Orange County Prep Review / Sarah Smith : These Rookies Try to Pass Inspection : County’s Few Women Referees Want Acceptamce From Fans, Peers

In her low-key way, Libby Cowan is a woman who is not easily deterred or intimidated.

At 32, she runs the adult athletics program for the City of Irvine. She owns a house in Costa Mesa. She has played basketball in high school and college. She has a Master’s degree in Recreation Administration from Cal State Long Beach.

But a year ago, on her way to achieving another personal goal, Cowan was surprised to find her stomach doing flip-flops. For a person of her intestinal fortitude, the reaction was unusual.

But so was the situation.

Cowan was about to put on a striped uniform, adopt a mantle of authority the size of a whistle and officiate a high school basketball game in front of a bunch of men who were likely to be somewhat skeptical about her first performance.

“I walked in and saw people in the bleachers and my stomach just really went to town,” Cowan said. “I haven’t had such butterflies since I was in high school drama productions.

“But after you blow that first whistle--and it sort of comes sputtering out--then you’re basically fine. You’re into the game.”

Now in her second season, Cowan is the senior member of a tiny group of women basketball officials active in Orange County.

The 1985-86 roster of the Orange County Officials Assn. includes eight women, or about 3% of the total membership.

The actual number is even smaller; only five of the eight are currently working basketball games. The others are not seeking game assignments due to work obligations and other reasons.

“You look around in the first general meeting and you get a sense you’re out there alone,” Cowan said. “There aren’t that many women officials who make it.

“I’d love to have a (woman) role model to go and watch, to talk to and find out how she’s done it. Instead, you have to develop mentors among the men . . . On an individual basis, I’ve gotten nothing but support from the guys I’ve worked with.”

The first women joined the officials assn. about five years ago, but the group has not had much luck in retaining them, according to Darol Roundy, the game assigner.

“A few stay with us a little while, but the first time a coach chews them out, that’s the end of it,” he said. “They are very easily intimidated, much more so than a man.

“Women are not made to handle that type of situation and a lot of them maybe can’t take it physically.”

Brent Lund, president of the officials assn., had a different perspective: “The gals who stick with it really do a great job.”

Joan Howland, a 21-year-old Cal State Fullerton physical education major, said she became an official to increase her knowledge of the game prior for a career as a coach.

She says most coaches do not treat her any differently than a male official.

“I don’t get much lip. I’m sure the other officials get some flak, too,” said Howland, a former player on the Estancia High girls’ basketball team.

“Nobody goes out of their way to rain on my day.”

She tries to approach volatile situations with composure, a sense of humor and perseverance.

“There have been times when I haven’t wanted to come back to a school because some guy had been a jerk,” she said.

“But then I go, ‘No, I have to go because if I don’t, he’ll know I wimped out.’ Maybe I’ve got my pride, too.”

Cowan, who hopes someday to work as a women’s college basketball official, said she does not know why so few women join or why they quit.

But she does not believe Roundy’s theory that it reflects an inability to handle the pressure or to run the court.

“A man or a woman who’s in shape can keep up,” Cowan said. “If you’re in shape and you want to keep up, you can.”

Roundy also said the women officials he had seen tended to be “indecisive” and “slow on the whistle.”

Cowan pointed out that the onlywomen officials in Orange County are rookies and that all rookies, whether they are men or women, are still developing their skills.

“If you never see a woman get beyond the second or third year, you’ve never seen women who aren’t rookies,” she said.

“Anybody who is in their first year, is going to have a slow, tentative whistle.”

Women officials, like their male counterparts, have to get accustomed to handling or ignoring tirades from coaches, players and fans. It’s not an inborn trait in officials of either gender.

“It’s a matter of having a thick enough skin to take barbs from the audience when you make the call,” Cowan said. “My skin’s thicker than it was last year.

“I’m sure as I go on, I’ll get to the point where I don’t hear anything from the crowd. As you go along, you learn to effectively block it out.”

Cowan prefers working girls’ games, in part because she feels there are already plenty of good officials for the boys’.

“No. 1, I think girls deserve that role model that there are women out there who are willing to be officials,” she said.

Former Los Angeles Rams captain Jack Youngblood and KABC sportscaster Ed Arnold will be the masters of ceremonies for the 1985 Faith, Family and Football awards dinner on Thursday, Feb. 13, at the Anaheim Marriott.

The awards are presented to 27 senior scholar-athletes based on Christian character, service, leadership and academics at parochial schools throughout Southern California.

Monsignor John F. Sammon, vicar for pastoral and community affairs for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange and Arthur (Red) Patterson, assistant to the chairman of the board for the California Angels, will also be honored.

The honored athletes:

Defense: Line--Anthony Barbagiovanni (St. Genevieve); Michael Betance (St. Francis); Ricardo Echeverria (Riverside Notre Dame); Leroy Hughes (Verbum Dei); Michael Shinn (St. Paul); LB--Steve Gafford (St. Anthony); Ron Kirkpatrick (St. Bonaventure); Leti Malieitulua (St. Genevieve); Dubois McMillan (Verbum Dei); Ted Valmassei (Servite); Back--Scott Hilinski (Damien); Randy Schieber (Chaminade) and Kenneth Smith (Verbum Dei).

Offense: WR--Travis Bargeman (Alemany); John Carvo (St. John Bosco); Rob Donlan (St. Anthony); TE--John Perak (Sherman Oaks Notre Dame); David Nichels (St. Genevieve); Line--Joe Burt (Servite); Mark Jamieson (St. Joseph); Sean Kelly (St. Paul); Michael Motherway (Mater Dei); Matt Pascale (Loyola); RB--Derek Noggle (Servite); Malcolm Perry (St. Anthony); QB--Randall Redell (Crespi) and John Scott (St. Paul).

Coach of the Year--Lalo Mendoza (Verbum Dei).

Prep Notes

Tournament officials of the Orange Holiday Classic donated $500 to Children’s Hospital of Orange and $500 to the Friendly Center in Orange. The four-day tournament made $2,000 according to Orange High athletic director Dave Zirkle. . . . Woodbridge’s basketball team has accepted an invitation to play in the Las Vegas Holiday tournament next season at Rancho Las Vegas High.