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Interview with him
Posted on: February 13, 2018 at 16:47:19 CT
FIJItiger MU
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http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/sports/article_ce1a4f1e-8d8e-11e6-9180-23d08683734d.html
After 40 years as a basketball official, the past 29 working about 2,000 Division I games, Denham Springs native Mark Whitehead is hanging up his whistle and striped shirt. Whitehead, who worked 23 NCAA tournaments, 18 regionals and five Final Four assignments — including one championship game — is beginning his first season as coordinator of officials for the Southeastern Conference and two other leagues that have partnered with the SEC. The 56-year-old Whitehead, who has been busy repairing his south Denham Springs home that flooded in August, took time to sit down with Advocate sportswriter Sheldon Mickles to discuss his lengthy career and what his new job entails.
The Advocate: Before we talk about the new job, how did you get into all this and when did you decide you wanted to do it for a living?
Whitehead: Really, I didn’t have any aspirations to do it for a living. I was doing it for fun after I graduated from high school, and it just sort of developed from there. I started going to camps, and things just happened. I liked it, and people took a liking to me, and I got fortunate and lucky. I started calling college basketball games and worked my way up.
When I got into Division I in the 1987-88 season, I was 27 years old. But I started refereeing when I was 15 or 16 years old, really, as soon as I could drive. I started with Biddy ball in 1976, then moved to high school games after I graduated in 1978 and did some of that as well as junior-college and NAIA games while going to Southeastern.
TA: Since making the next step up to Division I, which conferences have you worked in?
MW: Big 12, Conference USA, Big 10, SEC, American Athletic, Pac-12, Mountain West and Missouri Valley.
TA: Did you ever have a desire to officiate other sports like football and baseball?
MW: I umpired baseball and refereed football. But basketball, there’s a lot more action, and you’re a lot more involved. It’s indoors and the weather is a lot nicer (laughter), so I think I made a great choice.
TA: You’re only 56 and still pretty healthy, why did you decide to leave the court at this time?
MW: I really didn’t think about taking a job as a coordinator. I didn’t dream about it, wasn’t out there looking for a job, didn’t want a job, didn’t need a job. But I was approached by the Southeastern Conference around the first week of June about the possibility of that being something in the future that might work for me.
I met with (SEC commissioner) Greg Sankey and went through a little interview process, and it’s hard to tell that guy no. He spent a week thinking about what he was going to do and then offered me the job, and I accepted it. I thought about it for a day and said, ‘Maybe this is the right time.’
TA: So it didn’t take you long to decide?
MW: Well, I had a whole week to kind of contemplate it while he was going through the process. I felt I had a few good years left and I wasn’t looking to come off the court, but I thought that opportunity may not present itself again.
I did have an exit plan (to get off the court), and hopefully I was smart enough to realize at some point I would have to come off the floor … you can’t do it forever. If I had continued working, in the next couple of years I would have probably needed to cut back maybe 10 or 15 percent on my schedule to be able to travel and get my rest and be ready for the games. As you get older, it just takes a toll on you.
TA: Is there an age that you have to come off the court?
MW: Not really, but you still have to be fit, you still have to be mobile, you still have to be able to run decently to get up and down the floor. At a certain point, when you can’t cover the floor any more, it’s time to probably get off. I’ve been blessed, but I’m sure my knees and hips will thank me later this year when I’m not on the floor trying to keep up with a bunch of great 20-year-old athletes.
TA: Let’s talk about the new job. How will that work with the new partnership between the SEC, American Athletic and Atlantic Sun conferences, and what are your duties?
MW: The three leagues formed a working relationship with me as their coordinator of officials, which is the first year they’re working together to try and have us all under one umbrella allowing us to control more assignments and have more input in officiating in our leagues.
We’re trying to get one mindset, actually, across the entire country in officiating. The NCAA is working on that, trying to make sure the games look the same, and are played the same, on the East Coast as they are in the Midwest and West Coast. That’s a goal of all the coordinators across the country, for all of us to follow the lead of the NCAA so we look similar on TV every night.
TA: How many schools are in the consortium?
MW: There are 33 in all, and the consortium is a working relationship between the conferences, more or less. I’m still an independent contractor for each of the three leagues working through the consortium.
TA: What are your duties?
MW: It’s multiple, of course, starting with getting the schedules from the schools themselves, assigning the officials, watching games, watching film, having input from evaluators, making decisions on people’s ability … not only on the court, but projecting where they’ll be one year, three years, five years down the road to get better and improve.
Part of the process is training and developing guys in summer camps where some high-level kids are playing AAU basketball. These officials are getting evaluated, getting graded, getting rated, and we’re making projections on where we can use them. For example, we may help lesser-experienced officials get in the NAIA and junior-college ranks to get them experience. So there’s hiring, training, developing, assigning of officials and all the evaluations and film.
TA: How excited are you about being involved in that?
MW: Realizing how hard the job is, having been on the floor for that number of years, I know it’s never going to be perfect. But our goal, obviously, is to improve and get better, to recognize people when they have talent and evaluate them and move them forward, if they’re talented enough, to continue to work their way up at the Division I level.
I feel like I have the passion for the game that I had back when I was 27 and got into Division I and was excited. I’m excited for this opportunity, and hopefully, helping to be a small part of improving officiating. I feel good things are on the way and are going to happen.
TA: You worked the most recent Final Four in Houston, which game did you have?
MW: I did the Villanova-Oklahoma semifinal game, but little did I know at the time that it would be my last game.
TA: What’s the best Final Four game you worked?
MW: I don’t know if Final Four games are always the best ones you had in the NCAA tournament. There are other games in the tournament and other games in my career that stick out, but I don’t have one in particular. The highlight, and I don’t know if it’s the best game I ever worked, but for me to referee the championship game in my home state at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and toss the ball in the air (for the opening tip) for the 2012 Kansas-Kentucky game … that has to be the highlight.
TA: For the sheer excitement the college game has, particularly at tournament time, do you have a favorite game you called?
MW: There’s at least a couple. One would be in 2008 between Memphis and Tennessee, they were ranked one-two and played a night game on Beale Street (at the FedExForum) and it was a great atmosphere (UT beat previously undefeated Memphis 66-62). That was probably one of the most intense games I’ve ever been involved in with a high caliber of ball.
The other would be in 2005 with Kentucky and Michigan State in the regional final to get to the Final Four. Double-overtime in Austin, Texas, we had to go to the monitor to see if a player had his foot on the 3-point line with no time left in regulation. We ruled it a 3 on the court, and it was the first year we could use replay. Six and a half minutes later, the game went to overtime.
TA: When you started officiating four decades ago, could you have ever imagined that you would make it up to Division I and do that for 29 years?
MW: I never could dream that big and never thought of it that way. I was just trying to make $10 (laughter) to help pay some of my college tuition back in 1978, so I never dreamed of that. To have what it became, you know, all the NCAA tournaments, traveling all over the country, being a part of a great game with these coaches and kids, and feel like you were giving something back to the game, never dreamed that big.
THE MARK WHITEHEAD FILE
Birthdate: May 20, 1960 (56 years old)
Residence: Denham Springs
Family: Wife, Terri; son, Matthew
Education: Denham Springs High (graduated 1978), Southeastern Louisiana (BA in marketing, MBA)
Current job title: Coordinator of basketball officials (Southeastern Conference, American Athletic Conference, Atlantic Sun Conference)
Experience: 40 years as a basketball official with 29 seasons in Division I
Previous occupation: Opened and ran Whitehead Travel Agency
After 40 years as a basketball official, the past 29 working about 2,000 Division I games, Denham Springs native Mark Whitehead is hanging up his whistle and striped shirt. Whitehead, who worked 23 NCAA tournaments, 18 regionals and five Final Four assignments — including one championship game — is beginning his first season as coordinator of officials for the Southeastern Conference and two other leagues that have partnered with the SEC. The 56-year-old Whitehead, who has been busy repairing his south Denham Springs home that flooded in August, took time to sit down with Advocate sportswriter Sheldon Mickles to discuss his lengthy career and what his new job entails.
The Advocate: Before we talk about the new job, how did you get into all this and when did you decide you wanted to do it for a living?
Whitehead: Really, I didn’t have any aspirations to do it for a living. I was doing it for fun after I graduated from high school, and it just sort of developed from there. I started going to camps, and things just happened. I liked it, and people took a liking to me, and I got fortunate and lucky. I started calling college basketball games and worked my way up.
When I got into Division I in the 1987-88 season, I was 27 years old. But I started refereeing when I was 15 or 16 years old, really, as soon as I could drive. I started with Biddy ball in 1976, then moved to high school games after I graduated in 1978 and did some of that as well as junior-college and NAIA games while going to Southeastern.
TA: Since making the next step up to Division I, which conferences have you worked in?
MW: Big 12, Conference USA, Big 10, SEC, American Athletic, Pac-12, Mountain West and Missouri Valley.
TA: Did you ever have a desire to officiate other sports like football and baseball?
MW: I umpired baseball and refereed football. But basketball, there’s a lot more action, and you’re a lot more involved. It’s indoors and the weather is a lot nicer (laughter), so I think I made a great choice.
TA: You’re only 56 and still pretty healthy, why did you decide to leave the court at this time?
MW: I really didn’t think about taking a job as a coordinator. I didn’t dream about it, wasn’t out there looking for a job, didn’t want a job, didn’t need a job. But I was approached by the Southeastern Conference around the first week of June about the possibility of that being something in the future that might work for me.
I met with (SEC commissioner) Greg Sankey and went through a little interview process, and it’s hard to tell that guy no. He spent a week thinking about what he was going to do and then offered me the job, and I accepted it. I thought about it for a day and said, ‘Maybe this is the right time.’
TA: So it didn’t take you long to decide?
MW: Well, I had a whole week to kind of contemplate it while he was going through the process. I felt I had a few good years left and I wasn’t looking to come off the court, but I thought that opportunity may not present itself again.
I did have an exit plan (to get off the court), and hopefully I was smart enough to realize at some point I would have to come off the floor … you can’t do it forever. If I had continued working, in the next couple of years I would have probably needed to cut back maybe 10 or 15 percent on my schedule to be able to travel and get my rest and be ready for the games. As you get older, it just takes a toll on you.
TA: Is there an age that you have to come off the court?
MW: Not really, but you still have to be fit, you still have to be mobile, you still have to be able to run decently to get up and down the floor. At a certain point, when you can’t cover the floor any more, it’s time to probably get off. I’ve been blessed, but I’m sure my knees and hips will thank me later this year when I’m not on the floor trying to keep up with a bunch of great 20-year-old athletes.
TA: Let’s talk about the new job. How will that work with the new partnership between the SEC, American Athletic and Atlantic Sun conferences, and what are your duties?
MW: The three leagues formed a working relationship with me as their coordinator of officials, which is the first year they’re working together to try and have us all under one umbrella allowing us to control more assignments and have more input in officiating in our leagues.
We’re trying to get one mindset, actually, across the entire country in officiating. The NCAA is working on that, trying to make sure the games look the same, and are played the same, on the East Coast as they are in the Midwest and West Coast. That’s a goal of all the coordinators across the country, for all of us to follow the lead of the NCAA so we look similar on TV every night.
TA: How many schools are in the consortium?
MW: There are 33 in all, and the consortium is a working relationship between the conferences, more or less. I’m still an independent contractor for each of the three leagues working through the consortium.
TA: What are your duties?
MW: It’s multiple, of course, starting with getting the schedules from the schools themselves, assigning the officials, watching games, watching film, having input from evaluators, making decisions on people’s ability … not only on the court, but projecting where they’ll be one year, three years, five years down the road to get better and improve.
Part of the process is training and developing guys in summer camps where some high-level kids are playing AAU basketball. These officials are getting evaluated, getting graded, getting rated, and we’re making projections on where we can use them. For example, we may help lesser-experienced officials get in the NAIA and junior-college ranks to get them experience. So there’s hiring, training, developing, assigning of officials and all the evaluations and film.
TA: How excited are you about being involved in that?
MW: Realizing how hard the job is, having been on the floor for that number of years, I know it’s never going to be perfect. But our goal, obviously, is to improve and get better, to recognize people when they have talent and evaluate them and move them forward, if they’re talented enough, to continue to work their way up at the Division I level.
I feel like I have the passion for the game that I had back when I was 27 and got into Division I and was excited. I’m excited for this opportunity, and hopefully, helping to be a small part of improving officiating. I feel good things are on the way and are going to happen.
TA: You worked the most recent Final Four in Houston, which game did you have?
MW: I did the Villanova-Oklahoma semifinal game, but little did I know at the time that it would be my last game.
TA: What’s the best Final Four game you worked?
MW: I don’t know if Final Four games are always the best ones you had in the NCAA tournament. There are other games in the tournament and other games in my career that stick out, but I don’t have one in particular. The highlight, and I don’t know if it’s the best game I ever worked, but for me to referee the championship game in my home state at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and toss the ball in the air (for the opening tip) for the 2012 Kansas-Kentucky game … that has to be the highlight.
TA: For the sheer excitement the college game has, particularly at tournament time, do you have a favorite game you called?
MW: There’s at least a couple. One would be in 2008 between Memphis and Tennessee, they were ranked one-two and played a night game on Beale Street (at the FedExForum) and it was a great atmosphere (UT beat previously undefeated Memphis 66-62). That was probably one of the most intense games I’ve ever been involved in with a high caliber of ball.
The other would be in 2005 with Kentucky and Michigan State in the regional final to get to the Final Four. Double-overtime in Austin, Texas, we had to go to the monitor to see if a player had his foot on the 3-point line with no time left in regulation. We ruled it a 3 on the court, and it was the first year we could use replay. Six and a half minutes later, the game went to overtime.
TA: When you started officiating four decades ago, could you have ever imagined that you would make it up to Division I and do that for 29 years?
MW: I never could dream that big and never thought of it that way. I was just trying to make $10 (laughter) to help pay some of my college tuition back in 1978, so I never dreamed of that. To have what it became, you know, all the NCAA tournaments, traveling all over the country, being a part of a great game with these coaches and kids, and feel like you were giving something back to the game, never dreamed that big.
THE MARK WHITEHEAD FILE
Birthdate: May 20, 1960 (56 years old)
Residence: Denham Springs
Family: Wife, Terri; son, Matthew
Education: Denham Springs High (graduated 1978), Southeastern Louisiana (BA in marketing, MBA)
Current job title: Coordinator of basketball officials (Southeastern Conference, American Athletic Conference, Atlantic Sun Conference)
Experience: 40 years as a basketball official with 29 seasons in Division I
Previous occupation: Opened and ran Whitehead Travel Agency
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Interview with him - FIJItiger MU - 2/13 16:47:19