Bernard Jones...."You Make the Call"
"another Street Talk Production..you know how I do"
Street Talk is always on the block trying to “Keep It Real” with you about what’s happening and most of the time we do it from a player’s perspective. Well we decided to get the scoop from the people who are in the heat of the battle from the start of the game to the end of the game; the Officials. So introducing to you for the first time on Street Talk is “You Make The Call”.
Our first report just happens to be with one of the best officials in the state, Mr. Bernard Jones (B-Jones on Street Talk) from the Capital City Officials Association. We caught up with B-Jones in between basketball games at the Peach State Basketball Classic.
L.A.: “One of the first questions I wanted to ask you is, what made you want to become an official?”
B-Jones: “I just wanted to give back to the sports I played. I played sports from the time I was 6 years old and I played football in college at Grand Valley State University. I also officiate football as well. I just love giving back and being around the kids.”
L.A.: “Does it help that you did play sports or are you seeing the game from a totally different perspective when you are actually out there refereeing?”
B-Jones: “It’s always an advantage if you have played the game because certain plays you can anticipate, you know what to look for as far tendencies and things of that nature.”
L.A.: “How important is it working with the same crew of officials, because I notice a lot of times it seems like the same crew of guys are working together. Is it easier working with guys you work with all of the time or does it really matter?”
B-Jones: “In football it’s best to work with a crew on a continuous bases because it’s a little more complex than basketball and you can work out the kinks; but in basketball you tend to conform to what your partners are doing, that’s why it looks like we are all on the same page. If we do notice something that we aren’t doing, we get together and take care of it. That’s why we like to work together.”
L.A.: “Now you do football and basketball, we know that the athletes are in shape and you do all of this running, what do you do to keep yourself fit or how do you prepare for the season?”
B-Jones: “I try to run a couple of miles a day right before the season and I do some sprints, push-ups and sit-ups. During the season if I find myself not working for a couple of weeks then I walk a mile and run a mile.”
L.A.: “Are there some situations like when the game is tight, do you guys have your own game plan and does it change like in the last 2:00 minutes or something like that?”
B-Jones: “We try to leave it up to the players playing, we try to be anonymous out there. We don’t want to be seen. We want to leave everything that happens up to the players.”
L.A.: “How do you handle situations like when rivals get together and players and coaches start getting out of control?”
B-Jones: “With 3 officials in basketball everybody is not looking at the basketball like people think, everybody has their own area to watch and you can tell when a situation is heating up and what we will do is talk to the player(s). If necessary we will get those fouls early to try and clean the game up. We let everybody know that we are not going to have a lot of mess in the game.”
L.A.: “What does it take to become and official and what is the process?”
B-Jones: “Well, the high school group I’m in is the Capital City Officials Association and there is a website (http://www.ccoa-officials.org) or you can go to the Georgia High School Association website and just look for officials and click on Capital City, you should see a picture of our president Mr. Robert Barnett.”
L.A.: “What are the steps or the actual process?”
B-Jones: ”The person will be invited to a meeting and we have a training process that they will have to go through. We take them through the process, like for football we do the Georgia Tech Passing Camp and the NFL puts on a couple of events, we also do flag football which gives potential officials some training.”
L.A.: “What determines if the person makes it or not?”
B-Jones: ”Well its like when your mother first taught you how to make pancakes, when you felt comfortable making them by yourself she turned you loose, so basically we are going to put you in the fire.”
L.A.: “Tell me something about yourself that people wouldn’t know?”
B-Jones: “I work at a medical school, Sanford Brown Institute in Admissions. I graduated from Grand Valley State University and I’m a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated. I’ve been married for 18 years and I have a lovely daughter named Brandi who is an 8th grade basketball player at Lovejoy Middle School… and at the time we are undefeated.”
L.A.: ”Now your daughter plays middle school ball, as an official would you be able to referee her games?”
B-Jones: “Never, ever. I would never get assigned her games. We have some software called the Arbiter and if you have a kid playing sports at a school the system would not assign you to do any of their games. I couldn’t even do a boys game for her school.”
L.A.: “Do you prefer one sport to the other, because it gets cold late in the football season?”
B-Jones: ”I enjoy football because of the contact, basketball is more “fan friendly” or “fan worse” (laughing). So I prefer football because the fans are a little further away. In basketball you really have to be on point.”
L.A.: “Give me one of the more memorable games you have had to officiate.”
B-Jones: ”A few years ago when Al Pinkins was quarterbacking Mitchell-Baker and they were playing Toombs County in the quarter-finals. It was standing room only; about 12,000 people were packed in the stadium. They were trailing 17-14 with about 4:00 minutes to play. They stopped Toombs on the one-foot line and with no timeouts drove down the field and he scored on a quarterback sneak to win the game.”
L.A.: “When you are not officiating what do you do to relax?”
B-Jones: “I enjoy watching sports on TV and I love cooking. My wife always has me out there on the grill, even if it’s raining or whatever. I love being home with my family and I do a lot of things with my daughter.”
L.A.: “When you are watching a game on TV are you officiating that game in your head or watching it as a fan?”
B-Jones: ”I’m watching it as a fan but I do look at what the officials are doing, especially the college and professional officials beacuse I might pick up something that could help me get better.”
L.A.: “I appreciate you taking the time to sit down with me on Street Talk. This is L.A. and B-Jones, “You Make The Call!”
B-Jones: ”Hey, any time.”
If you want to “Make The Call" on Street Talk …holla at me
This is Larry “L.A.” Williams …PEACE!
