![]() Have the support of your spouse, partner, family and friends. Also, control the things that you can control: fitness, rule knowledge, game management skills (a never-ending challenge) and professionalism (it is a people business). It's a process be prepared to invest time and energy. Q: What advice can you give to young women who want to launch a career in officiating?Ī: Choose a sport or sports that interest you and you find enjoyable. ![]() The travel was often more stressful than the game! Leaving after school on Friday to fly to a Big Ten, Big 12 or ACC city to work a game on Friday night and Saturday night and then fly home on Sunday and be ready for school on Monday. and then traveling home following the game so I could get to work the next day. Teaching 7:30-2:30 and then traveling two-three hours to work a match or a game at 7 p.m. Q: What was the toughest part about being a full-time teacher and an official?Ī: The toughest part was juggling a full-time job and as I progressed as an official managing the amount of travel needed to work at the highest level. It’s important to find a mentor - someone working at the level you aspire to work, and go watch them work, pick their brain, talk about rules and game situations. Working as a teacher allowed me to work high school sports after school. Although I started with boys’ and girls’ volleyball, I moved on to try a number of different high school sports: boys soccer (5 years), boys high school football (10 years), girls basketball (st active), track and field (5 years), softball (3 years) and girls lacrosse (still active).Ī: A number of school principals and fellow teachers were involved in officiating high school sports and were mentors as I began to progress into the college ranks. I initially began officiating to help finance my graduate studies to become a teacher. John Fisher College in Rochester and received a scholarship to play. Q: How did your officiating career develop?Ī: I began with high school volleyball. I recently retired from teaching in Troy schools in June 2018. It has been a great compliment to my teaching career. the Capital Region’s network of business and professional women, sponsors this column).Ī: I started officiating right out of college. I caught up with her last summer as part of a feature for the Times Union magazine. We developed a strong love of sports that steered us in different directions through high school, college and our career choices. Wager and I were early childhood friends who attended the same elementary school in Troy, growing up and playing a variety of sports on the ballfields of Frear and Beman parks. She was confident in the health and safety precautions that have been put in place. She said she was relieved her first games back will be as an official in the sport of lacrosse outside on a large field where social distancing is easier. I asked if she was anxious about returning to officiating. She returns to officiating locally this week during a two-day youth Summit Lacrosse tournament at Afrim’s Sports Park in Colonie. The schools remaining are pushing out to start in September. “I’m still hanging on to a couple of assignments in the Big 12 and the SEC as well as the ACC. “Monday and Tuesday were very sad days,” Wager said, referring to the Big 10 and Pac-12 announcing they were canceling fall sports, including volleyball. She worked on scheduling officials for Liberty League and Empire 8 volleyball this fall, but that went to waste as Division III schools cancelled fall seasons. Her network of officials and NCAA conference leaders also organized online educational sessions on social justice issues following the death of George Floyd. “All summer people were just moving forward, staying educated and being positive,” she said. ![]() She kept busy this summer staying in shape and participating in video conferences with other officials, especially those who work collegiate basketball games. She last took the field as a lacrosse official March 11 at Siena College, when the Saints lost 20-10 to crosstown rival University at Albany. ![]() It all came to a screeching halt last March. She also has worked NCAA Division III final four in women's basketball, volleyball and lacrosse. She has worked NCAA Division I final fours in women's volleyball and lacrosse. She officiates women's volleyball, basketball and lacrosse at the collegiate level. “It was an incredible travel experience to participate in the first women’s international lacrosse event to be hosted by Israel in World Lacrosse,” she said. Wager hit the travel jackpot in 2019, when she worked the European Championships in Netanya, Israel, prior to working as the head clinician - conducting classroom and on-field training sessions for officials from all over the world - for the U19 World Championship in Ontario, Canada. ![]()
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