Friday Night Lights

"Friday night lights in Glasgow is something special." Though it hardly needs to be spoken, the words of Stan Ozark, a football official for 33 years, should strike a chord in any Scottie football fan. However, for Ozark the statement means so much more.

"That environment. I've done so many games up there on a Friday night. On a beautiful night in September, October, that place is packed. The crowd is loud you can hardly hear yourself. That cannon's going off. You've got a good football game. And I say to myself, 'God, I'm so lucky. Yeah. I am right here in the middle of all this."

Ask Ozark why he officiates, continues to in the midst of an officials shortage, he will tell you this is a big part of why he does what he does. His pool leader, Derek Beadle, is in full agreement. "Yeah, just that excitement, that buzz from being near the game."

Ozark and Beadle sat down with the Courier recently to discuss the behind-the-scenes aspect of football officiating and their desire to see new recruits join their ranks to continue the hallowed Friday night lights tradition.

The job is not an easy one, though the two longtime officials stressed the benefits – and the challenges – of their work. Each week, for the duration of the season, requires more time than the scoreboard clock shows.

"We have a study club that we meet weekly. Sometimes it's an hour, sometimes it's a couple of hours and we talk about situations from the week's past situations," Beadle explained. The group of officials, typically five for a varsity game, discuss issues from around the state, brought to their attention by Montana High School Association/Montana Officials Association (MHSA/MOA), coaches and their own games. They also review responsibilities for each official in their upcoming games.

Though officials are required to be on the field 30 minutes prior to game start, the Glasgow crew typically meets a full hour before a game to allow for questions. Ozark and Beadle stressed that even if an official has been making calls for 20 years, questions will always arise. "We spend a considerable, considerable amount of time with them kind of going over what they need to do to improve," Ozark explained.

Though football has few rule changes year to year, both agreed that the time commitment to the game is their biggest challenge along with the attention to detail. " ... the game is so complex in so many different ways ... " Ozark explained. "Derek does an exceptional job of staying on top of the rules. ... We have three different rule books. We have a rules book, a case book and an officials' manual. And I mean, you're not doing your job if you're not at least going through all three of those books every year." Beadle added, "You have to work on yourself individually. And so that's something I really try and work on is, you know, spend a decent amount of time studying each week, reading through case books, reading through the rules and the officials' manual. And it's just the time commitment that takes away from family and friends and other hobbies. So for those three months, like Stan says, that's kind of what you do."

While football officials give generously of their time for little pay, the two were quick with answers regarding the most rewarding part of officiating.

"I'll tell you, the most rewarding thing for me is hanging out with the guys," Ozark said. "By far my best friends I officiate with. So a chance to officiate with them two to three times a week, plus a study club, some of my favorite times of the year. Three months – August, September, October – is just great for me."

Beadle expressed the same sentiment, "I love our crew because we talk about being professional, and I think we are, but at the same time we have this edge to us and our sense of humor. We all have a really good sense of humor and so many times you'll see us laughing on the field." He added, " ... the best part is the camaraderie. But I think the other part that's really fun is that attachment to football ... football has this kind of unique emotional buzz to it. I think that is so special ... officiating allows me to stay attached to that."

Glasgow's football crew strives for professionalism while having fun at their games. "We're really just trying to make this game go smoothly and make sure everybody's doing it the right way," Beadle said. " ... Every kickoff is a fresh start, every play is a fresh start." He added, "We do our best to make sure that we are fair and unbiased."

In addition, the two stated one of their goals is to keep games moving. Ozark praised the tutelage of former official Ken Jansa on the necessity of keeping a rhythm to a game. "He beat that into our heads. And I think our crew does such an exceptional job of making sure the ball gets ready to go right away. There's no delays. The entire crew works together," said Ozark while praising Tyler Partridge as back judge for his efforts in keeping games moving. "Thats one of the things I'm proudest of our group is that we probably do a good job with that."

Despite their attempts at neutrality, every official has encountered a fan, player or coach who saw a situation from a different perspective and let their thoughts be known.

Beadle shared a story from a previous year, in a non-Glasgow game, in which a crowd took umbrage with a call by Jon Bengochea to demonstrate how the crew handles critiques and criticism. "You can almost see like this rising anger, everybody yelling ... Jon just calm, cool, collected like nothing's happening behind him and then directly about two yards behind is the pitchforks and fire ... he just throws the ball in and walks back over to the sideline likes nothing ever happened ... and I came in and I set the ball and I said, 'Whatever you do, do not go over there!'"

While Beadle and Ozark laughed and praised Bengochea's professionalism in the situation, they acknowledge that they worry the harassment will affect younger officials' commitment, contributing further to the officials shortage. A majority of officials do not make it past year three due to a multitude of reasons – the time commitment, the harassment, the low pay. "You don't do it for the money," laughed Beadle. "It's not a get-rich-quick scheme."

Rather, the two do it for the camaraderie and the love of the game. And perhaps for the stories, of which there is no shortage. They hope to share their years of experience and knowledge with a new wave of officials to keep football alive and well in rural Montana, noting that the shortage will impact scheduling and may cause smaller schools to move their games to Thursday nights to accommodate officials who have committed their time to larger schools, as the Glasgow crew has done here.

"Glasgow's gonna play on Friday nights regardless because they're gonna have officials on Friday nights in Glasgow," Ozark explained. He noted that commitment from the officials is given in large part due to the dedication of Glasgow Activities Director Brenner Flaten. "He's good to us," Beadle added.

But the shortage looms large in the minds of the Glasgow officials. "Derek made a really good point ... about how vital it is to get young people into it. I mean besides the obvious reason you want young people to get involved but we have a lot of experience that might not be there in two, three years," Ozark said.

Beadle added that if Glasgow loses their senior officials and manage to replace them, that wouldn't change the fact that the new officials would have lost the opportunity to sit in study groups and meetings, learning from their predecessors. "The whole thing suffers, you know?" he said. "We're really trying to find some young people here in the next couple years and hopefully talk Stan and Jon into lifetime appointments."

Anyone interested in learning to become an official – in any Montana high school sport – can visit the MOA section on the MHSA website for registration and training or ask Ozark or Beadle for insight, particularly regarding refereeing jamboree basketball in football uniforms.