My mom moved from Missouri to Florida 25 years ago and never has looked back.
She still visits here for a week or so at a time, of course, but I’m pretty sure at this point, she’s a permanent resident of the Sunshine State.
Florida is about to gain two more residents at our state’s expense. Rick Bowen and his wife, Mary Beth, have sold their home in De Soto and are moving to Clearwater. Bowen, 68, is retired from Union Pacific, where he worked for 35 years as a painter and taught safety classes. The Bowens have a large extended family in Jefferson County that includes 15 grandchildren.
Funny what you learn doing my job. Mary Beth taught at Sunrise Elementary, Hillsboro and De Soto. Her daughter, Leslie Marchetti, is the principal at Hillsboro Intermediate School and her grandson, Nick Marchetti, is a multi-sport standout athlete at Hillsboro High whom you’ve read about in these pages for the last four years. Great kid, great family.
Back to Rick. He’s been a basketball and football official for the Missouri State High School Activities Association for 31 years. Obviously, he won’t be doing that anymore. That’s a huge blow to local officiating. As I’ve written about several times, MSHSAA is struggling to recruit and develop new officials in just about all of its sports. When someone like Bowen retires, that impact could reverberate for years until someone else can step in.
Bowen is 68, but watching him run up and down the floor with highly trained teenagers for 32 minutes, you can see how fit he is. He said he’s worked more than 100 basketball games this season, after wielding the whistle on the gridiron about 50 times last fall.
But even he had to start with Game No. 1. He explained how a young railroad worker got involved with officiating. It all began with a call from his friend, Dave Rogers.
“Dave called me one night and asked if I wanted to make a little extra money,” Bowen said. “He said we’re going to ref basketball, so I said, ‘OK, I’ll try it.’ It was an eighth-grade girls game. I didn’t even know how to blow a whistle. I went to camps in the city that Mark Probst used to run.”
For years Probst was in charge of scheduling officials for sports in the St. Louis area. Pat Burns does it now. When Bowen started, there were two-man crews for basketball. About 15 years ago, a third referee was added to the varsity games.
Early on, juggling his work for the railroad and as an official was tricky.
“(The company) asked me if I was a basketball official, or did I work for them,” Bowen said.
He settled into both jobs and eventually established himself well enough to earn the assignment to officiate the boys’ basketball final four.
Recently, Bowen worked a game between Mehlville and Lafayette. As he was leaving to go home, a couple who were most likely a player’s grandparents told him they appreciated what he did. Those moments are few and far between for officials, who instead often face open hostility. All the officials I talk to mention it.
“It’s the love of the game. It’s not for the money,” Bowen said.
Jason Smith of Farmington will attest to that. He’s a frequent football and basketball crewmate of Bowen’s and said he’s seen Bowen give away his officiating pay.
“Rick hates it when I bring it up; he’ll leave the room when I talk about it,” Smith said. “We were working a Christmas tournament 10 or 15 years ago. Back then, we’d get paid with a wad of cash. He got paid for two games – let’s say it was $50 for each game. He took the money and said, ‘Take this $100 to buy the poorest kid on the team some shoes.’ That’s Rick right there.
“Someone was having cancer problems (and) I saw him hand his check back and give it to the family. He has the biggest heart of anybody.”
This is Smith’s 28th year as an official in basketball and 25th year in football. While he and Bowen often aren’t on the same crew in football, they have logged many miles driving to basketball games together. Smith, 47, said he plans to keep at it after his friend hangs up the striped shirt.
“I was fortunate to get licensed (to be an official) at 19,” Smith said. “I still enjoy the camaraderie. My fondest memories will be meeting Rick at (Hwy.) 110 and driving to somewhere like Lafayette for a game. He’s one of my best friends. I can’t tell you how many miles we’ve driven together and games we’ve done together. That’s what I’ll miss the most.”
“We’re not only work partners, but we’re best-buds too,” Bowen said. “We’ve been through big things in our lives. I am going to be sad, but happy, too.”
Smith said Bowen’s great strength is his relationships with people.
“He worked his first football games when he joined our crew,” Smith said. “We could have been at Festus or Eureka, he was the same with coaches for both schools. He (is) just good at his craft. He’ll be hard to replace.”
When experienced professionals like Bowen and eventually Smith retire, it will only get more difficult for MSHSAA to replace them long-term. Bowen and Smith both cite unruly behavior by fans, parents, and even players as the reason some newer officials simply quit and walk away.
“There are guys older than me still officiating,” Bowen said. “Coaches have to give the young guys room to work. I’ve come home and couldn’t sleep after making a mistake on a call. You think, ‘Should I have called that charge?’ We’re constantly talking about the rules.
“The fans are brutal, even more in the sixth and seventh grade. I never worry about a high school game because there’s always an administrator there. I’ve thrown out people and it seems like when I do, the game gets better.”
Bowen told me after moving south and taking some time off, he might don the whistle down there. I have noticed many times in recent years that people who retire don’t stay that way long. I guess that’s what awaits me as well.
The Bowens will miss their family here, but then again, Florida is only about two hours away by airplane.
“We’re ready for a real change,” Bowen said. “I’ll take it easy for a year and if I get bored, I’ll think about (resuming officiating). Things are so much different from when I started, (but) I probably would (return) because I love the game.”