Are they out of their minds?
This is a fair question for the men and women who officiate Colorado high school basketball.
“Sometimes I wonder, I really do wonder,” said Debra Schamber, who has been a referee in Colorado for 19 years.
The 49-year-old mother graduated from Manual High School the year before girls basketball became a sanctioned sport in 1976. She is representative of this unique part-time profession that marks its members with black-and-white striped shirts defying fashion sense and requires them to possess unrivaled patience.
Those who enforce high school hoops rules run up and down the court with teenagers, dodging them along the way. They carry a whistle and are willing to use it. They accept payment that might not cover their gasoline costs in return for about two hours of potential attitude, criticism, glares and personal insults involving their size, facial features, background, eyesight, hearing, family members, race and breath.
Being correct without exception or bias is mandatory. Their most noteworthy goal is going unnoticed.
Help is wanted: Applications are available at the Colorado High School Activities Association office in Aurora.
“It’s not for everyone,” said Tom Robinson, CHSAA assistant commissioner.
Who wants this job?
Jeff Maxey, who graduated from high school in the spring of 1981 and has officiated since the following fall, admitted it: “Yeah, I guess we’re a little nuts.”
Lots of whistles
Robinson, a former teacher and coach at Regis High School and football official in the Mountain West Conference, joined the CHSAA in 2000, primarily to implement programs to improve all high school sports officiating. Officials are particularly visible in basketball, a game with the second-tightest playing surface of 10 team sports. Benches filled with players and coaches line a side and fans are close enough to tell what flavor gum is chewed.
“For the most part, we get done what we need to get done and we do it well,” Robinson said. “Generally, we get good feedback.”
Doherty boys coach Dan McKiernan, who began in the 1960s, has dealt with enough officials to fill a government.
“The ones I know take a lot of pride in what they do,” he said. “I respect the heck out of them. I’m satisfied when our kids play well and they probably have the same satisfaction when they felt they did a good job.”
And a it’s big job. Robinson employs 1,276 officials, including 110 women this season. He used a pool of 96 for the state tournament’s final rounds Wednesday through Saturday at four sites hosting competition for 10 boys and girls titles.
Each official has access to a website to confirm scheduling. Two-person crews are paid $52 per official, with three-official crews taking in $44 apiece. Their performance might be videotaped. They attend multiple meetings in the regular season, camps in summer, and are encouraged to exchange information about how to best serve the schools that pay their fees.
They come from all walks
Referees are people, too. They have families, homes and careers. Their interests include remaining part of high school sports, giving back to kids and their game.
“It’s the game I love the most – the greatest in the world,” said seven-year official Rudy Robinson. “Some guys go drinking at night or on the weekends. We as officials do basketball.”
Although dominated by educators and former athletes, referees run the gamut. Robinson works for Budget rentals. Schamber was a full-time mother. There are lawyers, doctors and a dentist. A loan officer, bank president, law enforcer, insurance salesman, engineer, CPA, auditor, electrician, broadcaster and computer software whiz. Dino Coniglio sells tape – “stuff that sticks,” he said – and Maxey toils on a family dairy.
They must have flexible hours and be willing to drive. Maxey, based near Greeley, drives anywhere from Boulder to Wray near the Nebraska line, and drove 1,000 miles last month all for the right to take more abuse.
In addition to quick mental reactions, referees must be physically fit and prepared. Stretching, exercising and whirlpool use are recommended.
“You need those milligrams of Advil to get through that two hours,” Rudy Robinson said.
Colorado refs’ ages run from the 20s to the 60s.
“It’s a way for me to stay involved in sports with the kids and stay in shape,” Schamber said. “I’ll do it as long as I can.”
The CHSAA hopes that’s a long time. The association is stretched for certified officials in all sports. Coniglio said basketball officials often give up their whistles three to five years after slipping them over their heads. Some make the jump to small college basketball where the money is better.
Hey, ref!
High school referees are the first ones off the court, not by coincidence. They perform in front of a handful of followers to thousands of fans, but remain lonely in their craft. They must be as neutral as Switzerland, as decisive as a court order. Elephant-thick skin helps, but don’t be fooled – they hear you.
“You kind of smile to yourself,” Schamber said of some of the more humorous rants.
Players usually are respectful, Coniglio said, but coaches and fans are a different breed. When a coach asks if Coniglio saw what happened the last time down the floor, he defuses it: “Coach, I can’t remember the last time down the floor … or I’ll look harder,” he said.
All Mullen boys coach Porter Cut- rell hopes for is consistency and a good attitude.
“If it’s ticky-tack, call it the same way,” Cutrell said. “And come in with some personality, don’t come in here angry.”
Referees refuse exchanges with fans. Coniglio can only roll his eyes. “I like the guy who yells, ‘I drove all the way to see this?”‘
While a ref must watch everything on the court, official Colby Chaney, a former Green Mountain player, said everyone else in the gym is watching the ball and has his or her own interest at stake. Many comments reveal fans’ ignorance of the rules.
“If you’re going to say anything, at least know what the rule is,” Chaney said.
Lines have been crossed.
“I don’t mind a lot of it,” Coniglio said, “but some of it can get mean and really intense. I’ve heard racial slurs, and there’s no place for that. It’s not right.”
Referees also despise blowouts and games with scant fans. Contrast that with a packed house at a historic site such as Manual High’s Thunderdome in inner-city Denver.
“It’s tough, but at the Thunderdome on a Saturday, there’s nothing better,” Coniglio said.
No matter what happens, Rudy Robinson said, it’s about kids, fun and being involved.
Plus, he added, “We’ve got the best seat in the house.”
Neil H. Devlin can be reached at 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com.
Zebras by the numbers
A snapshot look at Colorado high school basketball officiating:
1 1/2 Average hours of a game
20s-60s Range of age for referees
$44 Wage referees earn on a three-person crew
$52 Wage referees earn on a two-person crew
96 Referees used the past four days for final rounds of the Colorado tournament
110 Women referees in 2006-07 season
1,276 Total referees this season
THANKLESS TASK
Those who frequent Colorado high school basketball wouldn’t be too quick to put on a striped shirt and grab a whistle:
“I don’t know that they pay them enough. I wouldn’t do what they do.” – Blaine Engdahl, Arvada police officer and a resource officer in Jefferson County
“I would never take an official’s job. I don’t understand what motivates them to do it. It’s got to be one of the toughest jobs in the world. You’re always wrong with half of the people there.” – Mitch Conrad, Ralston Valley boys coach
“Coaches are great debaters. We like to argue things and we like to ask what happened. As long as they communicate with you, as long as they come over and talk to you, that will usually squelch the fight or the argument or the this or the that. It’s when they ignore you and think they are above talking to you, that’s when we really get infuriated.” – Mike Croell, Broomfield girls coach
“If they are calling the game well, then everybody’s happy. But you like to see the kids play rather than have them call fouls, senseless fouls, every minute. You like to see a rhythm going. If it’s a blatant foul, they should call it. But I can’t claim to know all the rules myself, so I can’t really get on them.” – Mary Schaffer, mother of Mark Schaffer, D’Evelyn guard
“I’ve had a couple of kids on my team this year be on the officials and I don’t like that, I don’t believe in that. They get yanked right out and have a little chat because it’s my job to talk to the officials, not theirs. It’s their job to play the game.” – Caryn Jarocki, Highlands Ranch girls coach
