We pick up our pathway to officiating series started last spring as part of our
joint celebration of "Officials Appreciation Week" with football coordinator Steve Strimling.
SCIAC Officiating Hub
"A student-athlete's path to officiating would be to work and develop at the youth/high school level first. Friday Night Lights-F(l)ag League football is a great starting here. The high schools have instructional units at several areas spread out throughout Southern California - I believe 13 different areas. We can assist in pointing them to the right direction. We would monitor their progress and assist them in training as they move up in the officiating world. It used to take five years of officiating in high school before you could move to Junior College, but with the technology and training nowadays that can be sped up considerably; I think two years at a varsity level while working diligently to improve and correct would be a good target before looking to go into the NCAA. With certain officials - we have many sons/daughters across college and the NFL - they can dual train. The biggest issue is the rule differences between levels. I would also think an aspiring official could use at least one year of JC-level on-field work before being ready for the SCIAC level.
Interested in Becoming a Football Official?
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SCIAC officials in the postseason and moving up levels
We have so many officials who had worked in the SCIAC—here are a small selection of impressive paths:
- Carl Cheffers-Current NFL Referee
- Patrick Turner-NFL Line Judge
- Shawn Hochuli-NFL Referee
- Todd Prukop-NFL Back Judge
- Rod Ammari-Big 10 Head line judge-current SCIAC Supervisor
- Francisco Villar-Big 10-Referee-current SCIAC supervisor
- Jim Wharrie-Big 10-Line Judge-SCIAC advisor
- Chris Coyte-B10 Referee-SCIAC trainer
- Jace Carlson-ACC Field judge—SCIAC Supervisor
- Juan Cardenas-ACC-SCIAC Supervisor
- Michael Sparling-American-SCIAC Supervisor
- Brad Glennn-Retired Pac-12-SCIAC Supervisor
- Jeff Appelbaum-Big Sky-SCIAC Supervisor
- Cravonne Barrett-B12 Referee-SCIAC Supervisor
- Marvel July-B12 Center judge-SCIAC/USD Evaluator
There are many, many more! We would be happy to speak to interested student-athletes, especially if any teams would like to invite us out to campus at the end of the season."
Follow the SCIAC on Threads (@theSCIAC), X - formerly Twitter (@theSCIAC) and Instagram (@thesciac) with hashtags #SCIACtion and #SoCalSoGood. Watch all home SCIAC games, matches, and meets online through FloSports: https://flosports.link/SCIAC