The first time Frankie Billingsley went to an umpire clinic and looked around the room, it didn’t take long for her to realize that she was the odd woman out. At 24 years old, she was younger than most of the attendees, but in addition to her youth she quickly saw that she was the lone female in a group of more than 100 aspiring officials.

A competitive softball player growing up and continuing to play into adulthood, Billingsley had a softball umpire who urged her to attend the clinic, encouraging her to give umpiring a go. To start that weekend training session, in a packed high school cafeteria with the participants gathered together, the emcee of the event asked each of the first year attendees to stand up and introduce themselves. From the jump, Billingsley called it like it was.

“I was the last one to introduce myself and I looked around, and said, ‘My name's Frankie Billingsley, and I was asked me to come,’ I looked around and said, ‘and I think I understand why I’m here.’”

Though the officials working her own softball games had almost always been men, it hadn’t dawned on her that this was a result of a shortage of female officials at the time. Immediately upon the realization, Billinsgley knew she wanted not only to become an official, but also to become part of the change.

“At that time, softball had just as many women playing, if not more than men,” she recalled. “And yet there was not one female official in that room which I thought was unbelievable. I really like, ‘Oh my god, this is ridiculous.’

“It was almost like a light bulb [moment], like, ‘Oh my god, now I get why this guy has been bugging me to come.’ Not just because maybe he thought I might like it, that I would be good at it, but they need women.”

More than 20 years later, Billingsley has had a career officiating softball and basketball. Her officiating career has taken her around the world, including to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic games last summer. It’s been a ride. It had also provided an opportunity for her to stay true to that 24-year-old who wanted to help break the doors down for her fellow aspiring female officials. Billingsley has served as a mentor for many women who have come up alongside and after her in the officiating world in Western Canada.

Though those early days weren’t always sunshine and rainbows, she wouldn’t change her journey today.

“It wasn't easy [early on] because as you can well imagine, being the only female umpire for a number of years, there were a number of challenges,” Billingsley said. “But there were also a number of people who were just super supportive and wanted to help, wanted to see me succeed. I don't think it was until I had started to achieve some successes that I started to realize how important it was for me to try to not only stay in the game, but to find opportunities to work with younger women who wanted to try it too.”

After 17 years working at the University of Alberta, and 8 years working at Grant McEwan University, both in Edmonton, Billingsley and her family have relocated to Ontario where she now works at York University by day, and at various courts around the province at night and on weekends officiating. Her work mentoring younger female officials has continued since the move.

One of the women who crossed paths with Billingsley in Alberta and credits her with helping to make the path easier was Joanna Wiegers. Returning home after teaching English overseas, Wiegers, who played basketball throughout her youth, started to play in a rec league for former university players. During a game, she had an exchange with an official over a call she disagreed with and the official told her that if she had so many thoughts about officiating perhaps she should try it herself. This was Wiegers’ own light bulb moment, and like Billingsley, she hasn’t looked back since.

“We have a very tight-knit refereeing community here in Alberta,” Wiegers said. “[Billingsley and I are both] very strong willed and have kind of created an opening, an opportunity for ourselves as well as other females to be successful here in Alberta. Frankie was one of those people that worked with me often and just kind of mentored me as I progressed in my career.”

As a former player, getting to stay connected to the game and have it be her job, although in a much different role than her playing days, has been another plus for Wiegers.

“I never thought that it would bring me into the officiating side of things, [but] I just changed my vision and then I fell in love with it,” Wiegers said.

Like Billingsley, Wiegers has steadily climbed the officiating ladder and now counts seven national tournaments in her resume. One of the things she is most proud of is that her career has continued to flourish and grow after becoming a mother. While it was difficult at first to juggle pregnancy and then getting back into tip-top shape to run up and down the court with the players she was officiating, Wiegers knew she wanted her son, now 10, to see women working alongside men on the sidelines. She also wanted to show women that they don’t have to choose and that they can continue to follow their career aspirations, whatever they may be.

An added bonus to having her son around for the ride has been being able to share her love of the game with him.

“My son, growing up within the basketball community in Alberta, is playing basketball now at a young age,” she said. When her schedule allows, Wiegers also coaches her son’s teams. “It’s one of his favourite sports to play, so it is kind of just a thing that we do together.”

Billingsley also has a young son who has watched his mother work the sidelines, literally, since his earliest days.

“I have a son who's six, and one of my fondest memories was my first national championship at the women's university basketball level,” Billingsley said. “My son was seven months old and he had to come with me because I was nursing. My first world championship in softball, he was 11 months old and I was still nursing, so he came with the Championship as well.”

Billingsley is also proud that her greatest accomplishments in officiating have come after becoming a mother because she wants to serve as an example that dreams don’t stop after welcoming a child.

“I just think it's so surreal actually, all of my national championships [that I’ve worked]l have happened since he's been alive, and almost my entire international officiating career in softball has happened since he's been alive,” Billingsley said.

Billingsley’s own experience has led to her becoming a resource for fellow female officials navigating their own concerns about a career-life balance.

“I want to be one of those people that break that barrier so you don't have to choose,” she said. “You should be able to have it all. When I became a mom and my partner and I talked about it, it was like, ‘I'm going to continue doing these things, maybe not to the same level, but I'm going to keep doing these things.’ And then all of these amazing adventures happened. That's the main message I say to young women, do not ever feel like you have to change. You can be a professional career woman, mother, official, whatever it is you want to do, you just have to work with your support network to figure out what they look like.”

At various tournaments, Billingsley has answered questions and served as a sounding board for fellow female officials who were thinking about their own career paths.

“One of my national championships, there was a younger female on the crew who was just recently married, and she was petrified about what was going to happen if she had children,” Billingsley said. “She took me aside and said, ‘Frankie, can we talk about it?’ I just refereed with her a few weeks ago, and she has a 10 month-old now! It's a big deal for a woman to decide to have a family and try and figure out like, what does that mean for everything that I love to do? I had the same conversation with a Japanese umpire who I was at three different championships with. The last one was the Olympics, and she's also trying to figure out how to have a family [while still officiating]. It's just so great to be able to share those experiences with other female officials to say it's totally possible.“

While Wiegers couldn’t have ever imagined that her career would take her on the journey she’s been on, she credits the people she’s gotten to work with and learn from for giving her the opportunity to develop into the official she is today.

“I've really been very fortunate that I surround myself with very good people and people who have an influence in the game,” Wiegers said. “[I’m fortunate that] I've been able to, you know, be successful on the national level and being in Canada, being female and just having that opportunity to be recognized in both wheelchair and stand up [basketball], I’m also a national umpire, so I do softball as well. I do a lot of officiating.”

Up next for Wiegers is the Commonwealth Games for wheelchair basketball, where she was one of two Canadian officials selected to work the Games. In the longer view, though, she’s always ready and eager for the next step.

“We're not done yet, right?” Wiegers said. “There's so much more to learn, even in the next stage, which is probably mentorship and then referee coaching are kind of the next step. I think I feel like I'm always going to be involved [with the game], whether it's for my son, coaching my son or just watching him play and grow. And I think I still, you know, will continue on with sports regardless, but this journey has definitely been a real positive one. There’s no regrets on my end.”

For Billingsley, the move to Ontario has meant getting acclimated to a new officiating community. It has also given her time to reflect and take note of how much things have changed since that Saturday in that crowded cafeteria where her own journey began.

“So I moved to Ontario and I'm doing a new job, new teams, new coaches, and literally a week ago, I went out to Waterloo and I was working with an all-female crew when one of the coaches came over and she held her arms out and she's like, ‘Awesome,’” Billingsley said. “She walked away, and all three of us were like, ‘Yeah, it's awesome that that happened.’”

As she reflects on her own journey and the steps the officiating world has taken with respect to gender equality, Billingsley is thankful for the assistance she’s had along the way. She is also deeply proud of the work she’s put in to get there.

“I just feel really grateful that I've had such great opportunities,” she said. “I feel like I've earned them. I don't think that I have received them because I was a female. I feel so fortunate. I feel blessed.

“What you put in is what you get out of it,” Billingsley continued. “I think there's still a lot of time and effort and energy to be really good at the craft that I've chosen to participate in. Like I've always said to people when I teach, if you're going to do something, do it like full on, you know? If you're going to do it, really invest yourself in being good at it because then you'll be proud of the effort that you put forward on the floor.”