Most conversations about improving youth sports focus on athletes, parents, and coaches. This one looks at the people everyone else seems to forget — the officials. Dave Hawkshaw is the only Canadian to hold a full-time position as an NFL official. He has officiated over 100 games in the world's top football league after 13 years in the CFL, but his journey started the same way thousands of young Canadians begin theirs — as a teenager at a community park, picking up a whistle because his dad asked him to come out on a Sunday morning.

In this conversation with Scott Rintoul, Dave pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to make it as an official at the highest level: the film study, the flashcards, the zoom calls, the rule tests, the cross-country travel. And he makes the case that officiating is as demanding and as rewarding as any ...