Stan Kirchhoff has seen a lot of high school sporting events.
He’s thrown flags on a football field for 50 years, blown a whistle on a basketball court for 20 years and shot a track gun at the start line for 20 years. And Kirchhoff is still at it.
Newton’s Kirchhoff was honored in the spring by the Iowa High School Athletic Association for 50 years of service officiating prep sports.
Now, he’s trying to get others involved.
“It’s hard to get young guys involved because the money they get for officiating can go right back into the cost of daycare that you need to be able to officiate,” Kirchhoff said. “The state needs basketball referees pretty bad. There are lots of opportunities in all sports.”
Kirchhoff is still a starter at track meets. He still officiates football games at the sub-varsity level. He also volunteers at the Drake Relays and Iowa High School Track and Field Championships every year.
Kirchhoff spent a lot of his time working with Sully’s Duane Brand, who also received a 50-year recognition award at the annual banquet at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines.
Newton’s Trent Powers and Sully’s Jeff Corbett also received a 15-year award. Powers does most of his officiating damage on the basketball courts while Corbett is a softball and baseball umpire in the summer.
Officiating in Iowa has changed over the years, according to Kirchhoff. Athletic directors no longer set up officials’ schedules. Instead, the new method rests with commissioners of each sport.
Aside from younger officials needing daycare just to be able to officiate games, another hang up for potential candidates may rest with unruly fans who expect every call to be right or not go against their respective schools.
“I don’t think that is the biggest reason, but it probably does scare some away,” Kirchhoff said. “You have to deal with that though. It takes a little patience. I would advise getting an older mentor who can teach you how to control your emotions.”
Kirchhoff is a graduate of Oelwein High School, but he has been in Newton since 1960. He taught physical education and coached in the Newton school district for 40 years.
He spent his first three years teaching physical education at Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson. The final 37 years of teaching in the district were spent at Berg Middle School.
His decision to not officiate varsity football games rests almost completely with the fact that the rest of his crew retired. Kirchhoff does keep the clock for Newton varsity football home games.
Don’t ask Kirchhoff if any of the thousands of games he has officiated stand out. He doesn’t have a clear answer.
“I have worked too many games to remember,” Kirchhoff said. “Duane Brand and I did football games nearly every night for 25 years.”
To get involved with officiating, Kirchhoff said you can go to any athletic director in the state. They can direct you to where you need to go. There is a test that needs to be taken and passed, and most of the local officials are part of the Des Moines Officials Association.
In NBA news, kudos to two competing television networks for coming together and making a great decision on coverage of the NBA Finals.
Turner Sports has given popular broadcaster Craig Sager permission to be a part of the ABC broadcast of Game 6 on Thursday.
Sager, who has battled leukemia since 2014, will share sideline reporting duties with Doris Burke.
Sager has worked for Turner Sports for 34 years and never worked an NBA Finals game. That changes Thursday.
Contact Troy Hyde
at thyde@newtondailynews.com