Unnoticed influence

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, March 19. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: another in our occasional series, “What Do People Do All Day.”

With March Madness in college basketball starting this week, millions of fans will tune in to cheer on the nation’s best players.

EICHER: And plenty of them will have opinions about the refs, too. Been there, done that.

Certainly refereeing can be thankless work, especially at the lower levels. Those who officiate for our kids or grandkids.

But have you ever sprinted up and down the court in a referee’s shoes?

One ref in San Antonio let us mic him up during games, so that we could get a sense of what it’s like to call ’em as you see ’em.

WORLD reporter Todd Vician has the story

TODD VICIAN: Tommy Hines is a self-professed basketball junkie. He’s refereeing his third game of the morning on a recent Saturday – a middle school boys tournament. He and one other referee control the court and the sidelines for 28 minutes of playing time.

AUDIO: [Dribbling ball, crowd noise, whistle, “Red, 23”]

He’s already refereed six high school games in just five days, in addition to teaching history to middle schoolers. By the end of the third game this morning, he’s probably run more than 9 miles this week. That’s probably why he’s been walking with a slight limp in his step lately.

The 53-year old husband and father grew up watching his dad play, coach, and referee games.

TOMMY HINES: He was a fireman, but he coached all the teams at the church. So he coached the men's league and he coached my older brothers, you know, high school teenage team at the church as well.

Hines donned his first basketball uniform in a church league when he was about 10. He played in school and college before getting injured. That’s when he started refereeing to earn extra money. Now he does it because it keeps him in the game, where he follows Christ’s admonition to be salt and light.

HINES: It’s just been my life. My prayer is always to be that light. Right? I’m constantly thinking about that, and not letting my bad side come, you know, my competitive side.

Hines usually seeks out players who appear to be on-court leaders and talks with them in between the action on the court.

HINES: You try to build a little bit of a rapport with the kids, the game flows better, and as a referee, that’s all you want. If you can kind of help that process out with talking to them here and there and encouraging them sometimes and sometimes encouraging them to not do the wrong things, it makes the game better.

Much of his interactions on court go unnoticed by fans and even the coaches.

HINES: Fifteen, you know what you just did was a lane violation, right. Once he has the ball, you cannot come in here. If he had missed, they would have gotten another one. Okay? Don’t make dumb mistakes.

Hines knows what it’s like to be on the other side of the whistle. He coached for 20 years at middle school and high school levels, even winning a state championship. All told, Hines won about 275 games as a varsity coach, including 153 wins and only 29 losses while leading one of San Antonio’s best boys’ basketball programs. And those stress-filled years coaching helped him become a better referee.

HINES: I would not say I was a calm coach. Neither would any referee that ever had me. I was blessed to coach at very high level schools. And so I kind of know what the pressure cooker feels like. And so I have, I think I have a little bit more sympathy for those guys, you know, in tight games.

Hines knows that a coach can have an oversized effect on the game.

HINES: The players are going to feed off of the coach, either positively or negatively. And, you know, also the fans feed off of the coach. The coaches that complain a whole lot, normally it rubs off onto their players. And then it also rubs off into the stands, and you hear more from parents in the stands from teams with coaches that are constantly complaining.

Calling fouls is not always black and white. In a recent high school game, a player swore after a foul, earning a quick rebuke and warning from Hines.

HINES: It’s all about the flow of the game, letting the kid know that’s not OK. But if you can do that without having to call a technical, and, you know, totally disrupt his team, the game, you know, at the end of the day, that's what you want, right? You want the kid to stop the bad behavior, however you can get that to happen.

And Hines is fine with the instant feedback when he makes a call.

AUDIO: [Whistle] No, he’s standing under the basket. It’s not a charge when he’s actually underneath the basket.

He prays for a calm spirit before the game so he’s ready when the critics roar.

HINES: You just try to just try to move on; the last thing you want to do is give them any type of acknowledgement at all. No eye contact and no gestures, no anything towards them. Because once they know they have an audience or a greater audience, the worse they're going to be. Just keep that game face.

As players and coaches shake hands on the court, Hines makes his way to a makeshift locker-room near the gym. He’s thankful he’s still healthy enough to run the court and witness through his actions. And glad he wasn’t in the spotlight.

HINES: It's not about the referee. That's my philosophy. If I can go unnoticed, that's a good day. After the game, you don't want anybody to have to talk about you. Good or bad. Right? Make it about the kids and you're good. So that's what we try to do.

SOUND: [Final buzzer sounds, crowd cheers]

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Todd Vician in San Antonio, Texas.

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