High school football refs share tales on the field

Brandon Litalien remembers the pass interference call he wasn’t sure he got right — until his mates confirmed that he did.

Josh Behrens recalls his first season being a blur.

Bob Burton has seen just about everything in the nearly four decades wearing the uniform — including the time he was pulled off the football field because a rumored mass murder nearby.

All three got into officiating, in part, as a way to stay active in athletics.

Litalien, a Post Falls High graduate in 2009, is entering his second year as a high school football official.

“For me, it’s just getting back out on the field,” said Litalien, 26, a cornerback during his high school days. “I contemplated coaching football or reffing football. I just wanted to get back out in the game.”

Behrens, who graduated from Skyview High in Nampa in 1999 and moved to North Idaho shortly after attending college, began seven years ago as a basketball official, and has since added duties as a football ref and a baseball umpire.

“I loved sports growing up,” said Behrens, 36. “I tried my hand at coaching high school baseball, and that fizzled after a couple of years. I wanted to stay in high school sports and figured officiating would be a good way to go.”

Burton, a magistrate from 1991-2008 and a senior judge since, started out reffing intermural basketball games while a student at the University of Idaho, and he’s been a high school football ref since 1983.

“It’s just a wonderful experience to be out there with the kids,” said Burton, 67. “Mostly what I enjoy is being with my fellow officials.”

North Idaho has been blessed with talented officials in all sports over the years. Steve Hudson, Steve Currie and Shane Anderson are currently working Pac-12 football games, and Hudson and Currie have done major bowl games. Roger Stewart, the District 1 commissioner, is entering his 16th season as a ref for Big Sky football games, and he also has experience working indoor football league games.

Jim Kravik and Dan Malcolm, now retired, were NCAA Division I football officials.

And Behrens, Chad Duce, Casey Irgens and Jesse Lenz also ref NAIA Frontier Conference football games.

The problem is, there aren’t enough officials to go around.

“There is a critical shortage of officials for all sports in Idaho,” Stewart said. “We are making a concerted effort to recruit and train all officials.”

Ideally, Stewart would like around 60 certified officials for football. They had a low of 39 refs two years ago, but figure to have 45 this year. Three apprentices worked varsity games last year.

“We are looking for people that truly have an interest in officiating and will make at least a three-year commitment,” he said. “The best officials are coachable and want to improve, maybe even move up to higher levels. We have had good success with crossover officials from other sports.”

Anyone interested in officiating football is invited to the annual IHSAA rules meeting, scheduled for Aug. 8 at 6 p.m. at Coeur d’Alene High. This meeting is mandatory for all coaches and officials.

LITALIEN’S UNCLE, Rich Poulson, has reffed football for some two decades, including the state 4A championship game last year. Litalien got the reffing bug, and last year worked high school games as well as Junior Tackle games on Saturday.

An operations systems coordinator for a food service company, Litalien started as a head linesman — on the line of scrimmage, on the side of the field with the chain gang.

“I never really watched officials before, and now when I’m watching football (on TV) I tend to watch the officials more,” he said. “I definitely have more appreciation for refs, now that I’ve done it.”

Litalien remembered his first game, a freshman football game.

“I had a pass interference call in the end zone to give them one more free play at the end of the half,” he recalled. “It was a big call, and I was nervous as heck when I made it. But after making it, the other guys told me it was the right call, that I did a good job, so it kind of was a booster.

“Once you make that first call, it’s like breaking the ice.”

Litalien, who was voted District 1 co-Rookie of the Year last year by the evaluation committee, said his ultimate goal is to ref at the college level.

“He came out as a very polished official,” Stewart said. “Brandon has a huge upside, and may have a future at a higher level.”

BEHRENS PLAYED quarterback at Skyview, then went on to play baseball in college.

A program manager for a mental health company, Behrens started reffing basketball seven years ago, added football the following year, and added baseball the year after that.

He said Jason Lysne, a basketball ref in the area who has worked football games in the past, saw Behrens playing in an adult flag football league in Post Falls, and Lysne was reffing.

“He said you’d be a good basketball official; you should try it,” Behrens said.

Then Behrens got to talking with Kravik, a basketball ref who was also the football commissioner back then, and that’s how he got into football.

Behrens got into umpiring after talking to Frank Garcia, the District 1 baseball commissioner, who was also doing football at the time.

“When you become an official you gain an appreciation for anyone and any sport who is trying to officiate a game,” Behrens said. “It’s definitely eye opening, for sure.

“My first year of football it was a blur, there’s so much going on and you’re trying to watch everything, and you miss a whole lot. It’s not until your second year that you really start feeling comfortable out there on the football field, at least for me anyway.”

As a high school football ref, Behrens started out as a head linesman and line judge — directly across from the head linesman, on the other sideline. He’s also preparing for his second season as a side judge in the Frontier Conference — the side judge lining up some 20 yards down the field on the sideline, responsible for watching the widest receiver on his side and the defensive back.

“Ultimately I’d love to be a Pac-12 official, or any major conference official, really,” Behrens said. “I’ve got some mentors; I know it can happen.”

He said he leans on Currie, a side judge as well, and Hudson, a back judge, a lot for advice.

“It’s just been a lot of fun,” Behrens said. “I enjoy the time out on the field. It’s intense, and it’s a challenge.”

Behrens was voted District 1 football official of the year in 2016 by his peers, “and should move on up the ladder toward a Division 1 career,” Stewart said.

BURTON GREW up on a farm in southern Kootenai County, where the closest town was Rockford, Wash. He graduated from Freeman High, just up Highway 27 from Rockford.

“Nobody seemed to care in those days whether you lived in the state of Idaho or in the state of Washington; it didn’t matter,” Burton recalled.

The guy who ran the intramural department at Idaho was looking for refs for intramural games. Through that, Burton met Dave Fealko, who went on to a storied career as a high school girls basketball coach in Coeur d’Alene. At that time, he was a couple of years ahead of Burton in school, reffing high school basketball. Burton did high school basketball games in District 2 his final three years in college.

After graduation, he taught and coached at St. Maries for two years, then did the same at Freeman for five.

Back at law school at Idaho in 1979, Burton did three more years of high school hoops in District 2.

Burton moved to Coeur d’Alene in 1982, working in the prosecutor’s office. He worked one year as a basketball ref in District 1, but had to give it up when his work schedule made it difficult to get to the basketball games.

“So Dan Malcolm said, ‘why don’t you do football instead?’” Burton said.

So he started doing football games in the fall of 1983. With games on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons, his reffing schedule didn’t conflict with his work schedule.

Officiating crews are bigger now. Back when he started, the smaller schools were three-man mechanics, and the larger schools were four-man mechanics. Now, it’s four-man for the smaller schools, five for the bigger schools.

For most of his career, Burton has been the “white hat,” or the referee, the guy in charge. He lines up behind the quarterback, off to one side, usually the quarterback’s passing hand side.

Also, these days, officials watch more film as part of their evaluation, and “we’ve become a lot better,” he said.

Burton has reffed some college scrimmages. He said he would have considered making the move to college years ago, but realized his work schedule wouldn’t allow him to get away as easily.

This year will be his third year as a replay official for Big Sky Conference football. He is assigned to Eastern Washington home games, where he works with another replay official, who travels with the crew on the field. In that role, Burton’s role is that of communicator, between the replay folks upstairs and in the TV truck, and with the officials on the field. He assists the other replay official in the review process, but ultimately the decision on whether the play stands belongs to the other official.

On Wednesday, Burton, who has worked 12 state championship football games, will be honored in Boise as the Idaho High School Activities Association’s Official of the Year for 2016-17.

TWO OF Burton’s most wild experiences involved games in Sandpoint.

One year in the 1980s, when he was still in the prosecutor’s office, he was the white hat on a four-man crew.

“We were right in the middle of murder trial at the time,” Burton recalled. “The guy involved was a biker, and we’d heard there might be a plan for somebody to try to spring him.”

During the game, Burton heard over the P.A. system, “Bob Burton, please report to the sideline.”

He didn’t pay any attention.

After the next play, the deputy sheriff and Sandpoint High principal walked out on the field and got him.

“They said we’ve heard there’s been a shootout down in your county, and apparently there’s a bunch of people dead,” Burton recalled. “They said it was up by the Spirit Lake/Twin Lakes area. I was envisioning all sorts of things that could have gone wrong.”

Burton called down to his office, and they said they had the situation covered, so he went back onto the field and finished the game, “and my mind was completely elsewhere.”

On the way back down to Coeur d’Alene, Burton and the other officials could see there were some roads blocked off, ambulances out and about. Apparently, Burton said, a man came out of the woods, went to the police station, and told quite a tale.

“We called it the Twin Lakes Massacre, but it really was a figment of this guy’s imagination,” Burton said.

YEARS LATER, Burton was the white hat for a Bishop Kelly-Sandpoint playoff game. Trailing late in the game, the Knights ran a trick play where the ball was snapped to the quarterback, the guard turned around and took a handoff from the quarterback. The guard stood hunched over with the ball, while the other linemen pulled and the QB and backs went with them. When the Bulldog defenders pursued to the outside, the guard snuck around the other end and ran for a touchdown.

Sandpoint argued the play was illegal.

BK still trailed, but recovered the onside kick and drove for the winning touchdown.

“They (the Bulldogs) complained it was illegal for a lot of different reasons,” said Burton, who said he showed them the rule after the game, and was convinced his crew had called the play right. He said the guard had made a complete half-turn toward his team’s goal line, and was at least 1 yard behind the line of scrimmage.

“I wasn’t real popular in Sandpoint for a while, but we did the right thing,” Burton said.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.