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Valentina Dorigo I didn’t know I wanted to be a judge when I was a kid. She started out as a basketball player because she liked it, but the competition was bad, there were very few teams and that was what encouraged her to pursue the sport from this role. “There was absolutely no support for the women’s team, and this exhausted me a little bit, besides I was not very good at playing and then I quit,” said Dorrego.

The pass was upgraded from chopping the ball to observing the rules by a life-long friend of the Valentina neighborhood who was and still is a referee who consulted the regulations. “He told me why he didn’t participate in the judgment session, and he saw how I had the character to do so,” he recalls. There he began to find out how to do this, but that same year there was no training course.

There is no session every year, but depending on the number of referees who attend, the decision is made whether or not to open it. Valentina was not of legal age, and she later found out that this was a requirement to take the course, so she had to wait. When he was 18 years old he joined the Uruguayan Basketball Association And he passed the referee course.

Valentina Dorrego started the course in 2006, but got into a quarrel with a teacher who had a difference, “He was in charge at the time and did not succeed,” she explains. But that didn’t stop her, she did it again in 2008 and she agreed with it.

Refereeing began with coaching, in the B2 category, then older DTAs, Metropolitano, and was later promoted to the league. “It seems to me that it was a good time to get to the league that is already in place, because there are also times when surprise promotions don’t give you a try of where you’re going,” said Dorrego.

April 13 Valentina And the Vivienne Garcia s Alejandra Godoy Fulfill a dream career: Three women ruled first. “If the person in charge of the oath is encouraged to make a female shortlist, it is because he has another boss.”

Difficulties and challenges

One of the difficulties a judge raises when dedicating himself to this profession is physical. “I am in a constant struggle to be in good health, and we are pushing for training,” he explained. Referees have specific training by the union stipulated in the labor agreement. In this plan, they are provided with a mentor three times a week, and an hour and a half at the Uruguay Basketball Association Training Center (CEFUBB). “This is what the federation gives us as training, but the ideal is that we train more and more time,” said Dorrego.

The second difficulty is of a more personal nature, and according to the judge, his personality is one in which he has some control and which at times did not help or harm him. “Being a woman and still encountering a person in an environment that they understand is male, it is even worse, if men are forced into confrontation to pay for it …”.

Valentina explained that in Uruguay you cannot live by arbitration alone. “I manage and manage some companies in different fields, but in Uruguay, it is not possible to live from this. I think this happens to all referees, and so is football.”

His relationship with Vivienne Garcia and Alejandra Godoy

The shortlist that was judged on April 13 was not made up of three judges, but three friends. When Valentina learned that they were going to arbitrate with Vivienne Garcia and Alejandra Godoy, who had had a WhatsApp group called “Tripleta Femenina” for a long time, she was very happy. They have known Alejandra since they were girls because she used to live near their home and they had a group of mutual friends. Vivian met in 2006, when they took the course together and her son, Matthias, is Valentina’s Godson.

“We have a friendly relationship,” the judge said, adding that although the achievement is kind, the fact that he is with friends makes him something more emotional. He declared, “We are confident that every one in her role can perform the role accompanied by another woman, and we do not need a man on the list to do well.”

Criticism and insults

Valentina had to live, like many other women in sports, the stigmatizing view of sexuality. It had happened to him since he started, during the tournament and also when he started judging, he got shouts when he was blaming the players. “Once we were in training and one of the coaches looked at us, we were the women sitting together on the bench waiting to take the test and he said, ‘What’s the matter, are you all menstruating today? “13 years before that, but it was terrible.” It was smooth and healthy because we were women, “the judge said.

In court, a man and his wife next to him shouted at him: “This is why women cannot leave the kitchen because they come later to the court and do anything.” When Valentina met him outside of court and she replied, “Sir, I am sorry for the women who should be a part of your environment.” Dorrego explained that whenever he has an exchange, he does so “with altitude” because he believes it is the only place one has to interact from. He added, “For a long time I wanted to educate the masses, but I realized that this was not the case.”