Goalball is like loving someone – you want to spend more time together

 Goalball is like loving someone – you want to spend more time together.

Hello, my name is Vilma Venckutonyte, a goalball referee from Lithuania. I have been involved in goalball since 1992. Thank you for surprising me and selecting me as the best European referee in 2019 and the best referee of the decade in 2020 in EGCA election!

You ask me, how is it to be an appreciated referee?

Oh I should learn better to accept my achievements without questioning them! When I first heard about being selected as the best referee of the year, for a moment I did not think it was a good thing. Because I like to be behind the scenes. I work in public relations so my goal is to make my clients visible, not myself.

I love this sentence in Referee’s manual: “the day referee thinks he/she is perfect will be the day to quit”. I don’t want to quit yet (laughing).

But I remember when I was just starting refereeing it was my dream to become a really good referee. The one you can trust. So I consciously practiced and developed my refereeing skills.

When I got this title of the best referee, of course I felt happy and thrilled! I am joking that since then my mother and colleagues stopped asking me why I travel for goalball, leave my children at home and referee without being paid.

This kind of election of the best player, team, coach, referee, club is very good for goalball publicity – wider audience learn about goalball in many countries, good job EGCA!

How did I start to referee and why?

I have been involved in goalball since 1992, started as a table official, I was a school girl back then. Lithuania had just broke independent from Soviet Union, my father Rimantas Venckutonis (I learn a lot from him!) worked in Lithuanian Blind Sports Federation and was in charge of developing national sports. Very few citizens of Soviet Union could speak English, and I was already quite good in English at my early age so I was helping my father in many things – translating goalball rules, writing e-mails in English, preparing game sheets, interpreting conversations with foreigners. I remember, we had regular visits from Great Britain – Dave Lee and Clive Spencer used to come and teach us how to organize goalball competitions etc.

I was doing the table officials job for many years. That’s why I had good knowledge of goalball rules already as a teenager. I have translated/edited many editions of goalball rules so I witnessed how the game developed.

In 2003-2004 I studied abroad and did not care about goalball, until I was having summer vacations in Lithuania and I was asked to be an interpreter at IBSA goalball referees clinic in Vilnius, conducted by German referee Alexander Knecht. He is a great teacher and we had so much fun during that clinic. Suddenly he asked me “why aren’t you taking exams? You have a good voice and know the rules well – you should be an international referee too”.

This encouraged me. I realized then that I was comfortable in a position of table official and did not even think about seeking for more, until Alexander said these words to me. So in the next clinic in 2004 I got my IBSA level I and started growing as a referee. This process is never ending, I hope (laughing).

What motivates me to referee?

I love the game itself. It gives me a lot of pleasure and satisfaction to watch and referee goalball.

And there are plenty of other things that motivates me in goalball.

I really like being among so many sports people, who are determined, spirited, tenacious, seeking and achieving goals. I like the idea that blind and visually impaired people are so free on court. Freedom is the most important value for me and I feel this freedom in goalball.

I love my colleagues – referees and officials from all over the world. It gives me this special feeling of international goalball family. Usually we only see airport, hotel and venue, but I still feel like travelling, because we have meals together, we talk and laugh a lot, share our experience.

I like that refereeing is a physical activity. My everyday work is creative, intellectual, lots of sitting and writing, so refereeing is very different.  I love taking responsibility, taking decisions, that’s what referee does.

My attitude comes from my first teacher Clive Spencer, later Dina Murdie, both of them are true educators and they kept repeating – goalball is created for blind and visually impaired sportsmen, referees are here just to help them to do their sport. I feel happy to be able to contribute to something bigger in life – to support the development of this cool Paralympic sport.

Goalball is like someone you love. If I love somebody, I want to spend more time with that person. The same with goalball. That is why I started organizing International Trakai Goalball Tournament and referee’s clinics together with my father, who is a president of Lithuanian goalball referee’s association. I co-host EGCA goalball talk show “Quiet please”. I’ve done many other stuff in goalball – doing goalball presentations in schools, looking for sponsors, writing articles, initiating radio and TV programs about goalball. Before and during 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympic games I did a huge public relations campaign promoting Lithuanian Paralympians in my country, this campaign received 3 national and international PR awards.

One more important thing – I like the idea that my children can be around when I’m in goalball. My son has been a goal judge for 4 years now. It’s cool for me to be in Lithuanian tournaments together with my father and son – three generations in goalball.

What is the most important as a referee?

The right attitude. Teams train a lot, international competitions are really important for them and referees have to do their best: be focused and fair. Referee is like teams’ guide through the game – creates conditions for both teams to play their fair part.

What is the most challenging as a referee?

Lack of sleep. Often a bus takes us to a venue at 7 am, brings us back at 9-10 pm. We spend 14 hours in the venue, plus breakfast, dinner, shower time, it means less than 6 hours sleep every night. You can’t expect the best quality from a referee who is tired. Neuroscientists have proved that we don’t see with our eyes, we see with our brain. Brain needs proper rest.

Another challenging thing – I miss highballs sometimes. Some shots are so tricky so I doubt and it takes me too long time to come to a conclusion that it was a highball. Sorry about that.

Many years ago I was sensitive about rude behavior of coaches. I see that some level I referees quit refereeing because of this. But now I have become a mentally strong person, thanks to my 3 children, goalball and life experience, so I’ve overcome this challenge.

How do I develop my refereeing skills?

Oh I constantly develop my refereeing skills. I love writing down complicated situations, for example multiple penalties happening all at once, and analyze them step by step – this helps me to automatically take the right decision on court, if they happen.

Another thing – I take one thing at a time and practice it (best to do it in friendly national championships). For example, one day I focus on noise, train my ears to separate any sound from noise – when the noise happened, was it before or after the throw, does it have all elements described in Referee’s manual (excessive and preventing other team from tracking the ball) etc. Another time, for example, I train my eyes to see the position of the ball diagonally or concentrate on player’s habits related to eyeshades etc. Just to train myself to notice many details, to see widely on court.

For many years I was reading goalball rules before each tournament. Honestly! Just to refresh it in my mind. Now refereeing is like an instinct for me – the moment I get on court all words, movements, actions, decisions comes up automatically. But I still read rules sometimes, e.g. the last thing I read was definitions of short ball, dead ball, blood rule, because they happen rarely.

But you know – the best thing to develop refereeing skills is to discuss goalball situations with other referees. I love listening to how other referees think!

How the referees' role has changed and how will it probably change in the future?

In the past everything was more amateur in goalball, in a way life was easier. Often the same people were referees and coaches, managers, even players. Now everything is much more professional, including refereeing.

Referees are more separated from the teams now – we are not allowed to talk to teams in sanctioned goalball events.

In the future we will probably have video recording, maybe even court sensors as additional tools for referees. This would be a big thing in goalball.