With nothing to deal with on Monday or Tuesday in the world of officiating, it seems I’ve put a wrap on 2024. So why not some thoughts over a cup of coffee?

First, officiating…

Let’s start with officiating — last season in basketball I worked the fewest regular season games I can remember — only 30. I was still fortunate enough to be asked back to work at the Kohl Center in March. likely part of a 2-year plan where if I didn’t screw up, I’d get invited back. Our game was close down to the last 90 seconds and was a relatively clean game with zero controversy. I’d love to take credit for any of that, but I’ve seen too many great officials – better than me – get caught up in something controversial out of their control. I know that sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

Again, I worked with 2 officials not on my usual crew, which was fine. One of them was an official who never thought he’d get another run on a state floor. The other was a new-to-state person. I was happy for both of them, they are both good officials who were well deserving. Now I’d like to be in the stands in March watching one or two of my regular crew members out there running a state floor. Do I think I’ve worked my last? Possibly, it’s not up to me. But one thing I’ve learned in the last 10 years is that measuring your season by the last game you work is not productive. I know people will say it’s easy for me to say that after my last decade, but I know I’m in a much better headspace about officiating than I was 15 years ago. Once I’m at a school, I’m amazed at how much I love being there and love working the games. I’m not sure I loved it that much or appreciated it that much when I was younger.

Before I stop talking about hoops, I have 14 games in already this season and I feel the best I’ve felt in years. I’m not exactly sure why, but I’m running the floor easily and am not struggling the next day to get out of bed. As I get older (this is year 38 of pounding the floors), I’ll take what I can get. I never thought I’d work into my 60s, but I can actually see that happening now.

Football season went well. Except for a week where I was out with COVID and Week 9 where I went on an anniversary vacation (which I plan on doing every season if possible), we worked every week. Cutting back on the lower level games, working some Thursday varsity, and watching more film weekly had us more engaged as a crew than I felt in a couple of years. We worked all but 1-2 games on turf and we ended in Level 3 this season with a well-worked (in my opinion) game. This is the 12th year in a row we’ve worked at least 2 postseason games and finished at L3, L4, or at Camp Randall — 12 years ago, I would’ve never predicted this kind of run and I’m grateful to my crew for working hard every game and for sticking with it (and us) year after year. It would be easy to think we couldn’t improve from this, but we watch film with that mindset every week. 3 of us have been together now for about 20 years with the “newer” two making our crew better day in and day out.

Last night at dinner we were talking about our favorite sports to work and my answer was “what season are we in?” During hoops I love hoops, and during football I love football.

As far as baseball is concerned, I’m done. I worked about 30 years of HS ball, 16 years of college ball, and did Little League for about 20 years. Was fortunate enough to work with someone who became one of my best friends and went to Appleton twice. I kinda knew it was over when I really didn’t enjoy myself at the Little League World Series, although a lot of that was outside my control. Then I came home and was talked into covering a high school game here in town and I couldn’t wait for the game to be over — I felt that way in the second inning. I can’t put my finger on it — for years it was my first love, my favorite sport to work, but things changed for me. The only advice I would give officials about hanging it up is that they should do it when it’s no longer fun. Also, working 3 sports all year round takes a toll — physically, mentally, etc. and the best thing I did was take 5 months of my year and clear the calendar.

Now onto assigning…

This is my 11th year as a conference commissioner and, thankfully, I have someone to help now as an associate commissioner. He’s assigning and scheduling football, baseball, and softball at a minimum and just that is putting us in a place where I can breathe a bit more and make sure we stay ahead of things in the other sports.

We talk frequently about the officiating shortages, but I think there’s just less participation in athletics overall. More co-ops are being formed, schools are cancelling their lower level programs, and some schools realize that they can’t even honor their existing schedules. I’m not sure it’s possible to put a finger on exactly why, but some obvious things are (1) the specialization of sports reducing the numbers of multi-sport athletes, (2) the fact that kids don’t want to be spending months practicing and playing every day, (3) and the fact that many people want instant gratification — if they’re not going to play/start, they’re packing it in. We see (3) in college sports and the transfer portal — so many kids transfer for better playing time or more NIL money.

Back to assigning — from a raw numbers standpoint, I have no issue filling our 315 varsity basketball games. And I know we have more in the Trailways than any other conference in Wisconsin (we have 46 varsity teams – 23 girls, 23 boys). But I will say that there are officials and crews who work varsity games who likely could use more seasoning at lower levels, but we have games to fill — and we’re going to hire who we need to hire to get the games played. Back in 2014, I made decisions on who to hire based on my perceived quality of those officials/crews and I could be more choosy. These days (and the pandemic accelerated this) it’s about getting games filled. And yet the games go on and the world continues to spin on its axis.

I wish I knew how to recruit and retain officials – I wish I had the magic button or the insight. Every year I go to a few camps/clinics to be a clinician and try to help people who choose to go to improve. Getting new people is much easier than getting them to Year 5, for example.

The WIAA has a new assistant director who has an officiating background and is putting a lot of energy into this effort. I wish him the best and will do what I can to help him. For years I thought I would be great in this kind of role and was actually a finalist in another state for a similar position, but time has passed me by now, I think. At 55, I’m thinking about downsizing my life, not moving to a new place to take on new challenges — then again, given the right opportunity……never say never.

Well, that’s enough “keyboard diarrhea” for a Sunday morning. I’d like to say I’ll be back regularly to update the blog, but who knows….with my daughter playing college softball now (and the first games on February 14), I’ll be busy being a spectator for a few months while I’m finishing out basketball season. But I’ll try to post on Sunday mornings when I have something to say.

I hope all 3 of you that read this have a great 2025.