A total of 178 officials are scheduled to receive awards at the Iowa High School Athletic Association’s 19th Annual Officials’ Banquet and Recognition Ceremony, Saturday, April 27 at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines.  A social hour will start the festivities at 5:30 p.m. followed by the dinner and recognition program.

The list of honoree includes five officials who each have 50 years of service. Those officials are Jerry L. Courtney of Burlington; Jack Foresman from Cleghorn; Willard Howell of Wapello; Martin Pillers from West Des Moines; and Larry C. Williams of Waverly.

Deb Richarz of LeMars will be honored as the NFHS Distinguished Active Official for Section 4 (Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana). Ms. Richarz has been an IGHSAU official for 32 years and has been an IHSAA official for 19.
She has officiated the State Volleyball and Softball Tournaments 13 years each including four title matches in volleyball and seven in softball. She has been the state’s NFOA official of the year in each sport, and has been inducted in the Iowa Girls Coaches Association Hall of Fame. She also has extensive experience in both sports at the NAIA, Division II and Division III levels at national and regional tournaments. She is active in the Siouxland Officials Association and a past president of the group.

Thirty-seven individuals will be honored for 35 years of service; 45 others for 25 years and 71 for officiating 15 years. In addition awards will be given to five aspiring new officials and 15 officials will receive a plaque as the NFOA state award winner of official of the year in a particular sport.

This year’s keynote speaker is Mike Pereira, a former college and NFL official who appears regularly on FOX Sports as a rules analyst. Pereira spent 14 years as a college football official with eight post season bowl games before joining the National Football League for 14 seasons as a game official followed by being a supervisor of officiating, director of officiating and vice president of NFL officiating. He left the NFL in 2009.

With FOX, if circumstances warrant a rules interpretation, he is on hand throughout their telecasts, communicating to the network announcers and fans. He is a regular contributor to the NFL Sunday pregame show, FOX Sports.com and the network’s sports radio. His vast experience allows him to pen a weekly column, which is titled “Under Review” and ranks the 10 most impactful calls made during the previous week’s games.

Following are the local officials scheduled to be honored at the April 27 ceremonies.

15 YEAR OFFICIALS
Tom Berens TREYNOR
Kevin O. Garrett ATLANTIC
Phillip Hascall ATLANTIC
David Huff GREENFIELD
Tom Kealy COUNCIL BLUFFS
Douglas Maher STANTON
Mark D. Markham ATLANTIC
Tom McLaren ATLANTIC
Michael L. Ruhnke CARROLL
Bruce Schenck GLENWOOD
Tom Woodin FARRAGUT

25 YEAR RECOGNITION
Doyle Engelen TEMPLETON
Bruce Thomas MISSOURI VALLEY

35 YEAR RECOGNITION
Jim Christensen FONTANELLE
C. Leroy Dukes BEDFORD
Jim Molitor CARROLL
Dale “Ernie” Reinke MANNING
James “Jake” Schwartzkopf STUART
John D. Walters CRESTON

ASPIRING NEW OFFICIALS
Kevin Cabbage STANTON

NFOA STATE OFFICIAL OF THE YEAR
Wrestling: Tom Moore GRISWOLD
Baseball: Bob Sweeney ATLANTIC