Legendary US basketball coach John Wooden once said: "It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen." This quote resonates well with one up and coming umpire who is currently living the dream at the men's Pan American Junior Championships taking place in Toronto, Canada this week.
Chilean umpire Matias Barbosa Castaño, officiating at the Hockey Junior World Cup qualifier in the Canadian city, took charge of his first international tournament three years ago. Since then, he says he has learned a lot along the way, and for him, it's the little things that make the biggest difference in terms of his development.
“I see myself between now and then and I must say that I’m a completely different person. More relaxed, wiser and much more knowledgeable.”
However, Matias says he still has much to learn: “If I can put it in numbers, I would say I am up to 20 per cent of my potential. I just want to keep on learning. Every tournament is different, and in all of them I learn different things.”
This is Matias’s second major tournament in Toronto and he says that the first experience was one of the highlights of his career.
He said: “The Pan American Games in 2015 was a complete success: the umpiring, the managers, the games, the whole organisation, the volunteers. It completely exceeded my expectations. It reinforced to me why I wanted to umpire in the first place. I came back to Toronto for the Junior Pan Am Championships hoping that it will be as fulfilling as the last time I was in Toronto.”
One of the best moments for the Chilean umpire could also have been one of the toughest moments of his career if things had been slightly different. He explains: “My last game in the Pan Am Games was Cuba against Trinidad and Tobago. It was for 7-8th place and Cuba had only eight players for the match. I expected the game to be catastrophic: I thought that the Cuban players would be aggressive, that they would delay the game as much as they could, that it would be a game with a lot of injuries and cards. But I was completely mistaken.
“The Cuban team played their best. They were playing not just for the love of their country, but for love of the sport and out of respect for their opponents. For the whole match they were running, creating play, with no complaints.
“Cuba lost 13-0 and at the final whistle, the players fell to the ground exhausted. The Trinidad and Tobago players helped them to stand up and carried them around the whole field so that the spectators could cheer them. 1,000 people gave a standing ovation to those eight players. It was a moment that I will never forget, and the reason of why I love this sport.”
While Matias is thriving in his role as an international umpire, he admits that there are moments when his composure may be threatened by circumstances. Experience gained over the past eight years has helped him cope with these stressful moments.
“I think this is the biggest difference between an experienced umpire and someone relatively new. Umpires are people; amazing people, but just people. We make mistakes during the game and, obviously, we get upset about some decisions we make. But we can also learn from those mistakes.
“It's very important that as you enter the field you are in the right frame of mind. To achieve that it's important to have good pre-match preparation with your umpire partner, make good use of your pre-match time for warming up, get to know the field and take a look at the teams as they warm up. It's all about feeling familiar with the surroundings.”
While dealing with pre-match nerves, calming down irate players and making match changing decisions could make an umpire’s life seem very stressful, there is always a lighter side to the role.
“I was umpiring a normal game, but in a rural area,” recalls Matias. “There were no problems during the whole game. Then 10 minutes before the game ended, a dog entered the field, grabbed the ball and ran away from the stadium. We didn’t have any balls left so we had to finish it 10 minutes before it really ended. We all had a good laugh about it afterwards.”
Matias is one of the leading umpires from Chile and, as such, he is heavily involved in the Chile Hockey Federation’s drive towards increased professionalism. In line with the FIH Hockey Revolution goal to make the sport more professional, he says: “We are working on “professionalising” the careers of umpires in Chile. Debriefing umpires after games will be crucial to this. Once a month I try to get in touch with my fellow umpires so we can join in a discussion of past games… but it’s not all serious, we do our debrief with a cold drink in our hands.”
To get involved in umpiring, contact your National Association. Contact details for each of them can be found here.
To follow the men's Pan American Junior Championship, click hereor watch live games via the FIH YouTube Channel here.
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