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Refereeing basketball games is actually really fun
As I went to referee my first basketball games, my wife worried about crazy fans yelling at me.
She has heard the horror stories of fans going after officials verbally and physically around the country. That has helped lead to a huge shortage in officials for youth sports.
She heard about the crazy Missoula fan screaming curse words at Mike Anderson, who is one of the best high school officials the state has ever seen, a few years ago.
I told her not to worry. I have been called worse things than any sports officials by football fans of the Montana State Bobcats, Montana Grizzlies and Carroll College Fighting Saints. (Click here for the podcast version of this column.)
Someone on the website eGriz mentioned my wife and kids while slamming me years ago. The same thing happened with Carroll fans on an NAIA chat site.
One time I visited Pork Chop Johns after a Montana Tech-Carroll College football game and I had an old bag of a Carroll fan accost me because she said I favored the Orediggers.
She was like 108 years old, and she hated my guts. And this was after Carroll won.
In 2003, The Montana Standard got dozens of letters from Bobcat fans demanding that Matt Vincent and I be fired because we poked fun at, among other things, the number of California players on the MSU roster.
I lost count years ago of the number of anonymous letters I got attacking my character, temperament and writing ability because people do not agree with my opinion. Someone sent me a letter calling me an egomaniac and demanding that I step down as executive director of the Butte Sports Hall of Fame — less than two weeks after I was named executive director of the Butte Sports Hall of Fame.
So, with all of these hate comments directed at me from people who just generally do not like the person I have become, there is no way something a fan is going to yell over a split-second decision on the basketball court is going to hurt my feelings.
You do not like that I called a block instead of a charge? Yell away. That pales in comparison to the letter I got for a former Butte lawyer titled “Bill Foley is an a——.”
Yes, I am one of the newest members of the Montana Officials Association for basketball. I took the test and passed a few weeks ago.
Last Friday, I refereed my first high school games — a pair of junior varsity games in Anaconda — after working the Special Olympics and a handful of junior high and grade school games.
I am not going to announce that I am a good official because it is not easy to be a good official. One thing I found out is that it is way easier to make a call from the stands.
I am, however, studying like I have a final in a Mike Laslovich political science class at the University of Montana. I have been reading and watching a ton of YouTube videos.
That is because I want to be good. I plan to be good.
Hopefully, you will see me officiating varsity games in the next couple of years or so. If my old-man hips hold up, that is.
For years, I have been writing about the need for more officials in every high school sport. I always had the excuse that I had to write about the games, so I could not be an official.
After leaving my job as a full-time sportswriter, though, I thought I still had an excuse. I have torn labrums in both of my hips. I am working hard with Diamond Dallas Page Yoga and my exercise bike to try to avoid surgery.
There is no way, I figured, that I could withstand the punishment of running up and down the court to referee basketball.
Enter Mike Parent, my friend and longtime member of the MOA.
Mike sat next to me at Montana Tech’s men’s basketball game against Dickinson State recently, and he worked me like a coach trying to get a call. He was not going to take no for an answer.
My excuse, he said, was invalid.
He was going to make me put up or shut up.
“Look at me,” Mike said. “I’m fat and old and I can still get up and down the court. You can do it.”
Then, Mike lent me his rule book so I could study for the test. After I passed, he lent me his officials manual.
“It tells you where to go before the fans do,” Mike said with a laugh.
Now that I have a few games under my belt, I have to tell you that I am glad Mike was as persistent as a little kid demanding an ice cream cone.
That is because it turns out that officiating is really fun. You get to be a part of the game, and the coach cannot take you out.
Getting to know some of the young players is payment enough, but the payment is even better.
Really, the money you make to officiate is not bad at all.
You get paid $48 for subvarsity and $70 for varsity. That is going to go up to $75 in the next year or two.
Usually, you work more than one subvarsity game. So, counting per diem, you are heading home with more than $100 for each day you referee. At least. For about 3 hours of work.
Screenshot On the Saturday of the Santa Slammer travel tournament in Anaconda, I worked 12 games, and games were spaced 45 minutes apart. At $25 a game, I went home with $300, which was enough to pay for my entire costume, shoes and all.
You telling me that as a college student you cannot use that kind of extra cash? You cannot use it if you are a parent paying for a college student?
The next Saturday, I worked 11 games with the infamous Shawn Wetzel in Dillon, and I took home $275, plus gas money.
By the way, the next Montana Tech auction should include a prize to referee 10 games with Wetzel. It would sell for thousands. We laughed so much that it hurt.
Starting to officiate at my age probably is not ideal. Butte Central basketball legend John Sullivan, one of my childhood heroes, pointed that out to me for the peanut gallery in Anaconda.Yes, I am pretty old to be starting officiating. But, at 48, I’m like eight years younger than Ron Hasquet, another first-year official.
If we can do it, your excuse is probably invalid.
I am sure that I am in for some heckling, like I got from Sully, who helped lead the Maroons to the 1984 Class A State title when I was 10. I am sure there are some subvarsity football referees from Kalispell who would like to see my schedule.
There are probably a lot of readers who would like to yell a thing or two at me as I make my way up and down the basketball court. That’s OK. I can take it.
Just hold off on the anonymous letters.
— Bill Foley, who really is an a——, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com.Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74. Listen to the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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KC basketball schedule
Following is the Knights of Columbus Athletic Club’s four-man basketball schedule for the week of Dec. 12.
Monday
6 p.m. — OFU vs. Parish
7 p.m. — OFU vs. ISOs
8 p.m. — Poi Time vs. Bomb Squad
9 p.m. — Wolf Pack vs. Towel BoysTuesday
6 p.m. — Towel Boys vs. Parish
7 p.m. — Logan’s vs. The Backups
8 p.m. — Logan’s vs. Lacey Agency
9 p.m. — ISOs vs. Bomb SquadWednesday
7 p.m. — The Backups vs. Dream Team
8 p.m. — Towel Boys vs. Poi TimeThursday
7 p.m. — Dream Team vs. Bomb Squad
8 p.m. — Lacey Agency vs. Wolfpack -
Podcast No. 32: Jim Street
Jim Street. Just saying his name reminds you of dominating Butte High wrestling teams.
Street’s Bulldogs won the Class AA State title 15 times. That run includes 13 straight from 1980 through 1992.
He played football, ran track and, of course, wrestled for Butte High before graduating in 1965. He was a standout on coach Sam Jankovich’s 1964 undefeated state championship football team before going on to play football at Eastern Montana College, where he also wrestled. He wrestled at Montana State, too, before becoming a teacher and coach at Butte High.
Street was a defensive assistant on Butte High’s 1977 and 1981 state championship football teams. The 1977 team was voted the best Butte High team of the 20th Century, and defense led the way. The Bulldogs gave up just three touchdowns and 20 points all season long while compiling a record of 11-0.
Where Street is best known, however, is on the wrestling mat. Coach Street demanded that his wrestlers work hard to get better every day, and they did.
Click here to listen in as Coach Street discusses his greatest influences, his greatest teams, his greatest wrestlers and much more.
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Podcast No. 31: Johnny Robbins
Today’s podcast guest is the new owner of Butte Sports.
Johnny Robbins is jumping into the new gig with great enthusiasm. He hopes to continue the coverage that Butte Sports brought to the people of Butte for the past decade plus.
Robbins is a Butte native and a Butte High graduate. He comes into the new job with a diverse background. He played basketball for coach John Thatcher at Butte High. He also played football as a boy and ran track. He is currently an avid softball player who helped bring a tournament to Butte this past summer.
Now, Robbins is charged with reporting on the athletes of Butte, and he seems excited about it. Yes, it seems Butte Sports is in good hands as it moves into its second decade.
Click here to listen in as Robbins discusses his plans for the website. Listen as he talks about growing up in the Mining City and working his day job at Lincare.
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Getting an assist to gain some website traction
In August, I told my mom that I was leaving my job at Butte Sports to start a podcast.
“What,” she said emphatically. “What is a podcast?”
She was not alone in her reaction. I get that from a lot of people.
Here in the Mining City, we are always about 10 years behind the times. Maybe more.
When I tell people about my podcast, which is called the ButteCast and available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, I often find myself describing what a podcast is. (Click here for the podcast version of this column.)
Getting the word out that I have a podcast is difficult when so many people do not know what I am talking about. Sure, anyone under the age of 40 knows, but I am aiming at all ages.
The dilemma was similar to a decade earlier when I left my job at The Montana Standard to write for a website. People would come up to me at Butte High, Butte Central and Montana Tech games and ask me what I was doing there with a camera.
When I told them I was writing for Butte Sports, they would tell me that they have never been on the internet.
Tudo Stagnoli always accused me of having a camera without film. He was right, it was digital.
About a year after we started Butte Sports, my Tuesday column started to appear in The Butte Weekly, and many people think that is all that I do.
Starting something new can mean a step back. A giant step back.
When we started Butte Sports in 2012, it took a while for people to find our site, even if we had some name recognition with Bruce Sayler joining the team.
The one thing we had going for us was the Butte High football team. The Bulldogs kept winning games in exciting fashion, and people started finding our stories on the team in their Facebook and Twitter feeds.
We could not write enough about the Bulldogs or the Orediggers, who won the 2012 Frontier Conference football crown.
As the Bulldogs and Oredigger teams gained more popularity in town, so too did our website.
By the time Butte High senior Jake Dennehy booted that 46-yard field goal to beat Bozeman at the buzzer in the Class AA State championship game, Butte Sports was a household name in Butte and around the state.
Over the last 10 years, we would routinely get more than 10,000 hits on Butte Sports during nights of big games. We got a lot more than that the night Dougie Peoples sank that shot to lift the Maroons to the Class A State title in March.
Starting over with the ButteCast and ButteCast.com meant a step back in exposure, and this time I did not have a state championship football team to talk or write about. At least not yet.
Enter Thomas William Mellott.
Most people call him Tommy or, better yet, Touchdown Tommy, and he is the pride and joy of Butte, America.
Last week’s column was about Tommy’s incredible interview after he helped lead the Montana State Bobcats to a lopsided win over the Montana Grizzlies.
It was like Jake Dennehy kicked that field goal again. And again.
The traffic on ButteCast.com went up about 10,000 percent in the days following that column because everybody loves Tommy.
I mean everybody.
Even Grizzly fans like Tommy, and that is saying a lot in this era of insanity and misguided hatred. Grizzly fans rarely even like their own quarterback, let alone one who plays for that team on the other side of the Continental Divide.
A weekly column about Tommy would put the new site on par with Butte Sports in no time.
My brother jokingly told me I should write a column trashing Tommy because that would get a lot of readers.
He is right. A column like that would really go viral, but people would absolutely hate me for it.
According to his movie Private Parts, the average hater of Howard Stern listened more than the average fan.
Negativity sells, and being a jerk can be lucrative.
Of course, there is no possible way to trash Tommy Mellott. He is everything they pretended Brett Favre to be in the movie There’s Something About Mary.
Tommy really is like an Eagle Scout. Favre, well, not so much.
So, you will not be seeing or hearing any trashing of the Mining City legend on my website and podcast.
Instead, I will just try to let the great conversations with some interesting people and characters of the Mining City speak for themselves.
Guests so far on the ButteCast include Don Peoples Sr., his grandson Dougie, Anaconda native Jesse Laslovich, Montana Tech Oredigger great Dion Williams, Butte High legend Mickey Tuttle, Brodie Kelly, Geriatric Coach Bob Green, Dr. Nick DiGiovine, Hattie Thatcher, Kellie Johnson-Mead, KXLF reporter John Emeigh, Leo McCarthy, Matt Luedke, Mike Anderson, Julie (Leary) Nadeau, Deann Johnson, Arie Grey, the late Tom LeProwse, boxers Ethan and Eli Wroblewski, Cathy Tutty, Jack Prigge, Mike Hamblin, J.P. Gallagher, Matt Vincent, Karen Sullivan, Jim LeProwse, Kathleen McLaughlin, Bruce Sayler and Jake Larson, just to name a bunch.
We will have a lot more coming, too.
I think the word is finally starting to get out on the podcast, too, thanks to a big assist from Tommy, who will hopefully be a guest someday in the very near future.
The other night, I got a sense that word is getting out when some of my son’s knuckleheaded friends decided to prank call me.
One thing I learned is that my son needs to find some smarter friends. They called me from a number that came up on the caller ID. When they called back, it said “No caller ID.”
That is kind of like looking directly into the security camera before putting on your robber mask.
What the friends said to me on the phone was really shocking.
“Bill?” the caller said.
“Yeah, who’s this?” I responded.
After a brief pause, the caller said, “(Bleep) you and your (bleepy) podcast.”
I have to admit that I was completely blown away by the comments. I was in shock.
Can you believe it?
Those kids know that I have a podcast.
— Bill Foley, who was a much better prank caller in his day, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com.Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74. Listen to the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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Podcast No. 30: Jake Larson
Jake Larson will go down as one of the best athletes the Mining City has ever produced. He will also be remembered as a bit of a problem child.
He drew an unsportsmanlike conduct flag for taunting a Montana Tech receiver as he scored his first college touchdown on a 90-yard reception. He shooshed the Butte Central crowd after a dunk as a freshman, and he once gave the ol’ Butte Salute to the Kalispell fans.
While Jake’s talent was off the charts, so is his honesty. Click here to listen in as Jake discusses his athletic career and his work ethic, or lack thereof. Listen as he talks about some of his many injuries, a brush with some really bad luck and an apprenticeship at Lockmer Plumbing.
Listen in to see that Jake really isn’t a bad guy after all. In fact, he is one of my favorites. I have known Jake a long time, and I think I really get him. I would like to think I would have handled such great athletic talent much differently, but I will never know.
Also listen to hear Jakes big plans for the Copper Cages, an indoor baseball facility that Butte has been missing for some time.
Call (406) 560-8658 to book an hour at the Copper Cages, which are located at 1609 Harrison Avenue.
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Sonny Holland, a hero and a legend, passes at 84
In the classic 1993 movie “The Sandlot,” the ghost of Babe Ruth has a great line.
“Remember kid,” the Bambino says to Benny The Jet, “there’s heroes and there’s legends. Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.”
Butte native Sonny Holland was both.
Coach Holland passed away Saturday night after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 84.
Holland was named the Bobcat of the Century late in the 20th Century. As head coach, he led his alma mater Montana State to the 1976 NCAA Division II national championship.
That team, by the way, included a bunch of Butte guys who adore their former head coach more than words could ever say.
He was enshrined in the second class of the Butte Sports Hall of Fame in 1989. Three years earlier, he was inducted as a charter member in the MSU Hall of Fame.
More than anything, Holland was a beloved figure because he just might have been the nicest man to ever live.
I have never heard of a person more beloved by everyone he touched the lives of than Coach Holland, whose likeness stands in a statue outside Bobcat Stadium.
The impact Coach Holland made will live on forever. Sonny Holland was a hero and a legend.
He was a Hall of Famer of a human being.
Following is a column that I wrote after I finally got the chance to meet Coach Holland in January of 2017. Click here for the podcast version of the column.
A tip of the cap to the greatest Bobcat of them all
About 20 years ago, I had the honor of introducing my grandpa to legendary University of Montana women’s basketball coach Robin Selvig.
My grandpa, who was surprised by the opportunity to meet the coach whose career he followed closely, literally tipped his cap and said, “It is an honor to meet you.”
As we walked away, my grandpa compared meeting Selvig, a remarkably humble man, to my grandma meeting Bobby Kennedy.
Last Wednesday night at the Metals Sports Bar and Grill, I got to know just how my grandpa felt that day in Missoula. That is when I had the amazing honor of meeting Sonny Holland, the Greatest Bobcat of all time.
Holland was in town for a public forum for the Butte Sports Hall of Fame. He came from Bozeman to make a pitch for one of his former players, Mark DeVore.
Dan or Don Ueland — I can never tell the twins apart unless they are with their wives — introduced me to the legendary coach, who was sitting down at a table.
I didn’t tip my cap, but I did sound a lot like my grandpa meeting Selvig.
“Coach,” I said, “it is an honor to meet you, sir. You are a legend.”
He truly is a legend, and he always will be in the land of the Montana State Bobcats.
Last September, Montana State unveiled a 9-foot statute of the coach outside of the school’s football stadium, and it is glorious.
MSU players and fans will have the honor of walking past the statue of Holland before every Bobcat home game for decades to come.
The idea for the statue formed out of a conversation at the Butte Sports Hall of Fame banquet in 2015. Some Ueland brothers and other former Montana State players, who would still lay down on the street for their coach nearly 40 years after he led the Bobcats to the 1976 NCAA Division II national championship, got to talking.
They wanted to honor their coach, and the group of former players raised about $90,000 for the project. They hired well-known artist Ken Bjorge of Bigfork to create the statue, which weighs about 3,500 pounds.
Fast forward 15 months, and the statue was placed between the football stadium and the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.
“He has been the perfect conduit between Montana State and the people of Montana,” 2015 Butte Sports Hall of Fame inductee and former Holland Bobcat Bert Markovich said of Holland as the statue was unveiled. “He truly is the most significant person in the history of MSU football.”
MSU president Waded Cruzado called Holland “the greatest Bobcat of them all.” That is a title Bobcats and their fans settled on many years ago.
Holland, who started at center at Butte High in 1954 and 55, went on to become a three-time All-American for the Bobcats. As a center and linebacker, Holland was a star on the Bobcats’ 1956 national championship team.
Holland, who represented the Bobcats in the 1959 East-West Game, never lost to the Montana Grizzlies as a player.
That playing career was so impressive that today Bobcat players strive to win the team’s prestigious Sonny Holland Offensive MVP Award.
After coaching stints at Bozeman High School, Montana State, Great Falls Russell, Washington State, Western Montana College and Montana State again, Holland took over as the head coach of the Bobcats in 1971.
In seven seasons, Holland compiled a record of 47-24-1 at MSU, which ranks behind only Rob Ash in the team’s all-time wins list. That record includes three playoff wins during the 1976 championship run that was littered with Butte players, including the Ueland twins.
One coach who Holland mentored was fellow Butte native Sonny Lubick. The football team at Colorado State University now plays on Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium.
A long-time coach under Lubick, by the way, was Mick Delaney, the man who saved football at the University of Montana a few years ago. As Holland addressed the Butte Sports Hall of Fame selection committee, Delaney sat a few feet away as a member of that committee.
Delaney went 2-1 against MSU in his three seasons as head coach of the Grizzlies, but he never had to face Holland.
In his seven seasons at the helm of the Bobcats, Holland’s teams beat the Grizzlies six times.
Many former Grizzlies still check for Sonny Holland under their beds before they turn out the lights.
In 1986, Holland was inducted as a charter member of the MSU Hall of Fame. Three years later, he was a member of the second class of the Butte Sports Hall of Fame.
Of course, his wins and losses as a player and a coach only tell part of the story of Holland.
John Thatcher, who played receiver for Holland during his one season as head coach at Western, says the statue of the legendary Bobcat was not based on the coach’s winning percentage. It has more to do with the person who has had a lasting impact on the life of every player he ever coached.
Thatcher lost his father during that 1969 season at Western. Holland took time out of his busy schedule to head to Butte and take care of the Thatcher family.
“It was pretty special how he was with me after my dad died,” Thatcher says. “He treated my mother like gold.
“Why do you think they built that statue for him?” Thatcher adds. “It wasn’t because he won the national championship. It was the way he presented himself. I respect him more than any human being on Earth. I can’t say enough about that guy.”
The soft-spoken Holland people see now that he is in his late 70s is the same soft-spoken man the 1976 national championship team saw on the sidelines.
“The only time he ever raised his voice was when I got in a fight downtown after a football game,” Thatcher says.
Every one of Holland’s former players will tell you the same thing. As far as former players go, Sonny Holland might be the most beloved coach there ever was.
“I love him. I put him on a pedestal above just about everybody,” Thatcher says. “I wouldn’t take a bullet for a lot of people. I would stand in front of a gun for that guy.”
So, you have to excuse me for being a little nervous when I finally got the chance to meet him.
I’ve been fortunate enough to shake hands with Ken Griffey Jr., William “The Refrigerator” Perry and Joe Frazier.
Meeting the legendary Sonny Holland tops them all.
I just wish I would have remembered to tip my cap.
— Bill Foley can be reached at foles74@gmail.com.Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74. Listen to the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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KC basketball schedule
Following is the schedule for the first week of the Knights of Columbus Athletic Club’s winter basketball league.
Teams can still sign up by calling Dan Boyle at (406) 491-2529.
Monday
6 p.m. — OFU vs. Wolf Pack
7 p.m. — Poi Time vs. ISOs
8 p.m. — Byrdy vs. Poi Time
Tuesday
6 p.m. — ISOs vs. The Backups
7 p.m. — Logan’s vs. OFU
8 p.m. — Logan’s vs. Byrdy
9 p.m. — Parish vs. Dream Team
Wednesday
7 p.m. — The Backups vs. Bomb Squad
8 p.m. — Dream Team vs. Wolf Pack
Thursday
7 p.m. — The Backups vs. Wolf Pack
8 p.m. — Byrdy vs. Poi Time
9 p.m. — Parish vs. Bomb Squad -
Podcast No. 29: Bruce Sayler
This school year marks the 50th that Bruce Sayler has been roaming the sidelines and sitting at the press table covering high school and college sports.
Most of those years have come in the Mining City, where he has been one of the best — if not the very best — sportswriters this state has ever seen.
Since 1978, Bruce has been there to tell us about the great sporting events in Butte. He covered most of Butte High’s state championship teams during the Jim Street years. He also covered the 1991 state champion Butte High football team and the Montana Tech football team that advanced to the 1996 NAIA national championships.
The “Big Boss” is currently a contributor to ButteSports.com, and he has been a Heisman Trophy voter for more than 20 years.
Tonight marks the 20th anniversary of a very scary accident that Bruce suffered after having a heart attack on his way home from work. Thankfully, Bruce survived to see his grandchildren Nos. 2 through 16 come into the world.
Click here to listen in as Bruce discusses that accident and the aftermath. Listen as he talks about some of the big events that he covered as a sportswriter in Butte. Listen to how he now spends his days with his grandchildren.
One small correction to the podcast is that the accident happened on is daughter Emilie’s 17th birthday. Happy birthday Em.
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Podcast No. 28: Deann Johnson
Unless you are her mom, you call Deann Johnson by her initials, “D.J.”
That has been her name since grade school. It was her name as she earned All-State honors on the hardwood at Butte High School. It is what she was called when she was the Frontier Conference MVP as a senior at Montana Tech.
A physical therapist with St. James Healthcare, D.J. has also been a member of the Montana Officials Association, refereeing basketball for in the Butte pool for the better part of two decades.
Click here to listen in as D.J. discusses her playing days, the call to the Butte Sports Hall of Fame, undergoing open-heart surgery at the age of 14 and her rewarding job helping people on the road to recovery.
The ButteCast with Bill Foley 