Local official off to Women’s Worlds
TAYLOR MICKLEBORO
In most sports, including football, there’s the old adage that if you don’t notice the officials, they’re doing a good job.
In that context, Taylor Mickleboro doesn’t want to be recognized as the pioneer she is. She just wants to do her job, anonymously … and therefore well.
“Sometimes people will say, ‘There’s a girl ref.’ Then they forget you’re there and that’s what you want,” says the 22-year-old who has been assigned to officiate in the World Women’s Football Championship in Langley, B.C., run by the International Federation of American Football.
“For me, it’s just refereeing. You don’t want to stand out.”
Mickleboro is one of just two females (Rosalie Melo is the other) in the Hamilton Football Officials Association, whose members are assigned to every level of the sport, from minor football to the Canadian Football League.
She comes from a whistling family: her father Kevin Mickleboro is in his 32nd year of refereeing CIS, high school and age-class football, and her brother Ryan has spent eight years in officials’ garb, and now works the CIS.
“When she was younger, she came to the games I was refereeing and she’d go hang out with the timers while I was on the field,” says her proud father.
When her father asked her at age 16 if she’d like to get into officiating, she said ‘not this year’ but did volunteer to work the yardage sticks that season at her high school, St. Jean de Brebeuf, and the following year she began as an onfield official, and now works minor football, high school and Northern Football Conference games.
A Level 2 official, she does not work as a referee or umpire, the two senior positions.
“She’s doing well,” says Tom Vallesi, a CFL referee and the HFOA’s referee-in-chief. “She’s a good learner and comes from a line of referees. She picks it up quickly and is very receptive to constructive criticism. She never makes the same mistake twice.
“Nothing bothers her. She’s not tentative.”
Mickleboro attributes that latter trait to her mother, Judy.
She says that if anyone has made disparaging remarks about gender roles at her games, she hasn’t heard them, and she praises the other members of the HFOA for their mentorship and positive reinforcement.
There will be teams from six nations — Canada, the U.S., Great Britain, Australia, Finland and Mexico — in Langley for the third women’s world championship, the first to be held outside of Europe. About two-thirds of the officials in the tournament will be female.
“I’m excited and nervous at the same time,” says Mickleboro, who just graduated from McMaster in anthropology.
“It will be fun to have the majority of our crew be females. I’ll be interested to talk to the ones from different countries and get their perspective.”
Because the tournament, which runs from June 24 to 30, is played under NCAA rules, Mickleboro and some of the other Canadian officials have been talking via Skype with one of the head referees, who’s American, about rules, positioning and other facets of the game.
“Having another female speaking football with the same calibre of knowledge as my dad has, and my brother has, there’s a ‘relateability’ I don’t get here,” she says.