Not Just Another Season for Watson
May 3, 2018
By Cody Porter
NFHS High School Today
A 32-second response by emergency medical technicians was the difference in life or death for 68-year-old Willie Watson, who was spared from becoming another victim of sudden cardiac arrest.
Watson, a 38-year official for the Michigan High School Athletic Association, collapsed in the tunnel near the officials’ locker room after the Division 6 Football Final at Ford Field last Nov. 25 in Detroit. Fortunately for the Kalamazoo native, stadium staff members were steps away as he fell unconscious. Within seconds, their call for help reached on-site EMTs who swiftly made their way to him from the field.
“It was strange because I wasn’t sick or anything. I drove to the game by myself. Everything was fine, got dressed, and then went out on the field for the game,” Watson said. “After the game, I came to the locker room, had a boxed lunch, and the last thing I remember is leaving towards the tunnel. That’s the last thing that I remember. I woke up in the hospital the next day, on Saturday.”
Moments before Watson’s dire situation occurred, he stood in the officials’ locker room speaking with Mark Uyl, the MHSAA assistant director who coordinates officials. Uyl said when he received the call regarding Watson, he arrived to find paramedics administering full CPR, in addition to using an automated external defibrillator (AED).
“It was a scene right out of a movie,” Uyl said.
After about 10 minutes of work on Watson, Uyl said paramedics found a pulse and promptly transported him to Detroit Medical Center.
“Things were very critical that Friday night – very touch and go,” Uyl said. “Overnight we got reports that he was slowly improving.”
An implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) was placed in Watson’s chest. The pager-sized device is battery powered and placed below the skin to monitor heart rate, according to the American Heart Association. If an abnormal heart rhythm is discovered, the ICD delivers an electric shock to restore a normal heartbeat.
“I got to witness an absolute miracle,” Uyl said. “If the cardiac situation doesn’t happen literally at the feet of the medical staff that we have on-site at an event like that, he would’ve gotten up to the concourse or, heaven forbid, outside the building into the parking lot or his car and I believe it would’ve been a much more tragic ending.”
Watson was working the third game of the day as a line judge, and when he collapsed, was beginning to leave the facility and head to a local hotel reserved for MHSAA officials. Uyl told Watson how much of a blessing it was that he was assigned that game. At home or at the hotel, Watson would have been alone without access to proper medical attention.
“Certainly, where we got lucky is where he collapsed,” Uyl said. “We have emergency procedures, but when we’re at one of our college or pro venues, we often use the building’s plan. It could not have been more seamless between our staff and the Ford Field building personnel.”
At MHSAA events, such as those at Ford Field, an ambulance and two EMTs are stationed on the field next to the tunnel that connects it to the other areas of the stadium. Watson said he and fellow officials routinely confirm the location of emergency responders before starting a game.
“Schools almost always have somebody from a university around who does training. Most schools have ambulance service there at the site,” Watson said. “There have been incidences where we have had injuries that require them to come out onto the field to assist a student-athlete. It could be a concussion, a leg injury or who knows. We always have somebody at a venue.”
Equipped with his ICD, Watson left for home a week later from Detroit Medical Center. Expecting to make a full recovery, Watson said the only recommendations from his doctors were to tweak his diet and increase exercise. Although he said his recovery is on track, one of the most notable effects from his incident was memory loss.
“The strange thing is that I cannot remember a single thing about the game. I can’t remember anything,” Watson said. “If you ask me what Ford Field looked like now, I couldn’t tell you. I lost my short-term memory. I remember everything except the game. It’s those 48 minutes that I can’t remember.”
An official in basketball, softball and volleyball as well, staying active won’t be too much of an issue for Watson, who said he took last basketball season off to get himself better prepared for the softball season.
“It’s just amazing how quickly they responded in my situation. Regardless of who it is, the response time I received was tremendous,” Watson said. “I was out. They had to revive me. It only took them 32 seconds to get to me. Even if it’s an injured player on the field, response times are getting so quick.”
PHOTO: Official Willie Watson signals a touchdown during the 2016 MHSAA Division 6 Final at Ford Field.
Thankful for Lifesavers Who Rushed to His Aid, Sanders Aims to Officiate Again
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
January 14, 2025
Doug Sanders sat quietly thinking about how to best describe what he went through the day after Thanksgiving at Monroe Jefferson High School.
Finally, he just said it.
“Basically, I died twice,” he said, almost apologetically.
Sanders, 56, was officiating a boys varsity basketball game between Petersburg-Summerfield and Jefferson when he collapsed. First responders who were in attendance quickly got to Sanders and began performing life-saving procedures.
Responders performed chest compressions. Twice they used a defibrillator to shock him. He regained consciousness once only to inform the responders they were hurting his chest, then his heart stopped again.
When he left Jefferson that night on a stretcher, he was alert.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my 24 years coaching,” Summerfield coach Phil Schiffler said. “I’ve seen gruesome things, compound fractures and things, but never someone pass like that, especially someone who was an official, in charge of the game.
“Thank God for the first responders there that night.”
Petersburg residents Matt LaRocca and Aaron Myshock were the first to assist Sanders on the court. Others helped as well, including Summerfield athletic director Kelly Kalb, former Summerfield athlete Brendan Dafoe, a nurse; and Angela Prush, who works at Monroe County Community College as a clinical educator in the respiratory therapy program. Jefferson athletic director Alyssa Eppler helped on the scene as well.
“There was no hesitation,” Kalb said. “As soon as Doug went down, Matt and Aaron took off to the court and got to Doug. Everyone played a role. It was a great collaboration."
Kalb said the MHSAA this year implemented a new policy requiring schools to have an Emergency Action Plan in the event of this very type of emergency. That plan, she said, definitely helped both schools as they responded.
“We lost him a couple of times,” she said. “It was scary.”
Sanders knew something was wrong during the game. Moments before falling to the floor he called over one of his officiating partners, Steve Rechsteiner, and said something was wrong. He asked him to get him some water and said he felt light-headed.
“I said, ‘Help me,’” Sanders said. Moments later, he went to the floor.
As responders attended to Sanders, officials from both schools cleared the gymnasium of spectators and players, and the game was called. Players and fans left the gymnasium that night unsure of the events that had just unfolded in front of them.
“It’s amazing how it all happened,” said Sanders, who has been a registered MHSAA official for more than 30 years. “If I would have been driving or anywhere else when it happened, I may not be here today to talk about it.”
Sanders has had a history of heart problems, and those run in his family. About four years ago, he had open-heart surgery. Officiating another game a few nights before the incident at Jefferson, he had collapsed during a timeout. He was under doctor’s care but felt well enough to return to the court after enjoying Thanksgiving with his family.
The game between Summerfield and Jefferson went into the fourth quarter. That’s when Sanders began to feel something was wrong.
“I am so blessed and grateful to be where the right people were with me,” Sanders said. “I had the right people there at the right time.”
After being transported to a nearby hospital in Monroe, he was sent to another in Toledo. He spent several days in the hospital undergoing heart tests and procedures. He went home for recovery and recently started attending basketball games in the area again.
“People have been so nice through all of this,” he said. “I’ve gotten messages and cards and calls and texts from people all over the place, people I don’t even know. A lot of the officials that I’ve worked with have reached out to me. It’s really a close-knit group.”
Thankfully, his heart is improving.
Sanders is a 1987 graduate of Ottawa Lake Whiteford. He got his start as a referee for youth basketball at Whiteford Elementary School. Then-athletic director John Flynn encouraged him to get his MHSAA registration, and helped him get it. Soon after, Flynn was assigning him middle school games.
Over the years, Sanders began umpiring baseball and added refereeing football a few years ago.
He loves sports and being close to the game.
“That’s why I do it,” he said. “I wanted to be a basketball official because I enjoy working with the student-athletes. I like the exercise, especially during the wintertime. Outside it’s snowy and wet, and this was a way to get out and do something.”
He’s busiest during basketball season where he is assigned as many as four or five games a week. In 2022, he officiated a boys Semifinal game at the Breslin Center. He rarely slows down or takes nights off.
Since the incident, Sanders has been going through a series of tests on his heart and has had an ICD – or implantable cardioverter defibrillator – installed in his chest. An elementary school teacher in Toledo, he expects to return to work soon.
He’s met some of the first responders who helped save him that night at Jefferson but still isn’t sure just how many people played a role. He’s grateful the district had a defibrillator nearby – and especially that people were there who knew how to use it.
Schiffler said people just sprang into action, like they were trained to do.
“I was shook. I’m not going to lie,” he said. “The people who were trained in that knew just what to do.”
LaRocca and Myshock were there watching their sons play on the Summerfield team. Dafoe, who played sports at Summerfield and with Sanders as his referee and umpire on a number of occasions, has a brother on the varsity team.
Sanders is tentatively scheduled to referee a game at Adrian Lenawee Christian on Monday, Jan. 20. He can’t wait to shake the rust off, put on the striped shirt and blow his whistle. He knows there will be eyes on him throughout the game.
“I’ve had so many people tell me, ‘Take the rest of the winter off, don’t come back too early,’” Sanders said. “I want to get back out there. Something tells me in my heart and soul that I’m ready. I had my stress test, and I did well. Am I ready? I want to say yes. I think so. Only time will tell.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) MHSAA official Doug Sanders monitors the action during a 2022 Division 4 Semifinal between Wyoming Tri-unity Christian and Genesee Christian. (Middle) Bradley is in uniform for a baseball game. (Below) Bradley makes a call behind the plate during a Monroe County Fair youth softball tournament game at least a decade ago. (Middle photo courtesy of Doug Sanders. Below photo by Kim Brent, courtesy of the Monroe News.)