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Good News in Officials Recruitment, Hockey
May 22, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The MHSAA continues to explore ways to interest and invite potential officials to join the ranks of those who play massive roles in administrating our games all over the state.
A few recent efforts have produced excellent results and ideas for the future.
On Saturday, longtime officials Brian Morley and Bruce Moore, along with the Bay Metro Officials Association, hosted at Grand Blanc High School a free clinic for those interested in becoming basketball referees.
The MHSAA also set up a table at the event and provided free registration for attendees – and 31 signed up with the MHSAA on the spot. The Association’s in-person presence at the clinic also gave attendees an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the next steps after taking part in the training.
All 31 will be first-time basketball officials, and most registered to officiate for the first time in any sport.
More great steps came April 29 as the Jackson Area Officials Association introduced the avocation to more than 30 aspiring officials at a meeting that also was designed for anyone interested in becoming an MHSAA basketball official.
Bill Walker, an organizer of the event and official for more than a decade in his area, said eligible Legacy Officials at the meeting were assigned mentors, and all attendees committed to attend a June clinic at Jackson College. Those leaving the area for college this fall were provided with officiating contacts in the communities where they will be attending school.
The upcoming clinic, free of charge and organized by Walker and Jackson College women’s basketball coach Heather Brown, will provide “real game” work for attendees as they receive training and mentoring.
Michigan Center coach and teacher Lisa Haynes and officials Jason Smith and Chuck Sprang also play instrumental roles in the JAOA recruiting effort.
O-K honors with new hockey divisions
This is older news in the Grand Rapids area, but definitely worth a statewide mention. The Ottawa-Kent Conference traditionally has named its hockey divisions Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3, but has selected names to honor past contributors beginning with the 2018-19 season.
One division will be named after Ron Baum, a longtime coach at East Kentwood and the second winningest in MHSAA history. Another division will be named in honor of late Grandville standout Ryan Fischer, also a member of the MHSAA Student Advisory Council, who died in his sleep the night before his team’s Division 1 Semifinal in 2014. The third will be named for late official Dave Rue, who died in 2017 after a fight with cancer and was beloved in the hockey community.
Retiring official recognized
Also in hockey, Jenison took a few minutes to pay a touching tribute to official Ray Sheahan on the ice before his final MHSAA game – he retired at the end of this winter from high school hockey after 22 years as an MHSAA registered official.
Sheehan also has been involved in mentoring officials at various youth levels in the Grand Rapids area with an impact reaching far past high school rinks. Check out the tribute below:
PHOTO: Aspiring basketball officials listen in during a meeting with the Jackson Area Officials Association on April 29. (Photo courtesy of the JAOA.)
![Football Officials](/sites/default/files/2021-10/211022_officials_2H.jpg)
Working Together to Give Teams Their Best, Dechow & Crew Win Every Time Out
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
October 22, 2021
Football historians can debate this forever.
Tonight at Rodes Field in Kingsley – perhaps for the first time in Michigan High School Athletic Association history – three teams with perfect records will meet each other on the same football field in the same game.
Two of them, Traverse City St. Francis, and Kingsley, are playing for the right to boast of an undefeated regular season and an outright conference championship. The third team and its captain — better known as the referee crew — has already been assigned a first-round playoff game by the MHSAA.
Where they will go hasn’t been determined, but Joe Dechow’s crew knows it will referee at least two rounds this postseason. The veteran crew already has assignments from MHSAA but just like the schools, the crew is waiting for the postseason pairings to be announced Sunday.
Dechow, the crew leader and an MHSAA 41-year veteran official, will put on his white cap and be ready for the 7 p.m. kickoff tonight knowing Kingsley/St. Francis is a big, big game. Dechow’s crew members will go into kickoff confident they know at least one team that will win, just like every game they’ve done together for about the last 20 years are so.
“We always win,” Dechow jested.
But how officials define their victories is different, Dechow explained.
Taking the field with Dechow tonight will be umpire Joe Johnson, back judge Roark Pargeon, line judge Brett Spalding, head linesman Jeff Bretzke, side judge Peter Moss, and field judge Rick Zych. All seven officials worked together in the Betsie Valley Officials Association for many years and have continued together as a crew with the Northern Sport Officials Association after the two combined a few years ago.
“We don’t win or lose, but we’re a still a team,” he said. “One of the great things about working with the same guys for years and years is you know where people are going to be, and you know how they’re going to take care of things.
“It is a trust factor, ‘cuz it’s a team.”
Dechow’s team has taken the field every week for decades for the benefit of student-athletes. Moss has been an MHSAA registered official for 44 years. Spalding and Zych have been registered 36 years. Bretzke, Johnson and Paragon follow with 22, 20 and 16 years of MHSAA service, respectively. All officiate at least two sports.
Dechow was on the wrestling and football teams at Maple City Glen Lake High School. Upon graduating, he started officiating wrestling — at the age of just 18.
“That got interesting, you know, because you go from a player to a ref all at once and all these old coaches are looking at you like ‘Who are you, kid?’” Dechow recalled.
Dechow has been officiating football for 36 years and was a registered wrestling official for 15. There have been a few times he’s considered giving up the white cap that signals he’s the game’s referee. (The white cap originated to benefit television viewers for college and the National Football League.)
The referee has general oversight and control of the game. Dechow is the final authority for the score, the number of a down in case of a disagreement, and all rule interpretations when a debate arises among the other officials. He’s also the only official who wears a white hat; all the other officials wear black hats.
The “white hat” also announces all penalties and confers with the offending team’s captain, monitors the quarterback area during the game, requests the linesmen to bring the yardage chains in for first down measurements and notifies the head coach of player ejections.
Dechow was ready to put his white hat down for a while when he first attempted to give up refereeing due to family and career demands. He was planning to get out and was asked to help another crew for a “few” games.
“I was going to just do a couple of games, and then somebody else quit and I wound up getting back into it,” he said. “There was another white hat that had left just before the season started … so all of sudden I started hearing ‘Do you still have a white hat? Would you like to maybe …’
“So I did.”
Dechow’s crew has seen a lot of changes in MHSAA football during their careers. Rules to improve safety have been their favorites. They have also seen the addition of 8-player football and the use of two-way radios.
But it’s positive changes in sportsmanlike conduct among players, coaches and fans Dechow excitedly singles out.
Everyone, Dechow notes, is noticing the lower number of recruits joining the current officials in all MHSAA sports.
“More people appreciate the fact that we have to be out there, and we’re not out there to get anybody,” he said. “By and large the coaches are great.
“Of course they are emotional and of course they are pulling for their team and they’re going to argue for the right outcome for them,” he continued. “Over the last several years we have seen an absolutely marked change in people – spectators, players and coaches — all providing a lot more respect the officials.”
The crew had tonight’s game on its schedule at the beginning of the season. The guys couldn’t help looking ahead to how big a game it could be.
St. Francis coach Josh Sellers and Kingsley coach Tim Wooer probably had a better idea of how big a game it could be when they — and football enthusiasts all over Northern Michigan — likely circled it on the calendar. Kingsley won last year’s match 36-23 at Thirlby Field, the Gladiators’ home turf.
This year the Stags host with the Northern Michigan Football Conference’s Legends division championship on the line.
“Sports mean a lot to kids,” Dechow pointed out. “They meant a lot to us.
“That’s why we’re out there.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) “White hat” Joe Dechow talks things over with crew members Roark Pargeon (left) and Brett Spalding during this season’s Mancelona/LeRoy Pine River varsity football game. (Middle) Those three plus Jeff Bretzke (middle) and Joe Johnson (second from right) huddle up. (Below) Dechow and Johnson confer with Mancelona coach Dan Derrer. (Photos by Miles Postema.)