At a young age, Monica Wang’s dad would toss the volleyball to her until she was skilled enough to pass the ball back to him. She jokes that he pushed her to become a setter so he could have someone to reliably set the ball for him to hit. Today, Monica is sharing her passion for volleyball as “The TikTok Ref,” posting entertaining and relatable videos of her day as a Volleyball Official. A TikTok sensation, she’s approached by players at every tournament, who excitedly request a selfie and connect about one of her videos.
“The players are so funny and really make the long days officiating worth it. I love seeing them fall in love with the sport just like I did when I was their age,” said Wang.
Wang played on her school and club teams throughout middle school and high school, and continued to compete for the club team and intramural team while attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After college, she continued to play in adult tournaments, leagues and open gyms. A few years ago, one of her teammates who was a volleyball Official, asked Wang if she wanted to get into officiating because they needed more officials. Wang thought, why not? She was immediately assigned a 13U girls’ tournament the following weekend.
“I remember feeling nervous the whole time; this first tournament was my training and the tournament director helped guide me through it. I think my background in volleyball and knowing how a tournament should go from playing club myself was a huge advantage. I took a chance on it and absolutely loved it. I moved back to Wisconsin a few months later and continued to pursue officiating.”
Now Wang is in her third year as a volleyball Official, and officiates almost every weekend during the club season, multiple times a week during high school season, and has line judged or officiated a few collegiate matches. When she’s not officiating, Wang still plays with friends in adult tournaments, leagues, and open gyms. She’s in her third-year of coaching volleyball, and is the Head Coach for a 16s Girls National team in Milwaukee, WI.
Like any skill, officiating is something one has to actively work on to get better. Wang thoroughly enjoys working on improving her officiating every chance she can. She is always reflecting back on matches she officiated and what she could improve on. She asks fellow officials questions such as, “what would you have done in this situation?”, or “would you have made the same call I did?”.
“I enjoy traveling for tournaments to be able to talk to officials that have been doing it for years to learn from their experiences. After matches I’m looking back on videos. I’ve fixed a lot of my signals that way. For example, seeing if my arm is straight or checking the speed of my signals (things that most non-officials wouldn’t even notice). I’m always trying to be the best official I can be to give the best match for the players since at the end of the day, that’s who we’re here for,” stated Wang.
Wang’s favorite part about officiating is working with and meeting new people, including players, coaches, parents and fellow officials. Something she noticed when she began officiating was that there seemed to be a huge divide between the officials and the teams.
“It seemed like an “us versus the ref” type mentality and teams acted like the referee was out to get them. Personally, when I’m working a tournament, I want to have fun, teach my work team some new things, improve myself to become a better official, and help facilitate a great match for everyone. I don’t think most people see referees like that because, at the core of our responsibilities, we’re here to call teams on their faults (aka, always the bad guy) but can never celebrate their successes. I want to change that mentality. Most of the officials I’ve met all over the country truly enjoy officiating and absolutely love spending their weekends at tournaments. They tell me stories about their favorite matches they’ve officiated, and just appreciate being a part of volleyball in any way they can. They take a lot of pride in officiating a great and fair match.”
@monicavball Tag a teammate who needs help with line judging 😉 #volleyball #vball #tiktokref #voleibol #vballgirls #fyp #foryou #vball4life #vballtiktok #haikyuu #viralvideo #volleyballworld #vbal #vballhighlights #volleyballplayer #volleyballreferee #volley #viral #linejudge #linejudgesareblind #refsareblind ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim
Last year around the middle of club season, Wang made her first “Come Spend a Day with me as a Volleyball Referee” video. She did this to show what it’s like to be a volleyball referee and what is going through her head while she’s officiating a match. Her goal is to make that connection with players to help bridge the gap between teams and referees. She didn’t expect everything that she’s been doing on social media to take off like it did. With almost 73,000 followers on TikTok, her content showcases the positive and fun parts about officiating along with more educational pieces such as rules explanation or tips and tricks with being a part of a work team.
“My ultimate goal is that these players see my videos, relate to them, and envision themselves on the stand. Maybe they’ll fall in love with officiating too and continue the cycle by inspiring some new officials themselves in the future.”
Addison Barber, shown above, is an aspiring Official, who will be attending Oral Roberts to play volleyball. At the JVA World Challenge, she stepped in as a line judge for the VLA Men’s Professional Volleyball matches, and did an outstanding job.
One of Wang’s favorite memories was last year during a high school match. The boys were so excited to have her as their referee and were incredibly engaged with their roles as work team. Their coach was siting at the score table and said to Wang “I love what you’re doing, you’re making reffing cool.” She thought THAT was the coolest thing ever.
“I get parents that come up to me to thank me for officiating their match and being a role model for their kids. I just hope I can be an inspiration for them to continue staying with volleyball, even when they’re done playing for their club or school.”
Officials are a critical component to running a quality volleyball tournament, and Wang has been very impressed with the care and attention to detail that JVA exhibited at the JVA World Challenge in Louisville, KY. “I’ve never been to an event where the tournament staff provided catered lunch AND dinner every single day; typically, it’s maybe one lunch or you’re given a certain allotment stipend to use at concessions or just some snacks in the ref room. This kept it more relaxed for the officials to be able to just come back to the ref room to eat instead of waiting in line somewhere. The schedule was well planned; they had three officials rotating within two courts that mitigated most schedule delays. I believe the most matches I worked in a row was 2 or 3 before I had a scheduled break, which is much appreciated to reset mentally and come back refreshed and focused to officiate a high quality match for the teams.”
The JVA Officials Reward Program is an incentive program to recruit, retain and reward Officials who officiate JVA events. “I’m literally a hoarder for volleyball apparel so the first tier with “JVA Gear” as a reward caught my eye.”
Wang has formed so many friendships through officiating. She was recently coaching at a large club tournament close to home and she knew 90% of the Officials that were there. “Although we’re all different ages and levels of experience, we’re all bonded by the fact that we are volleyball Officials. I’ve made so many meaningful connections and have this great support system of Officials to rely on. Going to volleyball tournaments now feels like a reunion with friends and it always makes me look forward to the next time I’m able to see them.”
Follow Monica Wang on TikTok at @monicavball and Instagram @monicavball for the latest from a tournament near you.
