by By Dan Ninham (Oneida)
Another historic part of the game of basketball occurred at Red Lake High School, MN a few nights ago. There have been many historic happenings in the storied decades of Warrior and Lady Warrior basketball at the Red Lake Nation.
Three native officials, two from the Leech Lake Band and one from the Red Lake Nation, worked the varsity girls’ basketball game. Many people may not have known but this may be the first time it happened in the state of Minnesota.
“The first in the state with three natives reffing,” said Nolan Desjarlait, Athletic Director at Red Lake HS. “It was an honor to have them come out and ref. I’m glad the association sent them over to our house.”
“Traditionally, our children are taught by their elders about our way of life and how to live on Mother Earth,” said Susan Ninham, Red Lake Nation member and youth basketball official. “Today, our children attend schools. They’re not always fortunate to have a teacher or someone who looks like or thinks like them. Our children benefit from experiencing being taught, guided and shown how to live life from their elders. As a classroom teacher and pre-K to post secondary Principal/Administrator, I’m pleased to know our people are being trained to be the role models for our next seven generations.”
The late Erv Sargent of Cass Lake, MN was one of the longest duration native state-certified officials in the state. He and Henry Harper were community youth athletic leaders that were committed to encouraging native and non-native youth to be successful in the communities of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe communities and beyond. Erv worked youth tournaments, high school varsity and junior varsity games and at the university level. “Erv worked Bemidji State University games,” recalled Henry Harper of Cass Lake. “It was either freshmen or junior varsity games and maybe even varsity games.”
Darryl Drouillard, 49, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe member, lives in Cass Lake, MN but is from the community of Mission north of Cass Lake. “I’ve been reffing for 30 years,” said Darryl. “I got into officiating by a guy named Erv Sargent and he did games at the Bug School. There was a men’s basketball league in Cass Lake ran by Henry ‘Crock’ Harper and that’s where Erv asked me to do a game with him back in 1989. He gave me some quick ‘in’s and outs’ on what to do and call and it took me a few games and I was hooked. I’ve been at it ever since then and I worked a lot of men’s National Indian Tournaments in North Dakota and Minnesota and tournament’s all over Minnesota. I got certified with the Minnesota State High School League and started working with Frank Bowstring after a few years. Rod Erickson asked me if I was interested in working with their crew called the Lake George Officials.”
“Hopefully sometime soon I will get the opportunity to work the section finals or better yet work in the state tournament,” said Darryl. “I won’t be the first native to do so but that’s my goal as you need to work your way to that level. There’s three levels for officials and it didn’t take me long to reach the highest level. I encourage other native officials to come out and start working games, and you get good exercise and meet a lot of great people. There are only a handful of native officials that are certified in Minnesota.”
Dan Jourdain, 34, Red Lake Nation Ojibwe, lives in Bemidji, MN. “After several years of refereeing youth tournaments, summer leagues, etc., I was encouraged to apply with MSHSL and help with high school varsity basketball due to a shortage of referees,” said Dan. “My biggest influence has to be the person who first gave me a referee shirt a few years back, Mr. Dan Ninham, and from there he taught me how to assess each situation on the court whether it was good or bad. After that, I’ve met so many great officials that helped contribute to my development on the court, including Rod Erickson, Darryl Drouillard, and Phil Johnson, to name a few.”
“I’ve enjoyed the game of basketball since second grade at Red Lake Elementary School. My classmates were Dominick Johnson, Matt Graves, George Bailey, Rowdy May, Rawn Graves, Patrick Green, Dan Smith and we’re part of the dynasty Red Lake Warriors team that made it all the way to the state tournament in 2003 reaching 4th place,” added Dan.
“It would be my goal to work in the state tournament because it is not common to see natives in Minnesota work that far into the tournament,” said Dan.
“It is very rewarding to be a state-certified official because you are giving back to the game you love,” said Dan. “From watching the fundamentals being learned at younger grades to high school teams running set plays, its the love of the game that keeps me on the court. I would also like to encourage more Native referees to join their state high school organizations.”
Phillip Johnson, 39, is a Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe member. “I live in the Winnie Dam Community between Ball Club and Inger in District 1 on Leech Lake,” said Phil.
“I officiated youth basketball tournaments since I was 21,” said Phil. “And I did that until I was 35 and my high school baseball coach Jim Erzar always asked me to get certified, because he knew I was always doing youth and junior high games over the years. When I was 35, I finally gave in and got certified and started doing high school games, and haven’t looked back. Over the years, if someone called and needed officials I went and tried to help out. And I did that for many years doing many tournaments from Pacesetters to the big Shootout tourney in Bismarck.”
“My mother Betty Jenkins, and my late Father Nathan Jenkins showed me to work hard, always be early, always help someone in need, and to have respect for people,” said Phil. “My wife Lacy, children Kionna, Kaelynn, Kendall and Kaison are the reason I work hard in everything I do. My high school baseball coach Jim Erzar for encouraging me and helping me get games now that I’m certified. My mentor Bill Brink who took me under his wing and helped me get most of the games I’ve done over the last few years, while allowing me to grow as an official but kept me in line as far as rules and my mechanics. Darryl ‘Duck’ Drouillard always encouraged me to take more games to sharpen my skills on the court while always being there to answer any questions that arose.”
“I played basketball in elementary, junior high, high school, and Rez league and local Rez tournaments,” said Phil. “I was never that good of a basketball player, but I enjoyed being on the court. So in order to still be around the game, I began officiating youth basketball games and tournaments when I was 21.”
“Just as the time it took to become confident enough to officiate high school games, it will take the same time to earn sectional and state level games. And the system will make it hard to get those games. But I have a positive attitude and will work hard, and I believe if you work hard, treat people with respect, only good things will happen in time,” added Phil.
“Phil Johnson has spent many hours for many years coaching and officiating basketball,” said Jim Erzar, MSHSL coordinator of officials for northeastern Minnesota. “He knows the sport very well. Phil is a dedicated, responsible and hard-working individual with the drive and desire to improve and succeed. In addition, he has maintained his physical skills and speed. Recently Phil has been working on becoming a top ranked high school official. Based on all of those attributes, Phil has a great chance of reaching his goals.”
“Phil played baseball for me at Deer River HS and always gave his best effort. He was dedicated, respectful and was a very important part of the team. I know he lives his life that way,” added Jim.
“I worked with Phil from the elementary games up,” said Bill Brink, fellow certified official from Deer River. “I’ve been very impressed with Phil and I’ve watched him in the community respectfully working with kids. My partner and I brought him under our wings and helped him when he wanted to be an official. He is always asking questions and wants to improve every game.”
On a side note, the opportunity to use the Ojibwe language with Ojibwe players and coaches while officiating encourages the understanding that Ojibwemowin is significant. Omaa means ‘here’, onzaamibatoo means ‘travels (over runs the spot), zaagijidakokii means ‘steps out of bounds’, akawe means ‘time out’, maazhichige means ‘h/she fouls’, and wanichige means ‘double dribble (or makes a mistake).
“I do (speak Ojibwe) when I’m on the court. On free throws or come here. Basics with native teams or players,” said Phil.
“I was thinking about it last night, just use colors and numbers,” said Dan. “I wouldn’t mind trying. I’m sure it’s something that has never been done before.”
Rod Erickson is the director of the Lake George Officials Association and assigns games for officials. He shared comments on recruiting and working with native officials: “I remember a great coach I was the assistant to saying to players: ’It’s ok not to know, it is not ok to keep on not knowing.’ Any person would have to be blind to not notice over the years that the communities of northern MN were under-represented in the officiating ranks in the number of Native American officials. Darryl (Duck) Drouillard was the first to join our Lake George officials. I believe he started officiating in his late teens with Erv Sargent doing games at the Bug School and working league games for Henry Harper in Cass Lake as well as various men’s tournaments. He joined our group approximately eight years ago and is definitely one of our top officials working both high school games as well as at the collegiate level.”
“What I look for is someone who has a desire to become better and learn the rules and proper mechanics of officiating and enjoys doing it. Phil Johnson started with us by helping with the Pride of the North Tournament (POTN) in Bemidji for several years, doing games when his team wasn’t playing. I approached him about doing some high school games with us and he was willing, but is also helping coach at Deer River, so does games when available. He will be doing his first college game today at Oak Hills,” added Rod.
“I saw Dan Jourdain working last year at the Bemidji POTN and thought, ‘he looks like he knows what he is doing.’ I talked with him and asked if he was interested in doing games at a higher level and he said yes. I found out where he worked and put together a packet of rule book/casebook/officials manual and other MSHSL/NFHS info and dropped it off. He also agreed to work the Bemidji varsity summer league to get experience at that level, and did five of the six nights. That told me he was committed. Our group as a whole has welcomed him and worked with him on proper positioning and mechanics and he continues to improve,” added Rod.
“I did not assign the three who went to Red Lake to officiate because they were Native American but I was obviously aware of it,” said Rod. “I sent them because they were competent to do the job, and both of the more experienced officials would continue to mentor Dan Jourdain, the newest official. I believe it was a positive experience for Red Lake High School, the teams and the officials. I was up there last night and heard some nice comments. Other native officials we work with are Steve Day, Kevin Kingbird, and Pat Haugen.”
“I would tell any other natives that want to officiate, you need to find youth games and tournaments and get your feet wet,” said Phil. “Find an experienced official willing to help you out, and just ask questions. Many people I’ve tried to bring in to officiating over the years were chased away by fans and coaches. And we now have a shortage of officials.”
“As natives, we need more of our kids that are so talented players to give back and start reffing once they graduated high school and even those that go on to play college. Those are the ones that should really give officiating and giving back to the game. They are already looked up to so much, so we need them to become experienced officials. There’s no better way to give back to the kids and to the game of basketball,” added Phil.
Photo Credit: Phil Johnson
Caption: From left to right – Phil Johnson, Darryl Drouillard and Dan Jourdain
Browning Montana, Blackfeet Indian Reservation has the only ALL Native American Officiating crew in Montana. There are eight Master referees and eight other referees that more moving up the chain and aspiring to be Mater Officials. We are ALL members of the great Blackfeet nation.
Hi my name is Mike Thomas,I’ve been a MSHSL official for 23 years, I’ve worked the State tournament the last 9 years,( the boys side ). I’ve been in 3 championships games, last year I did the championship game between Hopkins and Lakeville at Target Center (that was the highlight of my reffing career). I’ve reffed various games at Target Center and Williams Arena. This year I got selected to the girls state tournament (semifinal game). I am very proud to see that they had 3 Native officials working a game (congratulations).