History Made: Mississippi’s first all-female officiating crew takes the field – By Torsheta Jackson – Mississippi Scoreboard

By Torsheta Jackson

Dr. Adrienne Barnes, stepped onto the damp turf of the South Jackson soccer discipline. She adjusted her white referee’s cap on her head earlier than learning the groups gathered. Again decide, Dominique Sutton, handed the ball to the kicker. One other fast look by Barnes ensured everybody was in place. Happy, she blew her whistle signaling the kickoff and making historical past.

Fifty years after the Title IX was enacted prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any college or some other training program that receives funding from the federal authorities, Mississippi’s first all-female officiating crew took the sphere Friday night time. Barnes was the lead official.

“It’s a person’s world however we’re doing it,” mentioned Felicia Davis 

The on-field crew consisted of Barnes as Referee, Sarah Fleming as Umpire, Sutton as Again Choose, Sherri Vaughans as Head Linesman, Fran Adams as Line Choose, Alona Alexander as Entrance Choose and Davis as Facet Choose. Phylicia Cotten served as Digital Clock Operator and Constance Clark served because the 40 Second Clock Operator. They labored alongside an all-female chain crew of Tamika Lipsey, Timika Morris and Charmaine Smith. 

One other word of significance, the crew was not solely all-female. It was additionally all black.

“It’s the first-ever time we’ve had 12 African-American girls working a highschool soccer sport,” mentioned Center Mississippi assigner Curtis Lowe. “We (had) seven on the sphere, two women on the clock and three girls on the chains.”

The concept of an all-female crew started final September after Barnes examine Oregon fielding its first crew stuffed with girls. Lowe backed the concept wholeheartedly. Barnes and Lowe gathered the group of girls from throughout the state. The crew who already participated in weekly research classes through Zoom have now additionally labored preseason scrimmage video games collectively.

“This yr after I took over the Center Mississippi Excessive College Affiliation,” mentioned Lowe from the sideline. “I advised the ladies in July that they might be working a sport they usually mentioned why don’t we add two extra girls and make it a seven girl crew. So we introduced a girl in from Memphis and took the girl off the clock and put her on the sphere.”

The significance of the feat was not misplaced on Barnes who has 18 years of officiating expertise together with soccer, basketball, baseball and NCAA softball. She says it took ten years for her to be assigned to an on-field place with a soccer crew. 

“I saved saying that I wished to be really on the sphere. I didn’t wish to be a clock operator. I really like soccer,” mentioned Barnes. “The assigner at the moment mentioned we already had a lady on the sphere. That was Sarah Thomas. That was the girl on the sphere at the moment in Mississippi interval.”

Thomas, a Pascagoula native who now resides in Brandon, started her officiating profession in 1996 and labored her varsity sport in 1999. In 2007, she grew to become the primary girl to officiate a serious faculty soccer sport and in 2015 she grew to become the primary everlasting feminine official in NFL historical past.

“That is necessary as a result of it reveals that it’s not male-dominated anymore. Simply because we’re girls that doesn’t imply that we don’t know the game,” Vaughans advised Mississippi Scoreboard. “We all know the game, we perceive the game and we love the game. We don’t need to have performed the sport to know what’s going on.” 

A few of them have performed although. As a matter of truth, Alexander presently performs with the Mississippi Woman Panthers, a girls’s semi-pro soccer workforce. Barnes was raised in a household stuffed with faculty and pro-football gamers. She grew up taking part in baseball and peewee league soccer, so officiating soccer was a pure selection for her. She started officiating different sports activities and was challenged by her son so as to add soccer to her repertoire. 

“He advised me I used to be getting all into refereeing however he guess I wouldn’t do (soccer)” she mentioned. “My brother advised him later to by no means guess me as a result of I used to be going to show 

Fleming began officiating a peewee soccer league on Saturday mornings as a result of they had been brief staffed. She quickly realized that she liked being on the sphere and tried her hand at center college earlier than shifting as much as highschool. Adams, a Dallas Cowboys fan, was launched to the concept at a basketball officers clinic by Clifton Cotten, Phylicia’s uncle. 

“I went in for a basketball camp and whereas I used to be there he inspired me to come back out with soccer,” Adams mentioned. “I had really wished to be a soccer official and never basketball however I had no concept how you can get began.”

Phylicia Cotton’s uncle and father are well-known officers. She grew up across the sport and signed as much as start officiating proper out of highschool. 

“It was simply one thing I seemed ahead to,” she mentioned. “I knew the yr I graduated highschool, I used to be signing as much as be not less than a clock operator and that’s the place I’ve been since.”

The women word that they acquired super assist from throughout the nation however for them it has been the feedback from different girls which have been probably the most inspirational.

“I’ve had a few folks say that was their mom’s dream however they had been advised no,” mentioned Barnes. “I heard that remark after I began in baseball too. They mentioned main league baseball would by no means settle for the feminine and it was irritating so I ended up switching over to softball, however you simply need to preserve doing it. We’ll get there.”

“It is crucial for little boys and little ladies to see that ladies can do it too,” added Vaughans. “There have been youngsters and fogeys after I’ve walked the stands going to the sphere say to one another ‘That’s a girl ref’ they usually get excited. It does my coronary heart good to see that as a result of then they will resolve in the event that they wish to be a “woman ref” or in the event that they wish to play the game.”