Cisco Lopez began his refereeing career after a rugby injury led him to study the laws of the game as part of his recovery. In collaboration with our partners at ACME Whistles, we met up with Cisco to chat about his route from player to referee and his latest milestone of rugby sevens Olympic official.
“I started playing rugby in high school in Miami, Florida,” he says.
“My dad, who’s from Juárez – the Mexican side of the US border, has always been massively into sport. So, during the 2011 Rugby World Cup he searched for rugby clubs near us.
“He found a club five minutes down the road from us, so I started playing there while my dad started helping to coach. I had previously been doing a lot of skateboarding and other solo stuff that had nothing to do with the field and had never played a contact sport before, so it was a whole new experience.”
After a hip injury that Lopez puts down to “not being fit enough”, he decided to read the law book to learn more about the game while he rehabilitated.
“I didn’t know much about rugby at that time,” he said.
“I was still going to practice because my dad was a coach so I thought if I read the law book I could stay involved in the game and be part of the club instead of just being on the sideline watching.
“I found it really interesting and fun so, when a referee didn’t show up to my brother’s under 14s game, everyone looked at me and said seeing as I knew the laws better than anybody else there I should officiate.
Despite not being certified as a referee, and aged only 16 years old himself, Lopez found himself refereeing his first ever match.
“I had no kit with me, so I remember wearing a double XL British and Irish Lions jersey, cargo shorts and someone lent me their trainers,” he recalls.
“My dad had a whistle I could use and off I went. It was super fun trying to mimic some of the big referees of the time like Steve Walsh, Craig Joubert and Nigel Owens. I remembered where I’d seen situations happen before in rugby and how the referee managed them, and it was really entertaining for me.”
It was this first foray into officiating that spurred Lopez on to become a certified referee.
“I was really young,” he said.
“Getting paid for refereeing at the weekend was cool to me at the time and I was playing and refereeing simultaneously whilst in high school.
“When I went to college, I decided to commit to refereeing full time rather than playing because I weighed all of 135 pounds and attempting to tackle guys who are probably 180-200 pounds and thought I’d probably end up getting a serious injury.
“I found refereeing to be very fun, so it was easy to make the transition to doing it full time and leaving playing behind.
“From there USA Rugby picked me up on their pathway for sevens young referees and it’s been slowly building momentum.”
It was witnessing a qualifier World Cup match and seeing test rugby close up that spurred Lopez on to become a referee at one of the big tournaments, culminating in him being the first US referee to ever officiate at The Olympics this year.
“The Olympics was such a special thing to be able to be part of,” Lopez reflects.
“Definitely a dream come true. I remembered when I was a kid and I couldn’t even imagine being on the series nevermind thinking I’d one day get the call telling me I was going to the Olympics.”
When asked what advice he would give to anyone wanting to get into refereeing, Lopez had some good tips.
“First of all, try it,” he said.
“If you have a go at facilitating community level rugby games first, you’ll find it can be quite special and showcase how you can contribute to the community that rugby provides.
“If you’re somebody who wants to challenge themselves then refereeing is addictive because you can always improve, and you’re never going to have a perfect game and will make mistakes.
“Sometimes the art of refereeing is ensuring that those mistakes are not in the big moments of the match.
“I used to be shy, and refereeing has developed my personality so that I can give my opinion more freely and be slightly more outspoken which is one of many transferable skills that comes from refereeing.
“You can’t have a game without a referee so being that person in the middle is a big responsibility but is also really cool.”
For more information on refereeing and to get started, visit www.acmewhistles.co.uk