Document text
Medford referees will work Blazer tilt By DON HUNT Of the thousands of fans who show up for tonight's Portland Trail Blazers intrasquad game at the Rose Garden, very few will take note of the fellows wearing black and white striped shirts with whistles in their mouths. But for the four men who will alternate manning the three officiating positions, the game will be as exciting as space is to a group of astronauts. All four -- Jay Reese, Brian Koppang, Bruce Corson and Bobby Collins -- grew up in Medford. "It's a chance of a lifetime for someone like myself," says Collins, the No. 1-ranked official from the Rogue Valley Officials Association. "I can't wait to get up there." Collins, who officiated the Eagle Point-Crater boys game Friday night, is the only member of the quartet to currently reside in Medford. But all four are Medford High graduates who cut their officiating teeth in the Rogue Valley. Reese and Koppang have lived in Salem for the past several years, working high school and college games, while Corson has been working the high school and college circuits in Anchorage, Alaska. "It's a neat deal that we're all from Medford, but these guys have the ability to officiate at any level," Reese said. Reese is the one who has his foot in the NBA door, and he recruited the other three to help out. After officiating 10 years of high school ball and 13 years of college competition, including games involving Pac-10 Conference schools, Reese developed a working relationship with former Trail Blazers coach P.J. Carlesimo and assistant general manager Jim Paxson. Along with Koppang, a longtime official in the Portland high school association, Reese began to officiate scrimmages at the Trail Blazer training camps at Linfield College. When Reese was asked by current coach Mike Dunleavy to put together a crew for this year's training camp at the Blazers' new $8 million facility in Tualatin, he put in calls to Koppang, Corson and Collins. The coup de grace is tonight's intrasquad game, in which Blazer officials handed out free tickets for all 25,000 seats. "It's going to be a lot of fun, but none of us is taking this for granted," Reese said. "The fans may think this is a low-key deal, but for some of the players, the game might mean the difference between getting a roster spot or getting cut. "For us, it's a chance to work a game with the highest level of players in the world. We're going to give it our best shot." Reese, a former television and radio sportscaster in Medford and a 1978 graduate of Medford High, is hoping to wedge his way into the NBA officiating ranks on a full-time basis. He has traveled to NBA games with longtime NBA official Ed Middleton and says he is on the short list to officiate college all-star games prior to the NBA draft in June. Reese also hopes to officiate NBA summer league games. "I'm on the fringe of their development system," he says. "I've had contact with Ed Rush (the supervisor of NBA officials), who's a good friend of Ed Middleton. I'm hoping to get my shot." Reese has spent a lot of time recently studying the NBA case book, which details a staggering 419 possible plays during a game, everything from basket interference to a flagrant foul. At the age of 39, Reese knows his window of opportunity won't last much longer. And although he runs a successful business in Salem, supplying contractors with accessory items, his salary doesn't match the $105,000 a first-year NBA official makes. "They're not going to hire me much after 40," he admits. "They'd rather hire a 28-year-old and say, `We've got this guy for 10 more years,"' Reese says. "If this is going to happen, it's going to happen soon." Corson, meanwhile, has been on the floor for major college games at the Great Alaska Shootout the past three years. He officiated the championship game of the tournament in December between No. 2-ranked Duke and No. 5 Cincinnati. Corson, a 1979 Medford High graduate and former football star with the Black Tornado, also regularly officiates games involving the University of Alaska Anchorage, not to mention high school games in the Anchorage area. He is the vice president of the Anchorage Sports Officials Association. "I've had to revamp my goals because I keep getting opportunities I never dreamed I'd get," the 37-year-old Corson says. "I've worked state championship games in Alaska the last two years. I've been on the court with Notre Dame, Duke, Cincinnati, Syracuse, Seton Hall, UCLA -- a lot of top-notch programs with big-name coaches. "I've just been real fortunate." And what about stepping onto an NBA court for the first time? "It's the stuff dreams are made of," says Corson, who recently built a spec house in Seattle and fishes for sockeye salmon in Alaska in the summer. Koppang, an all-conference basketball player for Medford High in the mid-1970s, has officiated games in the Portland association for the past decade and has also worked small college games in the Portland and Salem areas. Collins also worked college games for several years but grew weary of the travel and, as of this year, is focusing on high school basketball in the Rogue Valley. Tonight, though, he'll find himself on a much bigger stage. "There's going to be a few more butterflies than usual," Collins says. "I worked at the (Blazers) training camp with Jay (Reese) last year and there was a nice-sized crowd at Linfield for this (intrasquad) game. "But this one's at the Rose Garden and I'm sure there will be a lot more fans." Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford,