By Jeremy Henderson
“You throw your flag like a girl.”
That’s pretty much the worst Sarah Thomas has heard.
It was some guy up in the stands. What game was it? She can’t remember. Maybe last year’s game between Memphis and Marshall. Or maybe the one between Memphis and Jacksonville State on Sept. 15, 2007, the night Thomas made history — but not, she insists, a statement — as the first woman ever to referee an NCAA Division I football game.
Was it an insult? A compliment? Did he know she was a girl?
Thomas claims it’s hard to tell.
“They make me tuck my hair up, and I don’t wear nearly any makeup out there,” she said.
But it’s easy to tell.
Thomas, who helped lead the University of Mobile’s (UM) Lady Rams basketball team to the 1993 NAIA national tournament, gets stares. She gets extra interviews. ESPN can’t resist her.
The attention may be relatively new but the job is not. Thomas started refereeing high school games in her hometown of Pascagoula, Miss., where she still lives, in 1996.
“I’ll hear stories from male officials about ‘Well so-and-so (coach) is going to chew her up and spit her out,’” said Thomas, a member of Pinelake (Baptist) Church, Brandon, Miss. “But it really hasn’t happened.”
One coach — she declined to name which one — had a reputation for being particularly nasty to officials. Thomas was warned to expect the worst.
“He was actually more than nice and almost helpful in making sure he was doing what he was supposed to be doing,” she said. “He was great. He was probably the best coach in my career. I just think it’s in a man’s nature, when a woman is present, to be a little more sensitive.”
Around Thomas, they needn’t be.
“Sarah was always a fierce competitor,” said Martha Algernon, Thomas’ former basketball coach at UM and a member of First Baptist Church, North Mobile, in Saraland.
“She would compete at anything she was doing and she wanted to win. I know she kind of broke the barrier, so to speak, but I don’t think she was trying to break into the fraternity. I think it was just a passion she had for some time. Her passion has gotten her to this level and this exposure.”
As has her faith, said Thomas, whose entire officiating crew prays before each game.
“Everything happens for a reason, and God’s hand is in it,” she said. “For whatever reason, He has blessed me to have good judgment and has just given me the talent to officiate.”
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