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John Zant: Hall of Fame Referee |
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By John Zant
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Monday, May 14 2007 |
- Make room for seven more.
The 40th annual Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Hall of Fame banquet tonight (Monday, May 14) will swell the membership of the local sports shrine to 229.
 John Zant
• The athletes who make the plays: 103. New inductees: Paula Bowen, Don Hopwood, Gerry Karczewski and Kara Warkentin.
• The coaches who teach the plays: 48. New inductee: Carmen DiPoalo.
• The community leaders who support the plays: 43. New inductee: Joe Howell.
• The people who are involved in various other ways that deserve to be recognized: 35. New inductee: John Stoney.
- Stoney is the sixth two-timer in the Hall of Fame. The former San Marcos High football and golf coach was enshrined in the coaches' wing in 1995. Tonight he will be honored in the "special achievement" category for his 37 years as a guy who blows a whistle, throws a flag, calls fouls, and decides balls and strikes.
Yes, this community is so fair-minded about sports that it pays tribute to referees and umpires.
Earlier Hall of Fame inductees in that category include several track and field officials, the late Dick Olmstead and current NFL officials Gary Cavaletto and Laird Hayes.
Stoney never climbed to the peak of the profession like Hayes, who has worked two Super Bowls, but it's just as important for a high school football game to be well officiated as it is for the Colts and Bears to get a fair shake. Local coaches never doubted they would get a professional effort from Stoney.
"Once I called up Cal Houston (the regional commissioner of officials) and said, 'Cal, how come I never get John Stoney?'" said former Santa Barbara High football coach Mike Moropoulos. "Cal said, 'I didn't think you'd want a San Marcos guy doing your games.' I said, 'Cal, he's the best we have. You can put him on every game we play, including the San Marcos game.'"
Hayes, who played on Stoney's San Marcos team that beat Santa Barbara 7-6 in 1966, says he learned a lot about officiating from his old coach.
"John was all business out there," Hayes said. "He brought crews together. I've had refs who were condescending and dismissive. John was nurturing. He understood the game, the coaches and the players. He knew how to diffuse controversies. I'm sure he had very few dicey situations on the field, like Ed Hochuli in the NFL. With a referee like him, it's a piece of cake."
Stoney officiated NCAA divisional college football as well as junior college and prep games. He retired from the gridiron after the 2003 season, finishing up with the CIF championship game between Loyola and Long Beach Poly. It was his 11th CIF final. He also worked five NCAA playoff games -- including the 1990 Division II championship between North Dakota State and Indiana (Pa.) in Alabama -- and 10 junior college bowls.
"I quit football because my legs were giving out," said Stoney, who turns 70 this year. He credits the profession for keeping him in shape over the years. "You can weigh 400 pounds and be a coach."
He still gets behind the plate as a softball umpire. For 10 years he has taught a two-unit course, "Principles of Sports Officiating," at UCSB. And he writes an annual exam for college football officials in California, Nevada and Hawaii.
An example of the rules that Stoney knows inside-out:
"Time is running out in the half, and a quarterback pretends to go to a knee, but then he straightens up and throws a pass. By rule, the ball is dead. Cal Poly tried it against Cal State Northridge and threw the pass for a touchdown. I called it back. They were livid: 'We've been working on that all week.'"
They got no break from the guy who writes the test.
The Round Table banquet, routinely sold out, begins at 6 p.m. at Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort.
Dos Pueblos High will have two multi-sport athletes inducted into the Hall of Fame -- Bowen (basketball, tennis and softball) and Hopwood (football and track). Karczewski was a guard on San Marcos High's exciting Runnin' Royals basketball team of the '80s. Warkentin was a standout tennis player at San Marcos.
DiPoalo was the Marv Goux of City College football, a longtime assistant coach who was the backbone of the program. Howell, a local attorney, has been extremely generous with his time as a fund-raiser and supporter of numerous community events and causes.
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