After 25 seasons (10 in Illinois and 15 in Oregon) I'm hanging up the whistle. I figure I worked at least 3500 games - probably closer to 4000. My top year I worked 379. Finished my last 3 rec games last night and I went out in a blaze of glory by running a coach. He had the audacity to continue to argue after the stop sign and the first T. Imagine that!
Anyway, I have been asked by a few of you to list my most memorable moments of those seasons. I don't know if mine are any more memorable than yours, but here they are:
1) officiating with my son - this is as good as it gets
2) watching kids in rec progress from 3rd grade to HS
3) helping to grow our rec league to almost 2000 kids
4) working tournaments including HS teams from Canada and Mexico
5) teasing volunteer scorekeepers
6) having the "Mr. T" award named after me by my association after winning it three years straight
7) working with Juulie
8) training young kids to become officials
9) moving our rec league from being "in the red" to being "in the black" during my tenure as Board president
10) meeting all the other great refs over all those years
So now, I'm gonna just sit back and relax. I have two more Board meetings for our rec league and then it's retirement from that also (after 13 years).
I did tell Juulie, however, that I would be available to do evals at her camp this spring - as long as I don't have to put on the stripes.
I wish you all the best. Don't let the howler monkeys get you down.