basketball-schiedsrichter.de - College-Legende wurde WNBA-Referee

Sie ist in der Hall of Fame ihres Colleges St. Cloude State als eine der besten Spielerinnen aller Zeiten verewigt. Ihre Karriere führte sie auch nach Deutschland, wo sie als Profi tätig war. Jan Herke beendete ihre Spieler-Karriere und wurde Schiedsrichterin. Die zweifache Mutter schaffte es bis in die WNBA, wo sie im Jahre 2000 ihren Höhepunkt erlebte. Noch im sechsten Monat schwanger leitete sie Spiele. In diesem Jahr hat sie nach 15 Jahren semiprofessionellem Schiedsrichterns ihre Karriere beendet. "Ich bin an einem Punkt, wo ich die meisten Spiele nur noch als Kampf zwischen bunten Trikots gesehen habe. Ich kann mich nicht mehr daran erinnern, wer welches Spiel gewonnen hat." Das nachfolgende Porträt ist im englischen Original wiedergegeben.

In a ditch with her truck on its side, Jan Herke had just one thought running through her head as a torrent of CDs and coins rained down on her. This cannot be good. That wasn't just because her truck was off the road in the middle of a December snowstorm somewhere between Des Moines and Iowa City. It was also because she was supposed to referee a women's basketball game that night at the University of Iowa, and you can't tip off without anyone to toss the ball in the air.

Herke made it to Carver-Hawkeye Arena 11 minutes before the game was supposed to start, and Iowa officials met her with concern in their eyes. "Do you think we can start the game on time?" they asked. For 15 years, traveling through the snow and rain to gyms all over the country was routine for Herke, who was born Jan Niehaus and became a Melrose basketball star and the fifth-leading scorer in St. Cloud State University women's hoops history. After her playing career, as she advanced from officiating high school games to the North Central Conference to Division I and the WNBA, traveling to New York or Los Angeles or Bloomington, Ill., became as routine as driving to her day job with the parks and recreation department in Urbandale, Iowa.

"That's the side of officiating people don't see," Herke said. "It's like, 'Wow, you get to fly around the country and see Madison Square Garden and Texas,' but they don't see the snowstorm, home at 2 in the morning to get up at 6 to go and do your real job. And I'm not complaining. It certainly was my choice, but that's part of the job." She even found herself being heckled by a well-known voice during a WNBA game at the Forum in Los Angeles. "At one of the timeouts, Penny Marshall of 'Laverne and Shirley' was giving us a hard time," she said. "I wanted to say, '(Laverne), come on, you're giving us a hard time! What the heck?' But it's fun. I've been so blessed and fortunate to get that opportunity."

Her officiating career reached its peak in 2000, a summer during which she refereed the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA Tournament in March, worked the first half of the WNBA season in May and June and delivered her first child in late September. She worked until she was six months pregnant, and only took leave then because she couldn't sprint the length of the court the way she normally did. Seven weeks after Eric was born, she was back on the court. The same was true two years later when she returned to officiating seven weeks after Allison was born.

Former players often make the best referees, and for Herke, her playing experience at Melrose, St. Cloud State and professionally in Germany was invaluable. First, it allowed her to anticipate plays, to know where the pass or shot was going and how players ordinarily would react to a given situation. Second, it earned her an automatic measure of respect from the coaches in the North Central Conference who had seen her play and, more importantly, hadn't seen her barking at officials over whistles. Having that respect was an important contributor as she climbed the refereeing ladder from Division II to Division I to the WNBA. "There's a line between (confidence) and an ego, and it's a gray line, but you need to exude confidence," she said. "Even if you might not have gotten the call right, you need to show just as much confidence."

The only drawback to her experience as a player was that she had to learn how to watch the game as a referee and not as a fan, watching areas of the court and not always the best players or the path of the ball. After 15 years of officiating, it got to the point where she saw most games as battles between colored jerseys and not battles between schools or professional organizations. It says something that she can remember her partner on the floor for her first college game but can't remember who beat Iowa State University in the Sweet Sixteen game she officiated in March 2000. And no foul weather could stop her from the court for 15 seasons; only the lure of family drew her to retire after she officiated the Division III national semifinals in 2006. "It's like the mailman," she said. "Rain, sleet, shine — you've got to make it."