[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Mark, Jr.'s third year of officiating and I am his chauffer and valet for boys' JV game and I am not his partner for the game. We leave for the game and my "better half" asks me why I am not taking my bag in case his partner does not show up. I tell her with confidence that I am sure that he will be there.

We get to the game site. And Mark's partner (neither Mark nor I have ever officiated with him and do not know him) is still not there and it is 20 minutes before game time. The AD doesn't have Mark's partner's cell phone but Mark does and we call it. His wife answers the phone and tells us that he is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer at that very moment and she thought that she had notified all of this assigners that he was not officiating anymore.

Mark, like the good official that I had taught him to be, had a second shirt which I wore along with one of the extra whistle and lanyard he had packed. The AD found me a pair of sneakers in the lost & found box in the gym teachers office and I wore the khaki slacks that I had worn to the game. The sneakers were low cuts so my right ankle was sore after the game but we got it done.

MTD, Sr.

P.S. I have always taken my bag after that when I go to watch him officiate. And there have been two other occasions since then when I had to fill in as his partner.