SPORTS
6 - Mukilteo Beacon
www.mukilteobeacon.com
August 17, 2016
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Beacon photos by David Pan Brian Clute, a second-year official from Edmonds, lines up as an offensive lineman during a recent Snohomish County Football Officials Association practice near Everett Memorial Stadium.
For the love of the game
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Officials pursing their passion for football by DAVID PAN reporter @ yourbeacon . net
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hey come in all sizes and shapes. Some are tall and some are short. Some have the body of an athlete and some do not. They range in age from just out of high school to senior citizen. But they all share the same passion. On any given Friday night, there is nowhere they would rather be than at a packed stadium, ready to step out onto the field to officiate a high school football game. This season marks the 30th year Steve Jensen has been a football official. Jensen, the past president and current game assignor of the Snohomish County Football Officials Association, started his officiating career in 1987 right after he graduated from Lakewood High School. Growing up, Jensen spent a lot of time with his father, who was an official for 20 years. “There’s no better place than a Friday night on the football
Paul Flores of Mukilteo makes a call during a recent scimmage. This will be Flores’ first year being a football official. Veteran officials Joel Short and James Leach discuss the rules during an apprectice training session at the Everett Elks Club. field,” Jensen said. “The lights, the band, the kids screaming and hollering. It doesn’t get any better than that.” The Snohomish County Football Officials Association (SCFOA) has seen a boom in membership in the six years since Jensen became the assignor. When he started, the organization had 62 officials. This year the association has 105 members. The growth generally can be attributed to word of mouth. “If you become an official and you like it, you’re going to tell your buddies,” Jensen said. “They’re going to come out. Those two people will tell a
couple of other people. It works out great.” Brian Clute played football in high school when he lived in California. One of his children also played football in high school. Even after his son graduated, Clute’s love of the sport never went away. “After they were done playing, I wanted to get back into football,” the Edmonds resident said. So last year, Clute signed up to be a football official. It turned out to be an eye-opening experience. “It’s very intense. There’s a lot to learn, more than people realize,” said Clute, who is a physical therapist at Aurora Village Physical Therapy. “It takes a lot of study and dedication to the rule book.” Clute won’t forget the first time he stepped out onto the
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making sure you are lined ups correctly and are doing theb proper mechanics and applying the rules correctly.” s Like Clute and Jensen, Paulm Flores played football in high A school in Burlington. He has a y son, Chris, who is a member of Y the Kamiak High School footd ball team. w Flores, of Mukilteo, was looka ing for a way to become more t involved with the sport. He t helped run the down marker t for the freshman football team last year. g “I wanted to kind of be a bige ger part than just sort of being on the sidelines,” Flores said. r “I thought officiating would be n a good place to start.” Flores attended a few meet-r ings toward the end of lastc season and came out in Julyt when the association started its annual apprentice train-t ing program. He also is find-y ing that the amount of work, l see OFFICIALS page 7 uc d s Be the first to try this revolutionary technology t
field for a youth game. In many ways the experience was a baptism by fire. “Instead of putting your foot in the water, your toe in the water, it’s more like getting thrown into the deep end,” Clute said. “Football is very intense. People are yelling and screaming and here you are, barely knowing the rules and mechanics of the game. You’re just sure you’re going to screw up.” Clute not only survived his debut as an official but flourished throughout his first year, moving on to middle school and high school junior varsity games. He even ended up working some varsity games late in the season, which few officials do in their first year. The first varsity contest he worked brought back the same feelings as his debut at the youth game. “It was like being at the first game again,” Clute said. “There’s the whole jitters and
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