‘Fabulous Five’ shining under Friday night lights
The first all-female officiating crew for a City Section football game is blazing trails.
As the shrimp fried rice arrived at their table, they bowed their heads, clasping their hands as Crystal Nichols began a prayer.
She said her blessings for the food, for the gathering of five women who would make history in black-and-whitestriped uniforms on the football field Friday night.
There was Connie Wells, wearing a blazer, the voice of reason. There was LaQuica Hawkins, wearing all black, the stoic umpire. Zina Jones and Kim Bly, both authoritative yet calm, hadn’t yet arrived. And there was Nichols, sporting bright pink nails and a red dress and take-charge white hat.
The first all-female crew — and all Black women — to officiate a City Section football game.
“That we will be blessed on that football field, that we will show the universe that we have good karma and good spirit to make this happen,” Nichols continued in prayer. “And we’re going to be the Fabulous Five from this point on.”
The Fabulous Five — with pink pins affixed to their uniforms in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month — were honored before Friday’s game between Huntington Park Marquez and Maywood CES. Eduardo Martinez, mayor of Huntington Park, gave them commendations to resounding cheers from the stands. Each member of the crew was given a bouquet of roses, balloons and a gift box by the Marquez cheer squad.
“That we got them, it just represents a lot,” Maria Granados, whose daughter is a Marquez cheerleader, said of the officiating crew. “So that’s why I’m like ... we’re doing something for them, so they can feel special.”
They were special, by sheer definition of the word, trailblazers for representation in a male-dominated sport and beacons of hope for a struggling profession in Los Angeles.
City Section assigner Tony Crittendon said he had more than 200 officials available to work Friday night games before the pandemic. Now, he’s “desperate,” with perhaps 140 available on a regular basis.
COVID-19 caused referees to look elsewhere for work, and age and overwork led 10 officials to retire this year, he added.
Sitting in Kim’s Restaurant on Crenshaw Boulevard last Wednesday night, the women — Wells,
Hawkins and Nichols all have known each other for more than a decade — swapped bits of wisdom between bites of egg rolls.
There are secrets, learned experience, to succeeding as a female official in a game defined by testosterone. Hawkins has learned to be a listener rather than engaging with the boys and men, sometimes adding a touch of humor to break the ice. Jones is authoritative, introducing herself to coaches and being direct with the boys. Wells mimed a begging gesture with her hands, mimicking an interaction with a male ref to watch a holding call.
“Back in the day, being the pioneer woman when I first started, I used to walk off the football field at Pop Warner crying because the coaches were calling me everything under the sun,” Nichols remembered. “And I got to think that I was the
b—.
“And then I had to wake up and smell the coffee and say, no, I’m a queen.”
For one game, they were queens among queens, no longer having to prove themselves in a “gentlemen’s club,” as Bly said.
“In this scenario, we’re all each other’s keeper, so it’s this sisterhood,” Bly said.
They called a clean first quarter Friday night in Marquez’s 61-20 win, fading
after a triumphant pregame ceremony into the midgame obscurity that every referee craves.
“If we do really good …” Nichols began Wednesday night, before being interrupted by Hawkins.
“When,” Hawkins corrected her.
“Yes, when we do good,” Nichols said. “I’m saying, we are going to do good.
“We’re going to blow ’em away.”