Like many of us, for nearly eight months, Furman South has largely been idle.
Employed as an NHL referee, the native of Sewickley hasn’t worked a game since all of hockey was brought to a halt in mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Had South pursued his first choice of careers, he would probably be a lot busier.
“It’s definitely crossed my mind a couple times had I gone down that route, what I’d be doing right now,” said South, who graduated from Robert Morris in 2012 with a degree in biology.
“There’s so much need right now for medical help and medical attention, that had I been a doctor now, what would life be like right now? Being home with the dog and doing home improvements, I definitely wouldn’t be doing that.”
South was accepted to the Philadelphia College of Medicine in 2013, but weeks before he opted to a possible life in sports medicine or orthopedics, South decided he wasn’t through with hockey just yet.
Having grown up in Western Pennsylvania watching the great Penguins teams of the 1990s, South’s journey to the NHL isn’t all that different from the handful of players who have reached that level, even if he wears a different uniform.
Watching Mario Lemieux and company dazzle with the Penguins’ first two Stanley Cup teams, South was inspired to take up the sport. His father, also named Furman, took him and his brother, Colin, to Mt. Lebanon Rec Center for skating lessons. That was followed by games at Airport Ice Arena in Moon and Island Sports Center on Neville Island.
South ended up playing for the Pittsburgh Hornets program, the same organization that has produced NHL stars such as John Gibson and Vincent Trocheck. After starring for Quaker Valley, South was scouted to play junior hockey with the Bay State Breakers, a Boston-area team in the now-defunct Eastern Junior Hockey League.
Christopher Horner | Tribune-Review
Quaker Valley goaltender Zach Zinger celebrates with Furman South and Eryk Stunda after Quaker Valley defeated Penncrest, 9-2, in the Pennsylvania Cup A final, April 8, 2006, at Island Sports Center.
That success led him back to Pittsburgh as he was recruited to join Robert Morris’ program, which was still in its embryonic stages during the late 2000s.
“Ended up not really planning on ending up back in Pittsburgh, but that’s just the way it worked out when I got a great offer from (Robert Morris),” said South, 32. “Was excited to come home and play college hockey.”
As a forward, South appeared in 133 games with Robert Morris and put up 31 points over four seasons. After his NCAA eligibility expired in 2012, South finished his education and dabbled in coaching with the Quaker Valley Hockey Association.
He didn’t mind coaching, but he wanted to skate. And considering the professional ranks weren’t exactly demanding a forward who put up a mere 0.2 points per game during his college career, South’s options for continuing life on the ice were limited.
About two weeks before he was scheduled to begin medical school, South was recruited to attend an inaugural camp staged by the NHL to bring in potential officials.
“It was the first time they held this camp, and it was when they really started actively started trying to find ex-players who were interested in getting involved,” South said. “The composition of the camp was a lot of high-level ex-players who wanted to stay involved in hockey and a couple of the NHL’s existing prospect officials.
“You had to fill out an application. I think it probably ended up being a camp of about 70 or so. They got us all together, put us through some physical testing, some on-ice skating testing, conditioning. We also played a little hockey tournament among ourselves and took turns officiating that. But it was really just an opportunity for guys like me to get our feet wet. Kind of learn about the profession, see if it’s really something that we really want to get into and meet a lot of those involved.”
South eventually got hired to referee at the junior level, first in the North American Hockey League and the higher-tier United States Hockey League.
“My experience in the junior leagues, I think, was very important because that style of hockey, you run into a lot of unusual circumstances or things that you won’t see at the professional level that kind of get you ready and help you learn and gain confidence so you are ready for the next level,” South said.
The next level was the American Hockey League, the top minor league in the world.
“Once you start to get your feet wet at the professional level, you’ll learn things that are different from the junior levels because you’re dealing with men and professionals that are doing this for a living,” South said.
By the start of the 2016-17 season, South had signed his first contract as an NHL referee, albeit with part-time status. That meant he spent the bulk of the campaign at the AHL level.
But by the late stages of the season, South made his NHL debut, working Game No. 1202 of the NHL’s 2016-17 schedule between the Vancouver Canucks and Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz., on April 6, 2017.
RMU Athletics
Current NHL referee Furman South spent four seasons as a forward with Robert Morris University.
“The way they tell us our assignments is simply an email from the scheduler with a list of assignments for however long they’re scheduling that segment,” South said. “We got to the end of the season, and there was only the last week of the season to get scheduled out. They ended up releasing the schedule, and myself and a couple of the other guys weren’t scheduled for a game, which was a little bit of a bummer, but your first year under an NHL contract, you have nothing to complain about. You’re living the dream.
“We got a second email from the scheduler a day or two after, saying, ‘Hey guys, don’t book your travel yet. We’re still working on shuffling a couple of things around.’ That’s when I got a little excited. A couple of days later, I ended up getting the email that I was going out to Phoenix for my first NHL game. Just seeing that email was a very exciting moment.
“There’s definitely times where there’s definitely some kind of lonely times, especially in the minors where you’re doing a lot of driving time by yourself and stuff like that. A lot of travel on your own. … Sometimes, it’s more of grind than others, but for the most part, I do really enjoy it. I like to travel.”
Arguably, no officiating role in sports has greater demands physically than those placed on hockey referees or linesmen.
First, the skating. Unlike virtually every player, aside from the mostly stationary goaltender position, officials must skate for an entire 60 minutes or more.
“Fitness is the biggest thing now,” South said. “We’re on the ice with the best skaters in the world, and we have to keep up with them for 60 straight minutes every night. If you’re not in shape and you can’t skate, then you’re not going to be where you need to be to see what you need to see. That’s probably the biggest thing. (The NHL) is big on fitness, and I take my fitness very seriously.
“I’d say fitness and nutrition are the big things. Making sure you’re well-rested, which can be difficult with all the travel. Listening to your body. Know when you need to take it easy, know when you can take a workout. All that stuff helps you mentally too. You have to be there mentally for 60 straight minutes. No one cuts us a break. If you zone out for one minute and miss something, no one cares if you were bad for just one minute. All those things go together.
“I actually caught a puck in the mouth from (Capitals forward Alex) Ovechkin,” South said. “I ended up with six stitches. The linesmen do most of the grunt work, breaking up the fights and scrums. For me and the referees, the biggest thing is just skating. Being able to read the play and move effectively and efficiently to stay out of the way. Staying out of the way and being able to have good sightlines is a lot of the job. So staying fit, working on your skating, your agility, your quickness, those are the biggest things for me. “
Sound professional relationships with players are paramount as well. After South was injured in November, Ovechkin expressed immediate concern for South’s well being.
“Me being one of the young guys, that’s something I work hard at, trying to build those relationships,” South said. “The better relationships you have with the players, the more they trust you when they need to. You never want to not be trusted by players. They might not always agree with you, but if they trust you and respect you, in the long run, it’s a better relationship, and that’s better for everybody.”
A strong relationship with a player or coach can make a bad call easier to stomach for both parties.
“You make the call, and sometimes you end up knowing it’s not the best call,” said South, believed to be the only native of Western Pennsylvania to serve as an NHL official. “You can’t let it weigh on you and affect you for the next call. Then things start to snowball. That’s when it turns into a really bad night. You just need to make the call and forget it.
“I find that in those situations, it’s good to own up to your mistakes, to talk to the player and tell him, ‘Hey, that might be a soft call. That’s my bad.’ Or say to the coach something along those lines. When you own up to it and admit your mistakes, that’s when you kind of build that trust, build that rapport. Let them know you’re not going to lie to them, you’re not going to try to pull one over. You’re going to be a man and admit when you were wrong and be better the next time.”
South and his colleagues regularly receive feedback on their performances from the NHL.
Getty Images
Referee Furman South of Serwickley skates to get water after being injured in the first period of the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers game at Madison Square Garden on November 20, 2019 as Capitals forward Tom Wilson looks on.
“We have a group, we call them officiating managers,” South said. “Their job is to travel around and go to the games and coach, evaluate and teach. Me being one of the younger guys, I probably have them at my games more often than the more veteran guys. I probably had a manager at half my games (in 2019-20) as an in-person coach and teacher and evaluator. But there’s so much technology now that somebody is watching every game. There’s so much video and camera angles, that you can’t really hide from being evaluated.
“We have a video tool that we can log into after every game and watch the penalties that we call. There will also be a group of tagged videos of like marginal plays that could have gone either way. That’s something we can use to self-evaluate and kind of learn from. There’s definitely a multitude of ways that we’re evaluated and coached, whether it’s by management or self-learning.”
These days, South’s biggest concern is trying to figure out when he’ll work his next game. Not selected for the NHL’s postseason tournament staged in August and September, South has been trying to find a way to occupy his days.
South and his wife, Whitney, adopted a golden retriever March 11, one day before the NHL halted play because of the coronavirus, and that has occupied a substantial portion of his time.
He has also taken on coaching duties in part to get some much-needed ice time.
“From the time of my last game to when I (resumed skating), it was like 10 or 12 weeks that I had not been on the ice,” South said. “That was, without a doubt, the longest in my entire life that I had gone without skating. Recently, the last couple of months, I had been able to on the ice once or twice a week. I have a couple of kids that I give hockey lessons to, and I get out (on ice) with them. Then I either go early or stay later just to get some skating and stay sharp.”
Where South, or his peers, will be physically when the NHL or AHL resume play will be anyone’s guess.
South just wants to get back on the ice.
“I can go out and skate and work on my edges and I feel fine,” South said. “But I’m going to need a couple of games to get my game legs back and really experience that speed and intensity. That’s going to be hard to judge until we get out there with the real games.”
Seth Rorabaugh is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Seth by email at srorabaugh@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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