RICHMOND, Va. -- This fall is the 23rd season officiating high school football for John Darnes. He got into it by heckling another official at one of his son's games.
The official asked Darnes if he thought he could do better.
"He was a mentor to me and once I got in and opened the rule books I was like, what have I gotten myself into?" Darnes said.
Darnes is now a crew chief for a group of officials in the Central Virginia High School Football Officials Association which covers some 60 schools from Amelia to Accomack and everything in between.
With very little appreciation, these officials are crucial to the high school football tradition in Central Virginia. While some fans might think otherwise, it's not an easy job.
"How to process when you have multiple things going on the field. Because as a white hat, you've got so many things going through your head at once. You depend on the people around you to keep straight," Darnes said.
The white hat refers to the referee, the person in charge of the game. Darnes is usually under that hat for his crew. But not on this afternoon.
Mia Stewart grew up in Montana playing soccer, never really paying attention to American football.
"I didn't really become a fan until I started officiating which, I know, sounds crazy," Stewart said.
She officiated intramurals and flag football in college at Virginia Tech. That was enough to get bit by the bug.
"I loved it. I was semi-decent at it so I took it to the next level. I tried to tackle it at the high school level and I've just kept going with it. I'm going to take it as far as I can," Stewart said.
On this particular afternoon, she's taken it into the history books. Darnes usually wears the white hat but for this game, he gave the job to Mia, making her the first female to referee a JV game in Central Virginia.
"Great rules knowledge. She's got the integrity, she's got the trustworthiness, she's got the respect of everybody. That's the one thing you look for when you want somebody to become a referee," Darnes said.
"What I'm slowly starting to learn is that as you see more snaps, as you see more plays, the game actually slows down for you so you are actually able to break it up into chunks. Make sure you're looking where you need to be looking," Stewart said.
Darnes has worked with Mia off and on for two seasons but this year is the first year she has been on his crew for an entire off-season. He knew she was ready for this particular assignment when she had to eject a player in a previous game.
"We go to the sidelines to talk to the coaches. The coach's voice escalated. She remained calm, explaining exactly what happened. Her voice never rose, it stayed at the same level, just explaining," Darnes said.
"A lot of times what you see on TV on Saturdays and Sundays is different than what you're going to see out here. Because I didn't ever watch a lot of that, I am able to draw a line between the two better than some," Stewart said.
There are more and more women becoming officials at all levels of the game. The CVFOA is struggling to keep up its numbers. Many games have moved to Thursday nights because of a lack of officials this year.
Women like Mia are a welcome sight.
"There's a culture shift within football right now. We're seeing more female coaches as well. We're seeing more football players. Across the board, there's been that shift in football to be more inclusive of women," Stewart said.
"It's not surprising that we're getting an influx of females and we welcome them. We'd love to have them," Darnes said.
"I never in a million years thought that football would have been my thing but here I am and I love it," Stewart.
Mia would like to move to the next level of the game eventually, college and then maybe the NFL.
For now, she will make a little more history on Friday night when she becomes the first woman to referee a varsity game in Central Virginia. She will wear the white hat at Glen Allen when the Jaguars host J.R. Tucker.
If you are interested in becoming a football official, click herefor more information.
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