THE SPOKESMAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2022 A9
Officials
Continued from A1
Nick Rosenberger/Spokesman
Firefighters chainsaw a ventilation hole into a plywood roof in Redmond on Dec. 7 during the Redmond Fire & Rescue’s training program.
Firefighters
Continued from A1
“It’s been a labor-intensive
week,” Alayna Calaway, a trainee,
said. “A lot of us are sore, but it’s
a good sore.”
Austin Looney, a trainee who
previously worked in Alaska,
said the training brings in differ-
ent people who specialize within
the department, whether that’s
in ventilation, ropes or hoses.
“Getting to see everyone’s
specialty and have them come
out and train us on their thing
that they’re passionate about
has really helped,” Looney said.
The training, he said, has been
“freaking awesome.”
“It’s like the second or third
academy I’ve been through,”
Looney said. “And this is the best
training I’ve ever had.”
Looney said he’s always liked
working with his hands and
helping people, and that he, like
the other firefighters, dreams
of the “save” — running into a
house and coming out with a
saved life.
“It just feels good to go and
work for a job where you know
you’re accomplishing something
really meaningful,” he said.
Calaway, who grew up in a
family of firefighters and who
previously worked in Sunriver,
found a passion for firefighting
when she started volunteering at
16 years old.
“I just found a love for it and
there’s definitely good satis-
faction saving a life or saving a
home or helping the commu-
nity,” she said.
The intensity of the training
has also built a bond between
the trainees that is obvious to see
— a kinship of dedication, jokes
and comfort.
“It’s super exciting,” said Bigo.
“We’re all pretty new and so
there’s a bunch of good energy
going in.”
Bigo, who worked in am-
bulances in Redmond for two
years, decided to switch to fire-
fighting about a year ago and
said it feels good to be part of
such a big training group.
Calaway added that the fire
department is like a family and
they’ll spend a third of their lives
together — working together,
eating together, living together
and building bonds.
“It’s an awesome feeling to see
the group cohesion and to see
everybody so motivated,” said
Welch. “It’s really refreshing to
see that as an instructor.”
“(Firefighting) is the best job
in the world,” he said.
█
Nick Rosenberger/Spokesman
Beau Bigo catches his breath while horseshoeing a hose around his knees on Dec. 6 in Redmond.
“I just found a
love for it and
there’s definitely
good satisfaction
saving a life or
saving a home
or helping the
community.”
— Alayna Calaway, Redmond Fire
& Rescue trainee
“It’s an awesome
feeling to see the
group cohesion
and to see
everybody so
motivated. It’s
really refreshing
to see that as an
instructor.”
— Bill Welch, Redmond Fire &
Rescue training captain
Nick Rosenberger/Spokesman
Beau Bigo listens to an instructor on Dec. 6 while training to become a
firefighter for Redmond Fire & Rescue.
100
DWINDLING NUMBERS
For many of the com-
missioners, the issue first
became clear during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Many
of the referees left due to
masking or vaccination re-
quirements, while others at
high risk left because they
were concerned about con-
tracting the virus.
Mike Smith, Central Or-
egon basketball commis-
sioner, said the requirements
for vaccination were a prob-
lem for some officials who
chose to leave rather than get
the vaccine. Once folks leave,
he said, it’s hard to get them
to come back
“There’s been a shortage,
but nothing as acute as when
the pandemic happened,”
Smith said. “It was kind of
the perfect storm.”
According to Kurt Ren-
strom, Central Oregon’s foot-
ball commissioner, football
lost around eight to 10 of-
ficials because of rules sur-
rounding COVID-19.
“The frustrating part
about it is nobody is immune
to the shortage of officials,”
Renstrom said. “It’s happen-
ing across the state.”
While every sport has
different requirements and
numbers of officials for every
game, nearly all have strug-
gled with filling games. And
the situation has recently
taken a nosedive as commis-
sioners try to retain aging
referees and entice younger
officials to fill the ranks.
“Central Oregon, at least
in basketball, has never been
in the dire situation we find
ourselves in (now),” said
Daryl Rothenbucher, presi-
dent of the Central Oregon
Basketball Officials Associa-
tion. “It really runs the gamut
of different things — from
overworking the officials that
we do have to where there’s
significant injuries.”
The commissioners
UNEQUAL NUMBERS
But, not all sports have
been hit equally in terms of
numbers. Floyd Paye, com-
missioner for wrestling,
said the sport has not seen
the difficulties other sports
have, although he’s not sure
why.
He pointed towards a high
school program that lets stu-
dents begin officiating early
as a possible reason, but
wasn’t sure if it was the pro-
gram or simple luck.
Of 162 wrestling officials
in Oregon, Paye has 35 of
them — over 21 percent of
all the wrestling officials in
Oregon.
“We’re getting everything
covered right now,” Paye said.
“I feel lucky.”
OSAA — the state’s gov-
erning body for high school
sports — is trying to dupli-
cate Paye’s situation by in-
creasing pay for officials and
boosting its mileage reim-
bursement for high school
games by raising game fees
by over 10 percent this year.
Despite higher pay-to-play
costs possibly cutting out
some lower-income students
from being able to partici-
pate, pay for officials will still
be lower than in many other
states.
“Oregon referees are get-
ting paid substantially less
than referees in other states,”
Salari said.
Still, not many officials say
they do it for the money.
“Nobody’s ever gotten rich
from umpiring baseball and
softball,” Cockerill said.
The reason you want to be
out there, Renstrom said, is
because you love the compe-
tition and want to be a part
of it.
“Come Friday night
there is no better seat in the
house,” Renstrom said.
█
Reporter: nrosenberger@
redmondspokesman.com
Nick Rosenberger/Spokesman
Logan Strubhar, a firefighter
trainee in the Redmond Fire &
Rescue’s training program, walks
into a smoke-filled Redmond Mo-
bile Fire Training Unit on Dec. 7
under the supervision of Training
Captain Bill Welch.
Reporter: nrosenberger@
redmondspokesman.com
MORE THAN
Many of the changes, Tay-
lor said, have been focused
on basketball. League games
for the season were moved
to Mondays and Thursdays
for the 5-A Intermountain
Conference that includes
Redmond, Bend, Caldera,
Mountain View, Ridgeview
and Summit high schools.
Other conferences will play
on Tuesdays and Fridays.
“Obviously it’s not ideal
to play on Mondays,” Taylor
said. “But it is what it is.”
Kelly Havig, the volleyball
commissioner, said they had
to “completely revamp the
IMC schedule to even have
a chance to make the season
work” for volleyball.
“We did it to have a sea-
son, but nobody liked it,”
Havig said.
Havig, who talked with
the Spokesman as she drove
over the Cascades to offi-
ciate a match, said that the
number of referees has been
declining for a few years, but
that it’s been especially hard
this year. The strain it puts
on officials, she said, is not
healthy.
said that it’s difficult and
time-consuming to train new
recruits. And, they often face
a hostile atmosphere that
can push new officials away
from returning for a second
season.
Without other options,
commissioners have had to
send out inexperienced of-
ficials who often deal with
upset parents who verbally
disrespect them.
“It burns them out and
they quit,” Smith said.
“I don’t know many other
professions where you’re
expected to be an expert as
soon as you pick up a whis-
tle,” Rothenbucher said. “I
guess to a certain extent it
comes with the territory. You
have to have a thick skin.”
Havig said that while
abuse of officials is probably
the least likely to happen in
volleyball, there’s still a fear
of parents and a lack of re-
spect for officials.
“It’s not okay to yell at the
officials. It can’t be a part of
the game,” Havig said. “We
have to change that culture.”
Cockerill said the verbal
abuse in baseball and soft-
ball has gotten worse over
the years, especially after the
pandemic.
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