Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
We were just two grandfathers watching our fourth-grade granddaughters at basketball practice in Irwin, Pennsylvania. They were going through drills with a couple of very skilled coaches, especially for that age level.
“Which one is yours?” I asked.
He smiled and pointed to a little girl in pink shorts. “She’s my baby,” he said.
We didn’t introduce ourselves initially, but I later discovered he was Rick Druschel, a local football legend from Hempstead Area High School, who had a championship ring from Super Bowl IX. The first for the Steelers, a 16-6 win over the Minnesota Vikings in 1975.
He looked and moved like an aging professional offensive lineman.
Rick was a two-time All-ACC guard from North Carolina State University. He was drafted in the sixth round in 1974 and played one season for the Steelers.
You might have guessed it from his size, and the stripes on each leg from knee replacement surgery, but a lot of football players that don’t make it to playing on Sunday get those.
We talked about our granddaughters.
He asked me where I was from and was surprised when I said central Wyoming. As with many people from Pennsylvania, he looked at me quizzically and asked, “Wyoming, PA?”
“No, Wyoming the state,” I said.
That changed the conversation to distances.
I told him I’d been a football, basketball and track coach and described a few of the trips I made riding “Yellow Dogs” across Wyoming.
He was fascinated by one trip from Lusk to Saratoga and back in the fall of 1982. I told the saga of leaving at 7 a.m. on Friday morning and returning at 2 a.m. Saturday. He was astounded.
“You ever officiate football?” he asked out of the blue.
I told him I had for a few years, and he indicated that if I was moving to the area, he’d get me into the local association.
They’re starving for officials in Western Pennsylvania just like they are here at home.
I’m friends with many officials, in every sport, and especially close with the guys from the Riverton and Worland associations.
I described how our schedules have changed to accommodate the shortage of officials. Junior varsity games on Saturday mornings or Monday afternoons, and junior high games determined by the availability of officials, not by some set schedule.
That meant Tuesday or Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings.
Class 1-A 9-man primarily on Thursday nights, with Class 2-A on Friday afternoon. The 2-A games would likely be Friday afternoons for many contests due to the extreme distance in this division. There is no shortcut from Cokeville to Lovell or from Newcastle to Burns.
Friday nights are not quite exclusively relegated to Class 3-A and 4-A, but they dominate that time slot.
The number of officials working a game always depends on the level of play. It is common for a three-person crew to work junior high games. A squad of four works freshman and lower-level junior varsity, and a full five-man crew officiates varsity contests.
That’s true in Pennsylvania as well, except that varsity games get six officials, and in the playoffs the number is seven.
Rick, at 74, still officiates.
“I don’t white hat anymore,” he said. “I try to stay on the sidelines. I like managing the chain crew since I can get out of the way easier.”
I can relate.
There is an interesting policy in youth and middle school football in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. If a parent is out of control, an official can eject them. That’s true in Wyoming and common in basketball games, but there is a twist in the Keystone State.
To get into a game again, they have to pay a $75 fine and go to an anger management class.
“It’s cut down on the bad behavior from parents,” Rick said.
I mentioned that we have law enforcement at every game, but many times don’t have EMS services, especially in the smaller schools.
It is a blight on our society that controlling ‘out of control’ parents has become a bigger concern to school districts than the safety of the kids playing the game.
You can’t blame local administrators; they’re working within a budget and hoping nothing catastrophic happens on the field. But there are memorable incidents where players were carted off on gurneys with ambulances running red hot when things went south.
The conversation turned back to travel.
Rick has been retired for a while but told me he enjoys driving tour buses.
“I can drive a long way and never get tired,” he said.
That brought me to offer him a new career if he wanted to move to Wyoming.
“We can always use good bus drivers,” I said.
He laughed and indicated his tours were much shorter than a trip from Pavillion to Saratoga, or Rocky Mountain to Lusk.
Rick Druschel had his moment in the sun as a young man. A starting guard for the North Carolina State Wolfpack, the 150th selection in the 1974 NFL draft, and a Super Bowl ring.
He played in 11 games for the Steelers in his only season. He was a special teams player on kick returns, punts, field goals, and extra points.
His life became his family, and by his presence at a practice with nine-year-old girls trying to hit layups, pass and catch a basketball, and learning to play defense, I’d say his priorities are spot on.
His attitude is a powerful lesson for those who don’t have their priorities in check. Too many people live vicariously through their children. It’s sad and disappointing to watch some guy who never amounted to much on the field or court when it was his turn to suddenly become an expert as he berates the coach, the officials, and, even worse, the kids on the field.
My friends and I often joke that “the older I get, the better I was.” We know it’s a tendency, but still a joke. Too many don’t realize the humor when they reference their supposed expertise on the field from long ago.
That $75 fine for bad behavior is an excellent idea. Maybe it’s something the WHSAA can look at implementing. Judging by the current state of idiocy in the stands and on the sidelines, it might turn into a lucrative revenue stream for Wyoming high school athletics.