“Martin County graduate excels as soccer referee” |
| Martin County graduate excels as soccer referee Posted: 08 Jul 2010 09:25 PM PDT 
Hancock Being a soccer referee has allowed Martin County graduate Tori Hancock to go further in the sport than she would have as a player. Hancock, who played for the Tigers before graduating high school in 2004, has traveled all over the country to officiate games, and recently was appointed to referee the US Youth Soccer National Championships July 20 to 25 in Kansas City. She hopes to one day make it to the international level with FIFA and the World Cup. "There's a lot of unique things about it," said Hancock, who graduated from Florida State University in 2008 and now serves as field marketing specialist for Red Bull North. "It's an opportunity to travel and see the world, and for many of us, you can only play to a certain level, but refereeing was a great way to go higher than I could have as a player. It's exciting." Hancock, 24, took her first referee class at the Stuart YMCA in 2000, following the lead of her brothers who already were refs. She began by officiating numerous youth matches in the area, and by 2003, she was refereeing national-caliber players through the Olympic Development Program in Alabama. In 2006, 2009 and 2010, Hancock, a member of the Florida Referee Academy, was selected to referee at the US Youth Soccer southern regional championships.After the 2010 regional in Baton Rouge, she was invited to the national tournament as one of 28 selected nationwide. "Kids go to regionals year after year after year trying to get selected for nationals," Hancock said. "I went three times to regionals and the third time I got selected, which was cool. It's a huge honor." Being a ref has its down points, given the criticism officials face in all sports, but Hancock said learning to handle that kind of pressure was a good life lesson. It also means that while watching the World Cup this past month, she has not joined in on the attacks of the calls made by the referees, who have been under fire throughout the tournament. "Referees take heat at all levels, it's just a higher stage so you hear more about it there," Hancock said. "I wouldn't say they are doing a poor job. They are doing the best job they can in the atmosphere they are in. It's easy for us to look at the camera views and say, 'How can they miss that?' but it's part of human error. You are constantly improving your skills, and you'll never have a perfect game." Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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