Chuck and Mark and everybody else:
Thank you for the congratulations, but is really nothing. When I first became a OhioHSAA registered basketball official for the 1971-72 season at the age of 19, I never thought that in 2004 I would still be wearing a striped shirt and running up and down a basketball court.
To be honest, I knew that I was up for the MichiganHSAA certificate, but really had not given it much thought. The first two years my wife and I were married we lived in Glendale, CA. As soon as the 1980 Olympics were over we moved back to Toledo, OH, were my in-laws lived because my father-in-law had had heart surgery. Since we live only two miles from the Ohio-Michigan border, I just decided to register with the MichignHSAA for no other reason than we lived so close to Michigan.
I never planned on officiating basketball for 32 years; the years just kept adding up. Our sons are 11 and 14, and I am only (get that, only) 52, so my goal is to have my knees last until the younger one is in college so that we can officiate as a three-man crew.
Happy Easter everybody.
P.S.: One other thing: GO BUCKEYES!! BEAT michigan!!
P.S.S.: I should also add that over the last 32 years I have had the pleasure of officaiting all over the country and have made officiating friends (really I have friends) every where I have officiated and that is the most important thing that I have gotten out of officiating.
[Edited by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr. on Apr 10th, 2004 at 08:26 PM]