Ever wonder how conversationa between football officials and coaches can shape the game? Or how effective communication can diffuse potential conflicts on the field? This episode's special guest, Coach John Shipley from Conifer High School, sheds light on these vital dynamics. Coach Shipley dives into his pregame routines, sharing how he emphasizes appreciating officials for their hard work, understanding new rules, and ensuring the safety of his players. He also touches on the importance of preventative officiating, a strategy that can nip infractions in the bud before they become bigger issues.
In the latter half of our engaging conversation, we shift gears to discuss the behavior of coaches and parents in football. Coach Shipley provides valuable insights from his experiences, addressing the challenges he's faced on the field and how he communicates with officials and parents. He also shares his perspective on game strategies and the potential of introducing replay in high school football in Colorado. We wrap up by discussing how effective communication can help rectify a mistake or a perceived missed call. Don't pass up this comprehensive conversation where Coach Shipley emphasizes the significance of sportsmanship, responsibility and respect to everyone on the field in high school football.
Ever wonder how conversationa between football officials and coaches can shape the game? Or how effective communication can diffuse potential conflicts on the field? This episode's special guest, Coach John Shipley from Conifer High School, sheds light on these vital dynamics. Coach Shipley dives into his pregame routines, sharing how he emphasizes appreciating officials for their hard work, understanding new rules, and ensuring the safety of his players. He also touches on the importance of preventative officiating, a strategy that can nip infractions in the bud before they become bigger issues.
In the latter half of our engaging conversation, we shift gears to discuss the behavior of coaches and parents in football. Coach Shipley provides valuable insights from his experiences, addressing the challenges he's faced on the field and how he communicates with officials and parents. He also shares his perspective on game strategies and the potential of introducing replay in high school football in Colorado. We wrap up by discussing how effective communication can help rectify a mistake or a perceived missed call. Don't pass up this comprehensive conversation where Coach Shipley emphasizes the significance of sportsmanship, responsibility and respect to everyone on the field in high school football.
Ever wonder what goes through a coach's mind when he sees those zebra stripes walk out onto the field at the beginning of a game? Well, stick around, we are gonna talk to coach John Shipley from Conifer High School and get his impressions of the game. Welcome to your first downs, the podcast dedicated to helping new high school football officials. Here are your hosts, joel Poger and Kirk Russell from the Colorado Football Officials Association. Hey everybody, welcome back to week seven of your first downs. I'm your host, joel Poger. We've got Kirk Russell along with us tonight. Kirk, how are you this evening?
Speaker 2:Good evening to all. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:So, kirk, I'm always excited when we do this podcast, but I'm even more excited this week. So you know we've got a trial lawyer. That is an official in the association and I remember a couple years ago when we did a coach interview and John, who's the lawyer, said I'm so excited to finally get a coach on the witness stand. We've got a coach tonight to talk to and I promise we won't be too brood along him, but I think this would be, let's, be very informative for us and hopefully for coach ship Lee. So I'd like to welcome coach John Shipley to our podcast. John is the varsity coach at Conifer High School Up in Conifer, colorado. So, coach ship Lee, welcome to the podcast and thanks for me and with us.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Hello Joe, hello Kirk, hello everyone, thank you for having me, appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1:So would you mind just giving us a little bio yourself, a little background, how long you've been coaching You've always been at Conifer just a little bit about your football history.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely so. I'm from Michigan originally. That's where I started my high school coaching career. This is gonna be year 10 for me coaching year eight at Conifer and this will be year four Year four there for me being the head coach. So you know I'm also a teacher at the high school as well. So very fortunate and grateful to have such a such a great job, to be able to coach and make such a positive impact on young student athletes lives and you know, try and teach them ultimately. You know the lifelong skills the high school sports and football can teach them.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks again for what you do and given the high school sports. So, kirk, your witness, why don't you get us started tonight?
Speaker 2:All right, I'll kick this off. Coach again, thank you for joining us. I know it's some vulnerabilities when you're talking to referees and vice versa. I always joke that coaches say, if officials would only be consistent, and my response is if head coaches could only be the same, we could probably work some things out. But we try hard to give you as consistent as we can with the diverse personalities and Knowledge that we have. But I appreciate you being with us.
Speaker 2:So one of the things that we we spent time on this podcast is Introduction phase for officials, where we're struggling with our numbers and there's a myriad of reasons, but we always look for ways to make the game better for players, coaches, their, their parents, everybody involved, because we know it's not about us, even though it kind of looks like sometimes we get a chip on our shoulder, but you could maybe walk through with us, like you know that you got an official who maybe even looks a little green, that first game and Maybe that, that first interaction you have and and ultimately where we're headed here, is how to make that game experience good for for you and that official and and Can you help us out with maybe, just starting from that pregame conversation.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, first and foremost, I will I will always say that you know, I think officials are just as important as players and coaches, if not more, and the game would not happen without officials.
Speaker 3:And talking with them over the years, I know that they're extremely passionate about high school sports and kids and Without them we wouldn't be able to coach and teach on the life lessons that we do.
Speaker 3:And I'm extremely grateful for Officials, and so during my pregame speech, I'm always I try my best every time to make sure I thank officials for being there.
Speaker 3:I'm just because, with this official shortage and it's a tough job for not enough pay, so I always make sure to let them know the you know, the white hat and the officials that I'm very grateful for them, you know, being there as I get to introduce myself and and really during the pregame I mean I'm really focused on controlling the control balls.
Speaker 3:I'm focused on making sure we're ready to go things will pop up or guys are locked in, making sure coaches are ready to roll, and I'm not really focused on you know how long the, the white hat could spend with the other team or you know, but it's when we get to our pregame meeting. I'm always focused on making sure, like I said, thanking them and you know, I know they have a tough job and if I, if I, can meet our wing head or our sideline guy, great, because that's got. I'm going to communicate with the most, but everything else is pretty much just a quick meet and greet. I'm going over any new rules or you know anything that we see on film, making sure that everybody's on the same page and then just making sure everybody's safely and properly equipped and ready to play.
Speaker 1:So coach a lot of our officials and actually not a lot of them. All of them start off working a either a freshman or junior varsity game. You know sub varsity games in general and one of the things we teach them coming through, you know, new official school is not to coach the players. You know, are they lining up properly and we're just supposed to tell them you're on, you're off and and even at your level at the sub art, you know sub varsity and kids in high school are still learning.
Speaker 1:We try to employ what we call preventative officiating. We like to tell the kids hey, you know you're a little off the line. You told me you were on. You know, maybe you're starting it a hair early. Can you just talk about how would you like us to communicate as officials, either with the players, the coaching staff, if we see something that isn't quite right before throwing the flag right, the last thing we want to do we always tell them the flag should kind of be a last resort, unless it's a safety issue. But for those little procedural things, how should we be communicating with either you, your staff or the kids?
Speaker 3:And while you know, bounce off that. While it can be extremely tough sometimes on the lower level getting that information across, because a lot of times we have two officials at our level and so it can be extremely tough when you got a full game going on, there's only two of you, it's extremely tough. But I am appreciative when an official comes over to us coaches and you know it's our job as coaches to get it fixed and get it corrected so we can safely play the game. You know, on the JV level, you know the next step is varsity, so I kind of expect it to be flagged if our kids aren't sure what's going on. You know the next step is varsity and it could be in a year or two and you better know what's going on because it's a flag on varsity. There's no warning.
Speaker 3:And so you know, on the level three level, on the level three level, which is more freshman sophomores we're a little more rare. You know you have that first time football player at the high school level and we've had officials communicate hey, 82 is not lining up, and it's our job as coaches to get it fixed and get it corrected. And if the kid doesn't listen, sometimes a flag is the only way to learn, and so I think you know I'm really appreciative of when officials tell that to us. I have a little more understanding. Especially when there's two officials on the field it's a little harder to get that information over, but sometimes the only the best way for a young player to learn is to get the flag, and then it kind of sinks home a little more.
Speaker 1:So then, speaking to our new officials for you, specifically Akana for high school, would you rather us talk to you and say 82 is not lining up right, or would you rather have us tell the kid hey, you need to get a little closer to the?
Speaker 3:line, our coaches, our coaches. Ultimately, I think there's so much going on in the kids head. Sometimes when an official talks it might go in one ear out the other. They see us or they see us every day, they hear our voices every day, you know, relate to us, and then our job is to obviously coach it up and teach them right. And if it doesn't get fixed you know, because if it doesn't get fixed it can lead to one of those things kind of like you said, joel, of safety, and you know my kid could get hurt if it's not being played or done correctly. So at that point it's on us as coaches.
Speaker 2:Coach. You know we talked a little bit about you know your sideline official and what are some of those kind of best practices, things that that you appreciate more and again trying to find the things that a coach likes in a in a official or a crew that kind of sets them apart, and we want to obviously use those things to help newer officials and maybe even some crews that that could use some polishing and that goes with every crew. Actually, I know a lot of times the word communication is the biggest issue in on the football field, the intensity of the game between coaches and players and frustrations, and it's hot if you name it. Is there anything you can talk about that? Things that you you like in a in a crew and would like others to do?
Speaker 3:I mean I'm going to sound like I'm hammering a same thing over and over again, but you know it falls back for me, for you know how important officials are, but again, they're just as important as players and coaches, and if not more. And you know, if a crew, you know when you can tell it off the bat, when it's a veteran crew, how passionate they are about high school sports and the kids and without them we wouldn't be able to play the game and to teach life lessons that high school sports are meant to talk young, young student athletes. And so we've played in games where other programs have had players or parents or coaches, specifically like JV and level three. We didn't have enough officials, so it wasn't an official game. And you know, parents, coaches and players took over as officials for that game and you know, ultimately we got reps, we got better, our kids enjoyed it, but it just wasn't the same because it wasn't an official game and I just to me that speaks the volume and the importance of having officials, you know.
Speaker 2:I think what what I'm hearing you say is you, as a coach, can read some body language and mannerisms from a crew that is just out there to make a paycheck versus I'm here to do a great job for you. You can actually read that.
Speaker 3:It's again. It's tough because I mean officiating. I mean it's a tough job for not enough pay. You know, in my opinion I think officials should be paid more and you know it's an extremely tough job, but I think it's. It's one of those ones where you can set the. You know, the bar can be set right off the bat when you're, when you're meeting same with me, you can tell when you have a coach that I think you know is going to be respectful and approach an official their correct way, because coaches make mistakes too and ultimately, we're just trying to get better at what we do so we can play the game the right way. You know I'm biased, being a football coach, but I think football is such a beautiful sport because, you're, it takes everybody. It takes everybody on the sidelines, it takes everybody on the field. You know, to not cheat this game and to play it correctly, because when it's played correctly it's a beautiful game.
Speaker 2:Coach. We tell our wing officials in particular that that we communicate to you as a head coach. You're in charge of your staff. You're in charge of your players. The buck stops with you. A lot of times. We get a lot of chatter from assistant coaches. Some of the bigger schools have seems like more assistant coaches than our referee membership. On that sideline, what can you do to help us? A lot of times we'll say hey, coach, I need you to calm your assistant coaches down. I can only talk to you because we're bombarded by multiple questions from coaches. Is there something you can help us out with to communicate with you to deal with those assistant coaches?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I mean, and I know it will come from kids at times too, and so I mean one of our key values that we have in our program and teaching our student athletes and coaches is respect. You know, and if a coach or a player is challenging our official in a disrespectful manner, if it's communicated to me ASAP, I will nip it in the butt and I'll remove that player or that coach myself before it leads to a flag. You know, if it's a call that I need explanation on or if I disagree with, I always preach to our players. I am the only one that talks to the officials, not you, because ultimately we try to preach to our kids. Next play.
Speaker 1:Let's actually a great lead into the next question I've got and this is, by the way, not directing anything for your coaching staff or your high school, but in general one of the things that officials have found sort of distasteful over the last few years has been parent conduct.
Speaker 1:How do you talk to the parents of the players and you know, how do you sort of address the whole conduct overall? I mean as a team, right. So you've got yourself as a coach, you've got assistant coaches, you've got players, you've got parents. I mean we've had again, not at your school but in the Denver area we've had parents meet officials in the parking lot at their car. We've had them standing outside the locker room. We've had them swearing on the field that you cost my son or daughter a scholarship. Can you talk a little bit sort of about you know maybe as a sport, how do we sort of get that under control and remember this is a high school football game, this isn't the NFL. Can you maybe talk a little bit about how you address that in the program and how you sort of work with conduct overall?
Speaker 3:Absolutely we. So, within my players and with our student athletes and within our coaches, we just we revert back to, you know, our values. We try to teach our kids because through as a coaching staff, through a united developmental approach, we're trying to teach these kids respect, responsibility, work, ethic, leadership, teamwork, all those great things that sports have to teach. But it just, it really just reverts back to our values you know and make and telling the kids that I'm the only one that talks to officials, not you, and our kids do a pretty. We have great kids, the conifer, and they do a pretty good job of following that. They're not perfect and we try to use every moment as a teaching moment and a learning moment and a coaching moment, because when you get into the real world, you can't talk to your boss that way, you can't talk to your neighbor that way, you can't. I mean that's, that's what carries over into the real world, and so we just try to revert it back to our values and what translates into the real world, moving forward after high school and after sports, with my, with my parents within our community. We have great parents in the conifer community. I'm very thankful for the parents we have. I just try to establish that value and that expectation in our parent meeting when we meet.
Speaker 3:In the fall of the extremely tough job that officials have Nobody's I mean officials aren't perfect. I'm not perfect as a coach. I don't always have the right play call or the best play call, but it's not like anybody's out there doing it maliciously or on purpose and you know you're more than welcome to strap up the hat and go be a referee if you'd like. We need officials, it's. It's like I said earlier, it's it's a tough job for not enough pay for what officials have to do. Like I can't.
Speaker 3:It drives me crazy, you know, seeing some of these youth games on Saturdays and some of these parents are yelling at an official who might be there making $20. He spent in his Saturday morning doing a triple header in the heat by himself and he's making 20 bucks a game and some of these parents are just going ballistic on him Like the guy. The guy's there because he genuinely loves the game and he genuinely loves kids and he wants to ultimately see everybody play sports the way sports need to be played. So you know, I that's that. That's kind of the example I give and I just try to set that expectation, and so does our athletic department at conifer. You know, I'm extremely thankful to have the the great community that we have up here, because we try our best to always make sure that we, you know, to let officials know we respect the crap out of them.
Speaker 2:Coach, we have got an audience around the country. So those of you that aren't familiar with conifer Colorado, it's just up above golden Colorado where they make that Coors beer, just up in the foothills beautiful, beautiful area. Okay, coach. So I want to talk about some on field stuff. So we we try to teach our officials to pay attention to, to fouls that matter, and again Joel talked about we want to get the, the fouls that are a potential injury. We got to get those all over the field. We got to eliminate those from the game.
Speaker 2:But there are fouls, a hold or a pass interference that has no impact on the play. It's away from the point of attack or the pass. That quarterback never looked to the other side of the field. We're not going to throw a pass interference over there. Um, same with a hold if it's not an impact and there's some judgment in there whether it was close up and impact. Are you okay with that approach to things? Um, what? What can you say about that it's? Or would you? Would you rather us flag every hold? I've had a coach say I don't care if you didn't have a impact. You're letting a player get away with something that he can't learn from and I'm I struggle with that a little bit. What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3:Well, I think officials have an extremely tough job and it can be hard to see everything on the field. Um, you know, respectfully, I would. I would ask the white hat or the official for an explanation as to why it's not being called Um. And ultimately, we're just trying to play the game as safe and as fair as possible and we just don't want it to lead to, you know, an injury or a cheap shot or you know a foul, that that is is dirty. You know, I would respectfully just ask if you know, if they can watch it or look out for it. You know, and if it's something that continuously happens, um, then then it's, it's a flag, but it's one of those ones where I think it just needs to be approached in the right manner to so everybody can be on the same page, so the game can be played safely. So are you okay?
Speaker 2:with the follow up question or if you get a response that said yeah, I saw the hold, but it had no impact on the play. Are you good with that? As long as you know we we saw it and recognize it and then can flag it if it is a impact on the play.
Speaker 3:Um, I mean, if it was one of our, if it was one of our kids, I I mean I would want it to be flagged. Um, just simply because that's, we try to do things the right way and we, we're trying to teach our kids to play the right way. And no, we, we don't want our kids holding and we don't want our kids high, low in. For example, is a big one, especially in the. I'm an offensive line guy, um, and so we don't want our kids high, low in, because that can be a bad injury. That maybe wasn't intended to happen. You know, I wouldn't be upset at the response, kirk, it wouldn't, it wouldn't. One play doesn't determine 120 or 130, 140 plays, however many go in that game. But it'd be one of those ones where I would respectfully just say, hey, can you watch for this on the next play. Or if they came to me and said, hey, your back side's holding on to this play, I would talk to my guy and try to get it fixed.
Speaker 2:Well, I can't emphasize enough when coaches say that, a lot of times I think our officials appear to ignore it, but they hear it and they share it, and I think that's another area where we need to do better at saying I got you, coach, we're going to keep an eye on it. A lot of times, that's really all you need in a response, and I think we can do better at that Absolutely.
Speaker 3:I couldn't agree more, kirk. I think it's one of those ones, too, where, you know, given the heat of the moment, it could be a big play, it could be a fourth quarter play, it's you know, it could be portrayed by a coach in the wrong way and they could snap and lose it, but I think it's, we're the role models we're starting. You know, I say all these values that we teach to our kids, that starts with us.
Speaker 1:Coach Shippley. Kirk and I have talked in previous episodes of the podcast about how sometimes coaches will use officials strategically as part of the game plan. And let me explain what I mean by that. Maybe you're out on the field having a tough game, Things aren't going your way, Kids are kind of low energy and maybe you get a call that doesn't quite go your way.
Speaker 1:Kirk and I both experienced it where a coach has come onto the field, just lost his mind on the field and is actually wanting to be on sportsman, like Condug Flag, and he's kind of using that as a strategic way to fire up his players right To show his emotional involvement in the game. In my instance I had the coach come on the field yelling and screaming and kind of under the breath, say throw the flag, throw the flag. And then Kirk had a similar incident where, you know, the coach did the same exact thing and then after the game said hey, how's the wife, how's the kids? Great game, Thanks. So it seems like sometimes coaches will use officials to strategically motivate the kids on the field and I'm just wondering is that ever part of your game plan and something you would typically work in on purpose, you know, to fire up your players or show your level of commitment to the game.
Speaker 3:Like some of the values that you know. I kind of already said in this in this podcast already. But you know, when we're talking about respect, responsibility and proper professional communication, it starts at the top, with us coaches and leading by example, and using a bad or a missed call or a call that we disagree with it does not represent any of those values. To me, using that as most motivation does not represent those things. You know we never, we never use a bad call or miss call or a call that we might disagree with as motivation for our players. The game is 120, 130, 140, 150 plays and one call does not determine that. It's a three phase game and you have to focus when you're within yourself and controlling the controllables. And you know, to me it's more about execution, it's more about pursuit and tackle on defense, it's more about executing your offensive game plan than you know one call.
Speaker 1:Before we started recording our podcast tonight, coach Shippley Kirk and myself were kind of talking off air about replay and maybe what potential value it would have in high school sports. And Coach you just mentioned, you know one play does not make a game. I'm just curious probably a good spot to get your thoughts on how would you feel about replay in high school football if that ever came to Colorado? It is in use in some states but it's not in use here in Colorado.
Speaker 3:It would be interesting to see how it would be laid out, you know, in the Colorado, at the high school level, and the resources that would be available for the replay system. You know I'm all in favor of making the game safer for our kids. I'm all in favor of making the game, you know, played fairly so we get the right calls in the field. You know, resource wise, I'm not really sure how that would look on a high school field Like you. Get up to our field and you're in the mountains at 9,000 feet and it's blowing snow. I'm not sure you know how the resources would look, but it would definitely be intriguing. It would be intriguing. It would be intriguing to the high school game.
Speaker 2:All right, coach, I've got a question. We again that communication is such a critical element of this, and teaching newer officials how to communicate with coaches that are, you know, they get animated. It happens when the game gets intense and all the things that we talked about are wrapped up into everybody's moment and we will miss. We'll miss fouls, we'll miss a call and sometimes we even gosh. I should have thrown. Joe and I have been doing this for many, many years and I still go through moments where I should have thrown a flag on that and we don't, and you can't throw it after that late moment.
Speaker 2:that just looks wrong even, and you got coaches yelling throw the flag and you just can't throw it because then it's like ordered up and so anyway, all that to say we're going to miss fouls, we're going to make mistakes and we've tried to work with our newer officials how to communicate to the head coach. That's pointing out an error. And a lot of times now we've talked about how there's all these other, there's these drone cameras, there's sideline cameras, there's end zone cameras. Your press box is seeing the things we screw up and how important it is for us to own what we saw. Walk me through.
Speaker 2:I'm talking to you and I missed the call. I know what you're talking about and sometimes I'm going to say I saw it different, which may not help or not. But then there's that whole admission thing. Talk to me about when an official says you know what, I might have missed that, or I saw it, I didn't throw on it, I'll get it next time. Talk to me from a coach's standpoint. How does that feel? What do you do with that, or is there a better way for us to do it?
Speaker 3:I'm not trying to switch lanes on you, but I'm also a teacher. I teach at Conifer and I've been teaching for nine years. I kind of relate it to when I'm getting my evaluation done as a teacher and I have my principal or my admin evaluating me and I'm in the weight room and there's 30 kids in the weight room. It's hard to watch 30 kids all doing the same thing and they see things differently than I see things. And so when we sit down in our evaluation meeting, hey, ship, you could have done this better.
Speaker 3:Or X, y and Z when I'm working on somebody on a squat form and you could see this over in the corner, like you know, it's a positive, constructive mindset, I think. If that's the approach and it's done in a calm manner, you know, I think that you know like I can relate to your current. I have plenty of play calls where I go home and I sit there and they still help me. I wake up at 3 am in the morning I'm like why did I not call this, or why did I not call this or why did I call this? And you know it's one of those ones where you know the best thing that you can do with it is own it and respect it and learn from it and move on.
Speaker 2:And Coach. It's refreshing. I really like it when we've got educators as coaches. I think there's so many that are no longer in the classroom and I tell our officials when I train that we're just an extension of that classroom. That's what the football field is. We tend to think that these young men are somehow different than any other student athlete. They're important in their learning. Even though they kind of come up with an attitude that looks like a grown man, they're still kids in a man's body and I certainly appreciate your classroom approach to this. My parents were both educators and I chose not to go that route, but I get to participate on the football field in a similar fashion. So thank you for what you do.
Speaker 1:It's funny, coach, that you mentioned being up till 3 am thinking about that one play, I think in week two, kirk, when we were talking to Jerry, he was another official here in Denver. He was discussing, you know, working a baseball game playoff game Felt like he was having a great game on the field and then the second to last play. They had a real problem from an umpiring perspective, and he said he was focused the rest of his day on that one play that he missed, not the 140 plays that he got right before that one. So I think we all do it as coaches, officials and players. We focus on that, just that one play that didn't go quite right, even though the other 139 of them may have been perfect. Absolutely, coach.
Speaker 1:I have just two more questions for you as we begin to wind down our podcast for tonight. How much time do you and your coaching staff and your kids spend on the rules? And let me explain what I mean by that. A hold, for example, has two components to it. It has a grab and a restrict right. Everybody on the field, parents included, when they see that grab, they automatically think it's a hold, but there was no restriction. We could talk about passenger clearance right in the six different kinds of PI. Talk to me a little bit about, maybe, the education you do on the rules and kind of what we're looking for. Do you know what we're watching for? Does your staff know what we're watching for and do the kids know the difference between a hold and not a hold?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it naturally comes up within coaching. I think it naturally comes up when we're talking about a hold, when we're talking about a block in the back, when we're talking about a crackback or a high-low scenario or from a defensive back perspective. Since you touched on passenger clearance like face guarding, a lot of people aren't aware that face guarding is legal at the high school level and it's not passenger clearance, and so I think it just naturally comes along as we're kind of going through our off season and our pre-season progression and sometimes if there might be a call way out there that our kids don't know, and if we get flagged for it, we try to fix it. We see it on film. Hey, this is how we got to fix this moving forward. This is definitely a foul.
Speaker 3:I think we cover the main ones early on and they try to cover it on the lower levels, on level three in JV for our kids. So when we get up to varsity we're not making those. I mean, we do because we're human and we make mistakes. But I think it naturally comes up within the coaching realm with things when you're trying to play the game the right way.
Speaker 1:All right, well, last question for you If you were sitting in front of our new classroom of officials and, by the way, we have a record number of new officials here in Denver we've got 67 new officials as of today, so that is the best class I think we've had in a very long time. Kirk, If you were sitting in front of this room, what would piece of advice would you give them as a coach for kind of getting their officiating career off to the right start?
Speaker 3:You know it's tough to give them one piece, but I would just say one of the best learning tools that I've had in my teaching and coaching career is having amazing mentors.
Speaker 3:I've been very fortunate to work with some amazing people that have helped teach me things a book or a classroom could never teach me, and they prepared me for how to approach or teach a 14, 15 year old kid, how to line up correctly or how to what's a what's a good offense, alignment, stance or you know. It's something that you know is a real world Scenario. And so my advice to a newer official is when you are working with a veteran official we're new working with that veteran classes you know always be learning, always be asking questions, watch how they do things, watch how they communicate things. If you're unsure on a rule, don't don't be shy and ask them what. I need an explanation on this rule I'm still learning it and and learn from your veteran officials, and you know, I think the veteran officials can help teach them real games, situations and scenarios a lot faster than any book or any video could coach.
Speaker 1:If, lee, I couldn't agree with you more. I don't think we Emphasize the importance of having a good mentor and role model, because, you're right, not everything can be learned from a book or Watching a video. Sometimes you need that, that personal coach, so to speak, and appreciate you bringing that up. Well, as usual, we are at our time for this week's episode again. I feel like we could go on for another half hour easily. But, kirk, any final words of wisdom from your side to close us out tonight?
Speaker 2:No, thanks, joel, and thanks coach shippley, looking forward to a great season. I know you guys put in a lot, of, a lot of hard work in the offseason. And just a message to all coaches that we don't just show Up first game of the season and not have put in some time. We we do our prep for the season and hopefully it shows on that first game. But I'm sure we'll be a little rusty. So go easy on us on that first game and thank you for doing what you do. You're, you're a model for for coaches out there. So thank you for joining absolutely, coach.
Speaker 1:Thank you for your time. I appreciate a good luck on your 2023 season.
Speaker 3:Thank you and I appreciate everything that officials do for us. Like I said, you guys are, if not important, or just as important, if not more important than than us coaches, so I appreciate everything you guys do and looking forward to a great 2023 season. So thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1:Hey, just a quick reminder. If you want to get in touch with Kirk or I because you've got a comment or a new officials question, feel free to reach out to us at your first downscom. Again, that's your first downscom. If you are a member of the Denver association, feel free to catch Kirk and I at one of the local meetings. We'd be happy to meet with you and chat with you. Thanks for spending 30 minutes of your day with us. Have a great rest of your week. You.