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Wednesday, October 8, 2008
America’s Dirtiest Job
Houston, TX
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Referee Mark Ideus was working a high school football game at Pridgeon Stadium five years ago, when he saw a holding foul on a first-half play and threw his yellow flag. But Ideus felt as lonely as the Maytag Repairman, as everyone went with the flow of the play and did not see him standing by his spent marker.
Why? Because a linebacker had held a tight end, which allowed a cornerback to intercept the pass intended for the TE. The CB then ran all the way down the field for a 60-yard touchdown with what looked like a presidential motorcade accompanying him, and the defense broke out in the throes of a madcap celebration when their player dashed across the goal line.
But hold the phone.
Ideus (pronounced eye-DAY-us) stood his ground on the other side of the field, and brought the play back. The opposing coach exploded like a Warner Brothers cartoon character, complete with rolling eyes and steam coming through his ears, nose and mouth.
“He screamed for 10 minutes,” Ideus said
Welcome to the life of a referee. But it gets better, or at least this story does.
During halftime, a Harris County deputy entered the refs’ locker room and told Ideus that the coach in question wanted to see him for a minute. The other refs counseled Ideus against the summit meeting, but Ideus knew the coach and walked to where the coach was standing, just outside his locker door.
“He was nervous, looking at the ground and toeing some dirt,” Ideus said. “He called me ‘Mr. Ideus’ and said that he had talked to his assistant coach upstairs (watching the game in the press box) and that I had made a good call. He said that he hoped I wasn’t going to hold it against him in the second half. I told him that I had forgotten about it at halftime. He said good, and pats me on the back, and said to have a great second half.
“All of the sudden, I go from a blankety-blank to Mr. Ideus. I was awful, and then I was the greatest official on the earth.”
It was a somewhat similar sentiment that got at least one other referee into the business. But in the opposite direction. Mike Massey would shout at the refs during youth football games that his step-son attended so often that his wife finally told him to shut up.
“I was one of those parents who you hear screaming and hollering,” Massey said. “A friend of ours had a son on my step-son’s team. That friend, Mike Moore, thought I could go out there and ref. I filled out the paperwork and started the next year. I have been doing this now for 14 years, and Mike and I have been on the same crew for the past nine years.”
High school referees don’t do their jobs for the money. In fact, the pay is so poor, that they all have day jobs. Ideus is a retirred operations manager for Dresser Industries and Massey retired from the Pasadena Police Department after 27 1/2 years, and currently ferrets out insurance fraud with NICB.
Ideus said that he understands about why coaches feel the way they do about referees.
“The thing I always remember is that this is my part-time job, and a passion,” he pointed out. “Yet, for the coaches, it is their full-time job and how they put bread on the table. I expect them to go crazy and be vocal, knowing that they -- usually -- after the game will return back to their regular personality.”
Ideus, 57, has refereed for 32 years, including 27 on the field, has chaired TASO’s Houston chapter evaluation committee for the past five years. A past president, VP and treasurer of the Houston TASO chapter, he tries to see every crew once every two years and every new crew once a year. He and his assistant, Donnie Brown, give feedback on every aspect of officiating.
“I think all of the crews are receptive to it,” Ideus said. “I think Donnie and I do it in a manner that is constructive criticism and we never intend to demoralize someone. Now that I am in the press box (as an evaluator), I see things in a different perspective. One thing I always tell the officials is to bring a VHS tape or DVD in a pre-stamped envelope to give to each home coach and request a copy of each game you have officiated. Watching the game film is the only way you are going to get better.”
Kennie Perry, 43, who works for KBR and is another TASO official, said another way he got better as a ref was to have a mentor. His was Billy Ripley, who many refs hold up as someone to emulate. Ripley told Perry to always look like he was in charge, so that he can have a good relationship with coaches.
“Billy told us how to cover games, what to expect from coaches and players, and which camps to attend to help our skills,” Perry said. “He said to go out there and take command of the field. No matter which stadium you go to, it is your field. And don’t let your calls decide the game – let the kids decide the game.”
That advice worked very well in one playoff game for Perry. He allowed a coach to be himself and he still controlled the game.
“It was the coach from Smithson Valley,” Perry said with a chuckle. “He thought a long pass down the sideline was pass interference and I said it would have been if the ball had not been overthrown. He told me, OK, I’m going to have to play to the crowd, so I’m letting you know that I am going to look like I am yelling at you and then back away. So he shook his head at me, and I shook my head at him and it looked like an argument. Then he turned around to the crowd, which roared, and then he turned back around -- and winked at me.”
Refereeing also has allowed Perry to give back to his community. During one pee wee game that he was officiating, one very tall player kept getting pushed around. Perry told the player that he needed to get lower and use his body as leverage. The player said it was the first coaching he had received.
“The player was Dajleon Farr, who later played at North Shore, where they won a state championship, and then played tight end at the University of Miami. We still talk about that pee wee game,” he said.
Perry said he has since been a voice of reason at many contests without flagging irate players, and has taken many kids aside at a contest and settled them down.
“I will talk to them,” he said. “I tell them you have to play the game the right way, and you can’t win them all, and they respect you for it.”
Massey said that he still gets nervous before games. He especially is nervous when the game is on TV or is a playoff contest.
But nothing compares to the time when he went to officiate a sold-out game between Ganado and Louise, schools that are only a few miles apart.
“There were three old men standing out there in their jeans and cowboy boots (at the Louise stadium),” Massey said. “They called us and we went over. They said, ‘We want you to know, we have six refs buried out behind the barn here. We need you to take care of your business.’ “
Massey said he laughed about the comment, and that it was a good game and things went well.
“But we left town immediately after the game.”•
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