Becoming an official was the right call for Adonis Fleming

Adonis Fleming played for the Berks Conference basketball championship at Santander Arena when he was a junior at Central Catholic.

A dozen years later he found himself back on the same court in a championship game, this time as an official. Working the game as a referee was much easier than playing in it, he says.

“Playing, there’s a lot more pressure,” he said. “I felt more comfortable in a referee’s position.”

Fleming was a role player with the Cardinals, a defensive stopper on a powerhouse team that included Donovon Jack, Marcus Dawkins and Marquis Marshall. They battled Reading High in one of the greatest Berks championship games on record and before one of the largest crowds.

It was a stressful game, especially for Fleming and Cardinals, who saw Trenity Burdine and the Red Knights roar back for a 62-57 win.

Fleming’s return trip to the arena last month wasn’t nearly as difficult, even with his old coach Snip Esterly, now with Berks Catholic, working the sidelines — and the refs.

“It just came down to allowing everybody, the players and the coaches, to play their game and coach the way that they need to,” Fleming said. “As an official, you pick the right spots to make calls and manage the game.”

Fleming is relatively new to officiating — this was his fifth season and first with a full varsity schedule — but he has impressed people and moved up quickly.

He worked all three rounds of the BCIAA playoffs, meaning he’s getting high marks from both league administrators and the head coaches, who have a voice in who is selected to work Berks playoff games.

Barry Sherman, past president of the Berks County Basketball Officials and the chapter’s senior working member, was immediately impressed when he first worked with the 28-year-old Fleming a few years ago.

“You knew there was something there,” Sherman said. “Some guys have it right away; some guys never get it.”

Fleming was inspired to become an official by his mother, Starr Cooper-Fleming, who played at Reading High and East Stroudsburg University and officiated at the youth level for years.

When his playing days were done playing at Delaware Valley, Fleming sought a way to stay involved in the game; officiating was a natural fit. He began working games in the summer Blacktop League, enjoyed the experience, then worked to get better by attending officiating camps.

“That really gave me a love and a passion for refereeing,” Fleming said of his Blacktop experience. “A lot of the referees who work within our chapter were there telling me, ‘Hey, you’re young enough, you have the ability to keep going as far as you want to with this.’ “

Officials work at their game the same as players, studying film and going to camps, where they learn technique and receive instruction and constructive criticism.

“(Instructors) at these camps are very honest and real about the critique so that you can improve,” Fleming said. “You have to be able to take that constructive criticism and use it to improve.”

“Adonis is willing to invest in himself,” said Troy Lister, a veteran official and president of the BCBO. “He’s gone to several camps, college tryouts. He has a full junior college schedule. (All of) that has helped him do the higher level games.”

There’s a physical aspect to reffing basketball. Officials have to be able to get up and down the court and keep up with younger athletes. Sherman and Lister say it helps to have played the game. Former players know how to position themselves on the floor and how to anticipate the action.

“As I’ve grown older, the game has slowed down for me a lot,” Fleming said. “I don’t move as fast as (when) I was playing. I try to be patient with my calls, be patient with my whistles and always be confident with my calls, knowing there’s a reason why I called it or there’s a reason why I strayed away from a certain call.

“Seeing a lot of basketball, watching a lot of film, working in these game situations, it allows you to be more comfortable and make better judgment decisions.”

“When you’re new (to officiating), you’ve gotta blow the whistle (to get noticed),” Sherman said. “You’ve gotta know what to let go. He knows what to let go. It’s an instinct.”

The best education, Fleming said, comes from the veteran officials he works with nightly at local high school games. He constantly picks their brains, and they offer both critique and support. The latter is vital in such an emotionally draining avocation.

“I’m a little biased but I believe that in Berks County we have some of the best officials in the state; we take our job so seriously,” Fleming said. “We do our best to prepare before games and after games with watching film and communicating with one another.”

Lister is looking for more people like Fleming to take an interest in officiating. The Berks chapter, like those across the state, and in all sports, is working through a severe shortage of officials.

Lister said Berks chapter membership is down by about 40 percent, in part because of COVID — some officials stopped working and never returned — and in part because many younger people don’t want to put up with unruly fan behavior, especially at the youth level.

Lister said he often approaches high school players to encourage them to officiate. Many aren’t interested in taking the abuse.

“Most of these kids are seeing how these officials are being treated and they’re being turned off by it,” Lister said.

Fleming hasn’t been deterred by any of that. He’s confident in himself and dedicated to giving back to the game and the community. He knows games can’t go on without officials. He also understands their role in the game.

“Nobody is there to see the referees,” he said. “At the end of the day the game is all about the kids. I just want to give my best effort towards calling the best game as possible, calling the most fair game as possible, because that’s the most important thing.

“You want to allow the kids to be able to determine the outcome of the game. I just try to be a fly on the wall and insert myself into the game when needed.”