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WEEK of October 2, 2006 |
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NBA “Whistle-Blower” Visits Upper School by Jeffrey Stanley “We went to junior high school and high school together. I saw him move up the ladder,” explained BFS Athletics Director David Gardella in his introduction of a special guest to Upper School students on one of the first days of school. “He ref’d a Brooklyn Friends School game here at Pearl Street seven or eight years ago as well as one of our away games at Staten Island Academy. He started refereeing at the high school level, then he moved to the college level, and now he’s with the NBA.” “And he’s still yelling at me,” interjected Zach Zarba, NBA referee and childhood friend of David. Zach visited with and spoke to a group of Upper School basketball athletes at Willoughby Street while on a break from his busy professional schedule. Shirt number 58, he is one of only 62 NBA referees in the country right now, and the youngest at age 31. Pro referees are coveted, well-paying positions. A former basketball player and graduate of SUNY New Paltz, Zach came to speak to the students about career opportunities in professional sports and disabused them of the notion that it’s all fun and games. As much as he enjoys his work, the constant travel to cover ten or twelve games per month can be tiring, and he is always under intense scrutiny from thousands of fans and his superiors. “The level of accountability is incredible. If I mess up, if I make a bad call, it’s not just, ‘Aw shucks, Zach messed up,’—It can be my job.” Refs are required to constantly review tapes of all the calls they’ve made in a given week, and they are given a weekly test on the rules of the game. “Every time I blow the whistle I have to be right 90% of the time. And these are big guys moving at the speed of light. It’s hard.” He explained that in addition to reviewing tapes with his boss, paid observers in the stands take notes of a referee’s every call during a game and file those reports with their superiors as well. The Park Slope native and graduate of Midwood High School had humble beginnings in the world of basketball. “Everybody wants to be Wade or Ivers or Shaq,” he told the students. “But what if you don’t become one of them?” He explained his own trajectory. Like them, he loved playing basketball in high school, but at a mere 6'1" he had to face the fact that he didn’t stand much chance of making it as a pro. “So after college, I taught U.S. history for four years. I know what it’s like to sit in a classroom and have to listen to someone talk almost all the time,” he said, the irony not lost on the grinning teens. “I knew I wouldn’t be doing that forever. One of the things about high school is that this is a time to figure out what you want to do with your life. If you love sports—like I do—coaching or reffing at the college or NBA level can be a wonderful job.” Zach Zarba is the fourth in a series of sports professionals David Gardella has brought to BFS to speak with students. Women’s basketball stars Kym Hampton and Becky Hammon and NBA Referree (and BFS alum) Michael Henderson ’79 were last year’s guests.
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