Officiating Growing Along With Women’s Wrestling
Na Humma on the mat at the 2019 WCWA Championships. Photo courtesy of Jim Thrall / MatFocus.com
by Derek Levendusky, AWW staff writer
It’s no secret that women’s wrestling is growing at every level. What you might not know are the challenges and efforts being taken to grow women’s officials and to maintain a high quality, professional culture around the sport.
It’s easy to take referees for granted, but they have to train and put the time into their craft like the athletes do. We took some time to chat with Chair of the USWOA Women's College Wrestling Committee, Na Humma of Texas. He’s deeply involved in the culture of women’s wrestling, also serving as the WCWC Director of Officials Liaison (which is the organization for NCAA programs), the NAIA Mid-South Conference Supervisor of Officials, and as a mat official for UWW, UIL & USWOA. He recently officiated the FloWrestling 8-man event in Austin, Texas that featured two women’s matches.
Here’s the Q & A.
1. How is officiating growing along with women's wrestling?
2019 NAIA Invitational mat officials. Photo courtesy of Na Humma.
As women's wrestling is continuing to grow, it's providing more opportunities for officials to work and be involved in freestyle. We're also able to increase the number of national assignments and high-profile events for our membership to take part in. The projected growth of women’s wrestling at the college level has our board looking at how to link our current growth and retention programs—the ones that the United States Wrestling Officials Association (USWOA) has implemented—to support women’s college wrestling in the future.
2. What is being done to grow high-quality officiating for women's wrestling?
The USWOA is working hard to grow officiating competency for all freestyle/Greco-Roman wrestling in the U.S., including women's wrestling. The Official's Education Program (OEP), which began back in 2005, the USWOA Video of the Day, Rules Question of the Day, Webinars, and UWW Webinars have been growing and evolving to expand across the country—and the world—and reach more people, both officials and coaches, than ever before.
The USWOA has also established a committee to directly oversee officiating for women's college wrestling. We have established minimum requirements to be eligible to officiate college events and have been working with the college coaches’ associations and conference commissioners to ensure we're meeting their expectations.
3. What are some of the steps & topics involved in training?
Training is a career-long journey that begins at the local-level for many of our officials. Once they have been prepared in their home state, formal education begins at the regional/national level, which often includes participation in the Official's Education Program and experience working with officials from outside their area. As officials work regional and national events, they are evaluated during each session during a tournament and offered feedback on their performance and adjustments that can help improve their officiating skills.
4. How can someone get involved if they would like to pursue a career as a referee for women's wrestling?
2020 WCWC mat officials at the National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships in Adrian, Michigan. Photo courtesy of Jim Thrall / MatFocus.com
Anyone who's looking to get started as a mat official for college women's freestyle wrestling should check out our committee’s webpage at www.uswoa.com/womenscollege to review the requirements and reach out to their state officials director for their local USAW state association to start the process to become a USA Wrestling member. Interested folk can also reach out to me at nahumma@baagwrestling.com, and I'll be happy to get them connected with people in their area to start the journey.
5. What are some of the standards that guide the development of high-quality officials?
A solid understanding of the rules and philosophies is the standard that takes the longest for most people to thoroughly grasp. This is achieved through evaluation at national events and participation in our training seminars. As officials, we are ranked starting at M3, then working our way to M2, M1C, and finally M1. The M1 stage is where eligible referees then make the decision if they wish to pursue a license with UWW to become an international official.
Cindy Mosconi on the job at the 2019 NAIA Invitational in Jamestown, ND. Photo courtesy of Jim Thrall / MatFocus.com
For women's wrestling, the earliest you can work a college event is as a category M2 and participation in an OEP course is also mandatory for this level. At the M1C and M1 level, an OEP course is no longer required, but many of our officials continue participating in these events across the country to continue improving abilities.
6. How did you get involved in officiating?
Actually, I got involved because I was bored as a teenager waiting between matches at our local events in Arizona, so I kept annoying our officials director at the time, Jim Toyota, until he caved and let me referee. Since then, I've found a great passion for the profession and for the work I can do as an official to help continue its growth, as well as support our athletes and coaches at all levels.
7. What are your thoughts on the growth of women's wrestling and your role in it?
The tremendous growth of women's wrestling has been amazing to see. I remember girls being involved in my dad's wrestling club from a very young age, and not thinking it to be very unusual, but also being shocked at how wrong people thought it was for them to compete as recently as 10 years ago. I'm very fortunate that I've had female training partners, coached female athletes, and have been able to find myself officiating some of the best wrestlers in the world. My role in the growth of women's wrestling with this new appointment to the women's college committee is one of support, and I love the opportunity to help make sure the women in the college ranks get the respect they deserve, by ensuring they have access to high-quality officiating that will enable them to compete safely and fairly, while preparing them for World Team Trials and international competition.
8. Final thoughts.
Laura Conway at the 2020 National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships in Adrian, Michigan, the WCWC-hosted event for NCAA programs. Photo courtesy of Jim Thrall / MatFocus.com
Officiating at all levels and in all sports is in need of greater participation, and we're no different. We need help from passionate, level-headed people who are willing to adapt as our sport evolves. The USWOA is fortunate to have more women joining our ranks and now have more female wrestling officials than ever before, but we definitely need more women to take the risk of becoming wrestling referees at all levels. Representation for women in the athlete and coaching ranks is much more commonplace now, but there are still many states that do not have any women officiating in wrestling.
The most interesting part of being a freestyle/Greco-Roman referee is the friendships and opportunities. I've personally been able to travel to 11 countries and 46 states, travel with our world teams at all levels, serve as an official at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games, 2015 Cadet World Championships, the world’s oldest women’s-only tournament at the Klippan Open, and 2020 Ivan Yaryigan Invitational in Russia, and met some of my best friends while officiating, all while being involved in the sport that I love and has shaped who I am.
If interested in learning more about how to become an official, contact Na Humma at nahumma@baagwrestling.com.