Prep Plus: Area men stepping away

Longtime officials Sherm Cutler of Claremont and Marty Weismantel of Columbia have worked their final basketball games.

Both men will continue to work football games in the fall, but decided now was the time to put away the stripes on the hardwood.

"My knees are shot and I'm 60," said Cutler of his decision to retire from hoops. "We've got guys older than 60 that are still reffing. They probably should quit, too."

Weismantel would like to spend more time attending his children's activities and also cited the physical toll of officiating.

"When we started, we were working up to 100 nights a year," said Weismantel of when the girls' and boys' seasons ran separately.

And most of those nights were spent on tile floors, not wood.

Both men say the thing they will likely miss the most is the camaraderie with other officials and also those around the game. They will not miss long nights on the road.

Weismantel recalled one brutal week that featured games in Mobridge on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, another in Marshall, Minn., on Wednesday and then one in Pierre on Saturday.

While Weismantel and Cutler each worked a few years doing college games as well, both are well known for their work at the high school level.

Weismantel worked two girls' state championship games and one boys, while Cutler had one girls' final and three boys' state title games.

Weismantel has officiated for 23 years and Cutler 34. Both men say it takes some thick skin to stay in the business.

"The only thing that really bothered me is (people) not knowing the correct rules. At some point, you need to know the rules before you yell at me," Cutler said. "We do make mistakes. The kids make mistakes, the coaches make mistakes and the officials make mistakes."

Weismantel said he remembers one occasion where a coach got on him because his team was not playing well. He also recalled his response to the coach.

"I said, 'When things aren't going right, that's when you need to do a little more coaching and a little less refereeing.' Several times since then, he said, 'That's the best words I've ever been told,'" Weismantel said.

Through the years, Cutler and Weismantel have shared a few games together and more than a few laughs.

When asked why he originally got into officiating, Weismantel shared a story of the days when Cutler used to ref some of his high school games.

"You always have to get the first jab in on Sherm," Weismantel said.

So the reason Weismantel began officiating can be traced back to watching Cutler officiate.

"I figured if he could do that bad of a job, anybody could do it," Weismantel said.

Sports writer Dave Vilhauer