(Shoshoni, WY) – You might call it going full circle. Alex Mills, a standout football and basketball player at Shoshoni High School returned to his home court earlier this season, but not as a player, or coach, but as an official.
Alex is a sophomore at Central Oklahoma University majoring in Kinesiology while pursuing a career in Occupational Therapy.
In his free time, he is an Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association certified basketball official.
“I work everything from YMCA to middle school and high school junior varsity,” Alex said. “I haven’t gotten into the clique down here. It’s a little more political here. I’m getting my name around and putting in my time.”
Alex returned home from Oklahoma and had the opportunity to officiate the opening season Wrangler Classic, but it came with a caveat: Though he was a certified Oklahoma official, he wasn’t certified in Wyoming, and the WHSAA has stringent rules on certifying officials.
“I asked WHSAA if I had to take the test again. It’s the same test in Oklahoma and Wyoming,” Alex said. “They said if you want to do varsity you have to take it. I tried to pull some strings, but they wouldn’t let it happen.”
So, he took the identical test again.
“They’ve added some pictures of uniforms in both tests, and there are a couple of sequences that will never happen, but I passed with a 90-something,” he said.
The rules are the same, but Wyoming pays a little better than Oklahoma.
“They don’t pay nearly as well here as in Wyoming,” Alex said. “High school varsity pays $80, $45 for a junior high game. They’re still paying $60 to $70 for junior high in Wyoming.”
Officiating lower-level games in a state far from home is one thing, coming back to the gym you played in for six years of junior high and high school is something different.”
“It was a little weird, but I enjoyed it, the 307 guys are awesome they made me feel right at home,” Alex said. “It was great to see some old coaches. Wyoming is a small town at the end of the day, it was great to get to shake a few hands.”
Alex worked with the 307 Association, one of the best in Wyoming, and the veteran officials took him in as one of their own.
“I appreciated all those guys giving me tips, even on where to stand so you don’t have to take extra steps, it will save you a few hundred steps by the end of the game,” Alex said. “Rod Winland (a 307 official from Cowley) told me you made the right call, don’t change it. I loved all the Rocky coaches.”
After graduating with his kinesiology degree, and attending occupational therapist school, Alex has career goals.
“My hope is to end up in a high school or middle school where I can still coach or ref on the side,” Alex said. “That’s what I love about it, it’s not just a side gig for me going to school. There is a shortage all over the place, and it’s something I’ve really enjoyed.”
Switching from player to official is a transition. It’s something that changes your viewpoint of the game.
“I told my dad, I think back on all the bad things I’ve said about these guys,” Alex said. “It’s hard to make a split-second decision and live by it.”
Alex keeps busy on the court in Oklahoma.
“Some days I ref six to eight games in a row,” Alex said. “I don’t turn down those games. I’m young enough I can do seven on a Saturday, during the Wrangler Invite I ended up doing nine in two days. All the old guys were heckling me, telling me I could probably do five or six more.”
The difference in the talent level from Wyoming to Oklahoma was striking for Alex.
“My welcome to Oklahoma, I’ve been doing it for a couple of weeks, I get a call 40 minutes before the game starts,” Alex said. “I step on the floor five minutes before warmup is over. I think, is this a high school game? No, I’m doing two-man. They’re running a 1-3-1 the lead man steals the ball and puts it down one-handed on a breakaway dunk.”
It was an 8th-grade game.
I had a middle school game to start this year. This kid walks up to me and asks if he can dunk in warmup,” Alex said. “He’s about 6-3, I said you probably shouldn’t do it.”
Alex and his younger brother Braxton have been in the gym or on the field their entire lives. Their parents, Max and Christina Mills were college athletes and are both successful coaches.
“I was telling my mom, maybe none of us should have gone on and played college ball anywhere, because there are a lot of kids down here that are better than any of us ever were,” Alex said. “The athleticism and the number of kids overall is amazing.”
Still, Alex sees programs in Wyoming that could compete well in Oklahoma.
“Cokeville football would own the smallest 11-man down here, they’d be just fine,” Alex said. “Sheridan would do well against the bigger schools.”
As a high school football player, Alex led all five divisions of Wyoming prep football with 11 interceptions. He led the Wranglers to back-to-back appearances at quarterback in the Class 1-A 9-man football championships, winning the title his junior year, and coming up one play short against Pine Bluffs as a senior.
He was a two-time all-state football player and was all-state in basketball twice as well. He was the Northwest 2-A Conference Player of the Year as a junior in basketball.
During his freshman year, he lived with his cousin, Mason Steffan who is a trainer for the Moore Lions, a Class 6-A school in the suburbs of Oklahoma City.
This year, he moved into the dorms.
Alex plans to continue officiating for a long time.