Don Richards

Former Tonight Show host Jay Leno once said, "I wanted a career in sports when I was young but I had to give the idea up. I'm only six feet tall so I couldn't play basketball. I'm only 190 pounds, so I couldn't play football, and I have 20/20 vision so I couldn't be a referee." Dan Hoffman, River Falls native and veteran referee who has officiated at several Falcon games, would probably not agree with Jay, but he would see the humor.

"Hoffer" participated in basketball, football, baseball, and track in high school (Durand H.S.) and played basketball one year at UW-La Crosse. Those experiences led to several years coaching: four years as a volunteer assistant basketball coach at UW-La Crosse, one year as JV baseball coach at Elkader, Iowa, H.S., two years as JV baseball coach at RFHS, and seven years as freshman football coach at RFHS.

He estimates he has officiated somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 sports contests in all the above mentioned sports, plus softball and volleyball over a span of 47 years. Those experiences have included intramural, FFA, high school, and college games, including some in divisions two and three. He says his goal is to continue until he has reached 50 years, at least.

"That will be a pretty good run," he says. 

His favorite sport to referee is basketball because, "I like the pressure."

As many know, there is a shortage of referees in all sports. Hoffman explains the shortage this way: "Quite frankly, I'm not sure the younger generation handles pressure very well because their parents have always made decisions for them and protected them from everything. Secondly, I don't think this generation wants to work that hard. They are too busy traveling, looking at their phones, and spending time with their friends. Lastly, too many fans won't let younger officials make mistakes during youth contests causing the younger officials to get out of officiating before they have really started. I guess I should also mention that we have far more sports and levels which depletes the overall pool of officials on any given night. This is very true of women's athletics. When I played there were very few girls playing sports. Now, many women are participating and of course their contests need officials."

Does he have any "pet peeves" about officiating?

"One of my biggest is when a coach keeps beating a dead horse so to speak. In other words, they might continue to harp on a call in the fourth quarter of a contest when it happened in the first quarter. Some coaches just can't leave things alone.

"Also, I don't like to hear fans complaining about a call that they simply have no clue about in terms of the actual rule. I can honestly say that I have received more harsh criticism about a call that I got right than one that I know I got wrong.

"One other gripe I have about officiating is when some officials don't care if they do their best. They don't dress properly, or they don't hustle and generally seem like they really don't want to take pride in their craft."

If you would like to become an official, Google the question. You will find instructions about how to proceed, take a class, what else to do. You can also ask an official. Young people are needed.

The best thing about refereeing is the relationships he has made with coaches, fans, other officials and athletic directors.

"I really enjoy this aspect of officiating," he says.

Finally, the last word on officiating is Bob Hope's quip (how many readers know who he is?) about referees: "I ruined my hands in the ring. The referee kept stepping on them."