Friday Night Lights: No More Flags

Some will say that officiating sports is a thankless job. At the high school level, referees get paid very little, get very little praise for what they do and, instead, bare the brunt of grief and anger most of the time.

But for 35 years now, Havre’s Cal Wirtzberger hasn’t looked at his career of officiating high school football that way at all. Instead, as he gets ready to retire, Wirtzberger is nothing but proud and thankful for the years he’s spent on the gridiron.

This fall is Wirtzberger’s last as a high school football referee, and when it’s all said and done, he not only will have no regrets but rather will have nothing but great memories and great times to look back on.

“It’s been a fun ride,” Wirtzberger said. “When I look back and think about all the guys I’ve worked with, and had so many good times with, guys like Ralph Jimison, Ron Groseclose and Kim Kirby, those guys were really instrumental in my career as an official. And I’ve just had a blast all these years.”

And make no mistake, Wirtzberger has spent a lot of years, days and nights, on the football field. But, when he was a young athlete himself, he wasn’t certain officiating would be for him.

“My dad reffed high school basketball for over 30 years on the Hi-Line,” he said. “And I would watch him and think, I don’t know if I could do that. But, I look back now and realize, I learned a lot about how to handle things from watching him do it for so long.”

So, when it came time for Wirtzberger to make his own decisions about officiating, following a successful career as a high school athlete, he chose to dive into football and it stuck. He also officiated high school volleyball for a stint, but when the MHSA moved volleyball to the fall, alongside football, Wirtzberger chose to give all his time to officiating the game he’s most passionate about.

“I played on some pretty good high school teams,” Wirtzberger noted. “And when we were done playing, me and some of the other guys got recruited into officiating. I really love the game of football and I just stayed on it. I also had a lifestyle that allowed me to do it. I worked night shifts on the railroad, and had Thursday and Friday nights off. So I was able to work games on both Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. So it worked out well for me.”

Not only did it work out well for Wirtzberger, but, as time went on, he became one of the most respected and senior officials, not only in the Havre Pool, but in all of the Montana Officials Association. And, in time, that allowed him to work some of the biggest games the Hi-Line has ever seen.

Among his fondest football memories are the two Montana Shrine Game’s he’s officiated, as well as a Class B state championship game in 1998 between Malta and Huntley Project. He was also the head official for Chinook’s historic 2010 state championship game and has many other fond memories of his years working everything from Class AA games when the Blue Ponies were still in the highest division, to wild and crazy Class C Six-Man contests.

“I got started around 1980,” Wirtzberger said. “And I was able to do some games when Havre was still Class AA. I’ve had a lot of great games in my career. My first Shrine Game was a big one. The Chinook state championship game stands out. And we did the first game of the season when Havre played Billings Central, and that ended up being a one-point game, and Havre went on to play them (Rams) again that year in the state championship game. So I’ve been fortunate over the years to have worked some great games, and I had a lot of fun doing all of them.”

Often times, fun and officiating aren’t associated with each other. But Wirtzberger never looked at it that way. He has never viewed officiating as a negative, or even that difficult of a job, instead, he chose to do the best he could at it and enjoy his time doing it.

“It’s really not as hard as a lot of people think,” he said. “And I don’t believe you had to be a good football player, or even have played football to be a good official. I always tell the younger guys we’re trying to get into it that. It just takes a different mind-set. You have to learn the rules. A lot of people just don’t know the rules of football very well. So if you can learn and understand the rules, you can do well at this. And you have to be able to tune things out. You have to be able to focus on your job, which is to officiate and keep the game moving. It takes being decisive and confident in your decisions, and if you have those things, you can do well at this.”

No doubt Wirtzberger has done well. For years now, he has worn the white hat (head official), and again, is one of the most respected football officials in all of the MOA. But it isn’t just the rules, the confidence he has in his abilities and knowledge of the game that have made his trip through 35 years of high school football so enjoyable, it’s the games themselves, the camaraderie with his fellow officials, and just being a part of the game he loves so much that he’ll look back fondly on after he officiates his final game — which will likely be a Class C playoff game on Oct. 31.

“It’s been so much fun,” Wirtzberger said. “It’s been a great ride, going on the trips, all the guys I’ve worked with have been great. That’s the fun part, the guys you work with and I’ve been able to help a lot of guys get into this as well. I have to thank my wife, Kim, for all of her support while I’ve done this over the years. It’s just been a blast. It’s been a fun ride. It will be different next fall, going to games and being in the stands, but I’m proud of all I’ve been able to do as an official, and I think I’ll enjoy being a fan now, too.”