Tom Minter of Okemos, an official for the past 48 years, will be this year’s recipient of the MHSAA’s Vern L. Norris Award.
Minter has been an official for nine MHSAA Finals and is a longtime clinician and trainer of referees and umpires all over the state.
The Norris Award is presented annually to a veteran official who has been active in a local officials’ association, has mentored other officials, and has been involved in officials’ education. It is named for Vern L. Norris, who served as executive director of the MHSAA from 1978-86.
Minter will receive the honor at the Officials’ Awards & Alumni Banquet on May 4 at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing.
Minter has worked games in football, boys’ and girls’ basketball, boys’ and girls’ soccer, and baseball. He was on the MHSAA staff as assistant to executive director John E. “Jack” Roberts from September 1995 until retiring at the end of January 2012.
He still works soccer, football, and basketball games, while also providing mentorship at clinics all over the state. He indicated he might keep officiating another three to five years.
“I think the difficulty in getting officials is because of the demand on individual time these days for work and family,” Minter said. “Not all events are held at times that are easy for officials to get to. You have people having to use up vacation time. And that 4:30 baseball game is still going until 8:30 p.m. At the other end of the spectrum, you’re running into family time.”
Minter, a native of Akron, Ohio, started his officiating career while a student at a U.S. Air Force base high school overseas, having moved with his family to Scotland in 1958. He refereed his first high school soccer game in 1961. The nine MHSAA finals that he worked include five in baseball, two in football, and one each in boys’ and girls’ soccer.
“The weather is commonplace now, although this lousy spring we’ve had makes you think a little bit,” Minter said. “Years ago I did a varsity football game at Fowler. It was raining heavily and the field was just a mud bath from one end to the other. You literally came out of your shoe about every time you took a step. The players were the same way. It was a ground game and players, both sides, were caked in mug so that it was difficult to determine who was who.
“You would throw your flag and it would disappear in the mud. The final score was 6-0.”
Minter also continues to work as a member of a Big Ten football replay officials’ crew and observer of officials for the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, a conference for which he served as an on-field official for 25 seasons, including eight as crew chief. But Minter acknowledged that there’s something special about being a high school official.
“It’s the contact with kids in the sport,” Minter said. “In high school, the athletes aren’t as skilled but have the enthusiasm and desire for being on a team. Their enthusiasm is contagious.”