And her kids are supportive of their mom’s job.

“If I’m at Penn or Princeton they’ll take a ride down,” Funk said. “They think it’s kind of cool; not all of their friends’ moms are into sports.”

All the work is in the hopes of both maintaining a spot in the Ivy League and landing a spot in other ones.

Smith also officiates in the NBA’s Development League, a veritable fishbowl for players, coaches, and officials looking to make it at the highest level of men’s basketball.

Tieman is looking to be on the staff of the Big East next year, contingent on her performance at the summer camps. Funk is currently officiating in four Division I conferences and would like to add a fifth.

But both of these women show loyalty to the particularities of Ivy League basketball, where the pay and prestige may be lower but also where every game counts.

“The biggest thing from a sports perspective is that [Ivy League basketball doesn’t] have a seat in a conference tournament,” Funk said. “So the Harvard-Dartmouth game in January could have an enormous impact on whether they play in the postseason. Not many conferences have that. Every game is a championship game.”

And despite the high tensions and screams from coaches and the players during intense games, the black-and-whites say they still feel appreciated. The coaches are remarkably professional, they say, and the student-athletes are very polite. As a result, the referees put forth their highest dedication.

“In the 25 years I’ve done this, we’ve never had an official miss a game,” Meier said.

—Staff writer Anita J. Joseph can be reached at ajoseph@fas.harvard.edu.

—Follow her on Twitter @Anita__Joseph.