In the latest edition of Behind the Whistle, Football Queensland caught up with Trevor May who is playing a crucial role in the mentoring and development of match officials in the Whitsunday Coast region through his role as FQ Officer – Referee Coach and Development.
Born in England and raised in Melbourne after moving to Australia at the age of 12, May played football throughout high school before taking a break from the game after his graduation.
It wasn’t until around 10 years later that he became involved in football again, completing a referee course in Canberra where he and his wife were living at the time.
“I got thrown in the deep-end, as you do, and that was my introduction to refereeing, on my own, no assistants, but enjoyed it and went back the next week and really got into it.”
It was in his early days of officiating in Canberra that May received valuable advice and guidance from his peers, before going on to become a well-respected referee mentor himself.
“I was fortunate in Canberra to be coming up through the ranks at the same time that Ben Wilson and Ben Williams were involved with the National Soccer League so I got to referee with them a lot, learn a lot from them, get some really good input and advice from them and that really shaped my career as a referee,” he said.
“How they spoke to players, how they officiated the game and I still count them as friends today. Good people who shaped who I am today.
“I still say that the best piece of advice I ever received when I was learning the craft, and I’m still learning 25 years later, it came from Ben Williams when he said simply, ‘You’re running hard, learn to run smart’ and just really made me think about my positioning and anticipation of the ball and not constantly chasing it but actually being proactive about where do I need to be to make the best decision in the moment.”
During his time in Canberra, May was appointed to the National Youth League Panel where he honed his craft as an Assistant Referee.
“That was fantastic experience, working with some really really good referees and being exposed to some high level football which I think does as much for developing a referee as good input from people like Ben Williams and Ben Wilson and the coaching people we had around us,” May said.
“I think being involved in high level football brings out the best in you and shows whether you’ve got it to step up and really make it at that elite level.”
Prior to his family’s move to Queensland and as his son began playing AFL in the ACT, May even tried his hand as an umpire, noting how he enjoyed gaining a different perspective on officiating by being involved in a completely different sport to football.
Following a move North to Mackay six years ago to be closer to family, May found himself again involved in the round ball game as he helped coach his son’s team in their first year in the Whitsunday Coast region.
From there, the experienced match official went on to work in referee development within the region from 2017.
“The transition to regional football is very different to what it is in a more cosmopolitan environment. Canberra is obviously not as big as Brisbane but it’s geographically a very small, compact environment,” May said when speaking of the differences between the referee landscape in Canberra and Mackay.
“The main thing was trying to understand, what are the differences that we need to address. For example in Canberra you’re only a couple of hours down the road from Sydney so you’ve got access to high level football on a number of stages, whereas here it’s very isolated and felt very detached from what’s happening in the rest of Queensland.”
May was delighted to see some positive outcomes of the additional support for referees within the region after just a year.
“In previous years they’d been bringing referees in from other zones to do particularly our Men’s Premier League Grand Final, and at the end of the first full year that I did that we actually fielded our own team of referees which I thought was fantastic and we got really positive feedback that we were developing local talent and had people at the standard where they were confident to do those games.”
Since then, the FQ Officer – Referee Coach and Development has supported the growth of referee development opportunities in the region, including visits from FIFA officials and A-League referees in recent years.
“The first time Alex King came up it was a massive deal for us,” May said.
“Over the years we’ve had opportunities to work with a number of high-level referees. This year we’ve had Misuk Park come up here a couple of times, we’ve had Lara Lee, Casey Reibelt, Renae Coghill over the last couple of years.
“Often they’ll come up and they’ll fly in on a Saturday morning and a number of them will come down to the junior grounds on a Saturday afternoon and have a look and give some input.”
In recent years, May has witnessed firsthand the benefits of exposing young officials to varied environments to hone their skills as referees in the region have attended tournaments such as FQ Academy carnivals and the FQ Community Cup.
Watching how they’ve grown as people, though, has been the biggest highlight for May.
“A lot of our guys have had a taste of that next level, and part of my role is to encourage them that if this something you want to pursue then let’s give you the opportunities, let’s send you to tournaments,” he said.
“We sent a number of referees to FQ Community Cup, to the state schools tournament and that’s been great. And they’ve come back not just talking about the games they did and the conversations they had with FIFA referees but the friendships they’ve made.
“We had one girl who came back from the state school finals this year and she said ‘My teammates on the team I play for, we all love football but when I talk about refereeing they glaze over because they don’t understand.’
“After she came back from Cairns she said ‘Now I’ve got 21 friends who understand how much I love refereeing’ and I thought that’s why I do this, to give them those aha moments, to create those networks, create those experiences.
“So while it’s very very satisfying to see them develop as a referee, it’s equally and maybe even more satisfying to see them growing as a person and learning things about themselves, growing in their confidence and learning lessons about themselves that they might not learn in another environment.”
In addition to his role with Football Queensland, May also still officiates himself and works as a wards person at a local hospital, often finishing an overnight shift at 6am on a Saturday before heading to the junior grounds to be there in time for the first round of games kicking off at 8am.
While it sounds like an overwhelming schedule, he credits his passion for the game with helping him find a way to balance each of his roles.
“I love it, and I love seeing these kids grow and develop as referees, as people. I love when they come up and ask me ‘hey I want to go to Community Cup this year, what do I have to do’ or ‘what would it take for me to become an A-League referee.’
“So I say ok let’s have that conversation, let’s explore the options, where are you at now, what do you want to achieve. Or it might be as simple as them wanting to do the U14 Grand Final this year, or Senior football this year, so it’s about saying let’s set that as a goal, let’s expose you to what we need to.
“The work I do with FQ, I do because I love it, because I’m passionate about not just the game and refereeing but about developing young people and helping them become all that they can be.”
As referee numbers in the Whitsunday Coast region continue to grow, May’s next focus is on supporting more experienced match officials who are interested in stepping into a mentoring role themselves.
“The exciting thing is that just in the last few weeks I’ve had conversations with three or four older senior referees who’ve said things like ‘It’s time to give something back’ and want to help with mentoring the referees, so the whole concept of building a support team of mentors and assessors.
“We’ve got some fantastic young talent up here and I want to build that team to support them, to give them the opportunities to identify the ones who we flag as the ones who are worth taking to a tournament, either because they can be a real asset to us in our local competition but perhaps some of them have the potential and the desire to take it further and move to those elite levels.
“So building that team is really my goal for next year, to build that support team and harness the potential that’s here.”
That potential, he hopes, may just see Whitsunday Coast officials representing the region on the national and international stage in the future, and May is committed to doing all he can to support the referees who have those ambitions.
“My goal one day is to be sitting at home or in my retirement home watching the FIFA World Cup or the FIFA Women’s World Cup saying I coached that referee and I played a small part in their journey to become who they are and where they’ve gotten to now.
“That would be just a huge thrill for me just to play a part of that journey.”
