2 years ago
A high school football referee was knocked unconscious during a championship game at Ralph Wilson Stadium Saturday.
"It hurts our whole membership because one of us went down. We're a pretty tight-knit organization," said Paul Trzybinski of the Western New York Football Officials Association.
Veteran referee Richard Schwede is recovering at home after being knocked unconscious while refereeing a game at Ralph Wilson Stadium. He was in the umpire position. One of the largest players on the field in the game between Sweet Home and Iroquois ran right into Schwede. "I remember going toward the end zone. And after that I remember nothing," said Schwede, adding that "I was thinking I'm going to get hurt."
Schwede says the next thing he remembers is waking up in the ambulance. Despite the incident he says he believes referees are relatively safe and have to accept the risks that come with the job. Still, he said, until the playoffs most games in Western New York use four referees for games, unlike five in other places. "It affects coverage," he says. "There are too many responsibilities for officials to see everything around them."
Trzybinski says the shot to Schwede was troubling because you see the size of the player going full-speed, "and you take that impact on your body. But it's the whiplash from hitting the turf that really cost him his injury."
He says the umpire position is particularly dangerous "because you're in the middle with all the players and there's really no place to go. A lot of times you have to dodge and just kind of hope for the best that you don't get it like he did last night."
According to Trzybinski, local refs have had a rash of injuries this year, "so maybe we need to look at how close we're actually to the line of scrimmage," adding that you can't take those moves too far because it could then affect the game and how it is played.
Schwede says he'll be keeping an eye on the games from the sidelines for the rest of the playoffs.
