Basketball will miss a good person

Over the years, I’ve gotten to know a lot of people through my association with midget sports and in the media.

Some that you’d like to forget and others that leave a lasting impression.

When I go to an athletic event, one of the first things I tend to notice, isn’t so much the crowd, but who the officials are. In the playoffs, it’s not so much who they are, but what chapter they are from (more on that later).

So why is that so important? Well, depending who walks into a football stadium, gym, or baseball/softball field, you know you’ll get a quality game.

As I’ve said over the years, the Lancaster-Lebanon League has been blessed with a number of quality officials in football and basketball. The same goes in baseball and softball.

How can you tell a quality official? Well for me, its one that doesn’t try to dominate a game with his whistle; one that understands the game and has a genuine desire to excel at his craft.

Back when I was in high school and even later, those type of officials included the likes of Jack Eby and Bob Diehm, Bob Burke, Fred Engle (who is still doing games today), the Flick brothers and Jerry Larish. I’m sure I am missing a few.

As those guys retired some new faces came into the chapter. One of those new guys was Tim Bartholomew.

He worked hard at his craft to become a quality official.

Not only did I get to know Tim through officiating, but also baseball coaching, as he helped out with the Ephrata and Akron youth programs.

Quality guy. Quality official.

But that quality official, quality guy is no longer with us.

He passed away last Thursday night after calling a District Three playoff game between Hershey and Boiling Springs at Red Land High School.

I got a phone call about it Friday morning, but the caller didn’t know who the official was. After doing some searching on the internet, I was able to find out who.

Talk about getting hit by a ton of bricks. Basketball, at least in the Lancaster-Lebanon League lost a quality person.

You can’t blame a guy for cutting back his schedule over the last few years because he wanted to see his son play at Ephrata. When when he did games, they were quality.

Hopefully some of the younger, heck, even some of the older officials in the chapter, were able to learn something from him.