Volleyball referees get Olympic nod

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This article was published 15/02/2012 (5031 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

London is calling two Winnipeg volleyball officials.

Darryl Friesen will be refereeing beach volleyball in his fourth consecutive Summer Olympics, while indoor referee Mitch Davidson will be working his second (and final) Games in England this summer.

Friesen, a 44-year-old firefighter from St. Vital who worked the men’s gold-medal match at the 2004 Athens Games, said every Olympic assignment is special in its own way.

“It’s a great honour to have the opportunity to represent Canada,” Friesen said. “I understand full well that the Olympic Games are about the athletes themselves, but from the officials’ perspective it’s definitely the pinnacle. We strive to get that invitation.”

Davidson, a 54-year-old Grant Park resident, refereed in Beijing in 2008 and knows this will be his last stint on an Olympic court. The age limit for international referees is 55.

“I was told my chances were about 90%,” said Davidson, who serves as Volleyball Manitoba’s technical director. “But a whole bunch of politics goes into it, so when I got it I was very excited. Beijing was awesome… and any Olympics is going to be an awesome event to be a part of.”

The path to the pinnacle of international volleyball officiating has taken both men all over the globe for close to 20 years.

Davidson, a former member of the University of Winnipeg’s men’s team, first began calling games in 1974. He quickly became a national referee, but didn’t receive his international badge until 1996.

“It took me 25 years to finally make it to my first Olympics,” he said. “I had some great mentors.

Manitoba had the most international referees in the country at one point.”

Friesen’s high school coach at Windsor Park Collegiate, Ed Toews, was an international indoor referee who insisted that all his players take the Level 1 officiating course. His coach’s tales of exotic travel inspired Friesen to become an accomplished indoor referee in his own right.

When it became clear that beach volleyball would become an Olympic sport in the mid-1990s, Friesen expressed interest to Volleyball Canada in becoming an international beach official. He became the first international beach referee in Canada, and one of the first 30 in the world.

“It turned out that timing was critical,” he said.

Officiating on the world’s greatest sporting stage — in front of thousands of spectators and millions of television viewers — can be overwhelming. But not for Davidson or Friesen.

“I just remind myself I’m trained to do this,” said Davidson, who grew up in Transcona. “For me it’s very commonplace. The crowd’s there, but I don’t really notice them.”

Friesen plans to use his past Olympic experience to settle his nerves in London.

“You certainly get nervous before every match,” he said. “You require that nervous energy to elevate your focus to where you’re most effective.

“You try to ref like it’s any other match… but there’s all kinds of additional pressure.”

avi.saper@canstarnews.com