By GENE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
A former Stevens Point resident will be moving into his 22nd season as a National Basketball Association referee.
Blane Reichelt, a 1972 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, will be donning his "zebra" stripes again this fall to race up and down the court with the likes of Shaquille O'Neal, Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant.
Reichelt, an Appleton native, returned to Stevens Point recently for a short visit. He was in the area with his wife, the former Sue Hamm of Wisconsin Rapids, to attend her high school reunion.
Reichelt now lives in Lubbock, Texas, where his wife is a professor at Texas Tech University and his visit to Wisconsin was hardly a rest stop. While he was here for some social events, he's starting to increase his training regimen to get ready for the coming NBA season.
The NBA has weight and body fat limits for referees, so they need to stay physically fit. "If you're overweight, you'll be suspended," Reichelt said. "You want to be in the best shape possible. They don't want heavy people who can't run. They want us to be in the best shape we can be."
He said he resumed his workouts in mid-July and has a weigh-in scheduled for Oct. 1. By that date he'll be running up to five miles per day as part of his training, he said. "My legs are an important part of my business. That's why I have to work out so much."
Running helps his legs, but they take a beating, he said. "The starts and stops take a toll. On the court you run for 30 yards and then stop."
Reichelt stayed in Stevens Point after his graduation from UW-SP where he majored in physical therapy, working at St. Michael's Hospital.
He had been a member of the Pointer football and baseball teams and held a few pass receiving records that were quickly broken once the late Pointer football coach Monte Charles installed his "Aerial Circus" passing game.
He played fast-pitch and slow-pitch softball for the Flame and Romie's in Stevens Point, Plover, Junction City, Wausau and Mosinee, plus baseball for the old Stevens Point Brewers.
"I miss playing softball," he said, "but I didn't want to get hurt. I quit playing and took to umpiring."
He got his start in refereeing from Bob Rohde, a former Pointer football star who was teaching at Ben Franklin Junior High School in Stevens Point, during the 1972-73 season.
Don Soderberg, a former coach at Pacelli High School, gave Reichelt his first high school refereeing job in a Pacelli game.
"I remember, it was JFK Prep from St. Nazianz and they had Mickey Crowe," he said, referring to Crowe, a high-school phenom known for his long hair, floppy socks and frequent long-distance shots from beyond the three-point arc before there even was a three-point arc.
Reichelt credits Soderberg with helping him advance as a referee. "He helped me quite a bit," Reichelt said, adding that he introduced him to Bucky Bronkhurst of Abbotsford, who was also an NBA ref.
Reichelt also moved into refereeing college games and he credits Duaine Counsell, head coach of the Pointer football team when Reichelt played, as giving a big push to take that step, along with Max Sparger, head of the former Wisconsin State University Conference (WSUC), the forerunner of Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC).
Reichelt wasn't so sure about it as a profession, however. "What chance does a kid from northern Wisconsin have to get into it," he said, pointing out that only four Wisconsin men have ever become NBA refs.
He got his chance in 1978, when the NBA added a third referee.
The talent level in the NBA left him in awe. "There guys are amazing athletes," he said. "They're 6-9 and run like a deer. A lot could play in the NFL."
Refereeing today also means a lot of work besides running up and down a basketball court.
"The preparation is amazing," he said. "We study videotapes all the time to learn the plays the teams run, the matchups, the defense. We go over scouting reports. We see if there's any match problem."
Satellite television has affected refereeing, he said. Referees go over videotapes of the game they worked after the game, he said. Referees have laptop computers and send in reports about the game and critique every call made in the game.
"It's a learning tool and helps us a lot," Reichelt said. "In the past we never knew if we got a play right or not. Now we go over everything. We've gotten a lot better."
His job takes him away from home between 140 and 150 days each year, and he said his wife has gotten good at handling that situation.
Being on the road also limits his opportunities to see games his daughter plays in. She'll be a senior in high school this year and plans on going to college next fall.
Reichelt and his family have made a number of moves during his career. He started out in Stevens Point but NBA officials suggested he live in a location closer to an airport hub, so he moved to Milwaukee.
From there he moved to Denver, Colo., then San Diego, Calif., back to Denver and Florida for eight years, where Sue got her master's degree to go with her bachelor's degree from UW-SP.
They moved to Ames, Iowa, where Sue got a doctorate from Iowa State University, then eastern Kentucky, finally going to Lubbock last year, where Sue teaches family and consumer science education at Texas Tech while also handling student intern duties at Texas A&M University.
Reichelt isn't sure how long he'll continue as a referee. "I hope I can go 25 years," he said. "I'm just 51 and we have some guys 60 still working."