although she had played women’s lacrosse for a few years previously, she felt a strong affinity for the men’s team given their work ethic and attitude towards the club. In Emma’s final year at university she was approached by the lacrosse club captain who let her know that the men’s team had no referees for their game the next day, and as Emma knew the most about the men’s game outside of the men’s team, could she possibly step in to officiate.
“What followed was a late night in the library going over rule basics with a few of the men’s team, blew the whistle for the first time the following day, and here I am, over 9 years later with several world championships under my belt.”
Although Emma describes the lacrosse officiating community “like a really big family”, she admits that being a female official for men’s rules can come with its own set of obstacles.
“It’s not easy being a woman in a man’s world. I remember when I moved up to Manchester in 2017 and when I was doing my first games in the North West senior league, during the handshakes at the end of the game I got a lot of “Well done”s and “I’m really impressed” - with a slight misogynistic undertone most of the time. Now whether that was simply because I’m a woman or whether that’s because I was 22 at the time, it was probably a combination of the two. The main bias that you face as a female official in the men’s game is the expectation that as you never played the men’s game, you don’t know the rules. It’s taken a few years but now that the players know me, especially in the North West, and know that I actually know the rules (far better than them in fact) I get treated pretty fairly and respectfully. There are always going to be people who doubt your abilities, not just because of your gender, so you have to be pretty resilient; but you also need to recognise that their doubts or insecurities are a reflection of them and not of what you are capable of.”