Payne Game Recalls Official's Legacy
September 9, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
At 4:30 p.m. before the first game of this high school football season, a small group of mid-Michigan officials met at Lansing’s Mount Hope Cemetery.
As has become their tradition, they paid respects to a friend gone too soon, told a few stories, then worked the game in his honor before winding down by rehashing more of the same memories of Tony Payne they recall at the start of each fall.
Payne, a Lansing Harry Hill High School and Ferris State University graduate, served as an MHSAA official for 23 years and also worked in the Big Ten, Mid-American Conference and NFL Europe before dying on April 21, 2006. He was only 44 years old, passing after a lengthy illness.
Each fall since, a group of officials mostly from the Lansing area but representing Jackson and Muskegon as well have gathered to work a “Tony Payne Game,” mostly to honor their friend but also to raise money in his name for a scholarship that could be awarded for the first time next year.
This year’s Payne Game was opening night, Aug. 28, at Haslett as the Vikings took on Walled Lake Central.
“Tony was a mentor to everybody; he pretty much epitomized what we try to do around here,” said Jeff Spedoske, president of the Capital Area Officials Association and one of many who learned under Payne’s tutelage. “When you accomplish something in officiating, get the privilege to be at that level, you try to turn around and help as many behind you as you can. That was him to a T.
“I can’t believe we’ve done it seven years. Every time I see that date that Tony passed, it doesn’t seem really that long ago.”
Joining Spedoske on the crew for this year’s Payne Game were Rob Stanaway, Bruce Keeling, Mark Coscarella, Craig Weirich, Mike Maisner and Tom Minter. That’s generally the group, along with Mike Conlin, who did not work this year’s game but was in attendance. All worked with Payne at some point during their careers, be it at high school games or as a member of his college crews.
Together, they represent a combined 270 years of MHSAA officiating experience, although for a few the Payne Game is the only high school event they work each year. Conlin, Keeling and Maisner in particular remain active officials in the Big Ten, and the other five all have vast experience at higher levels.
But as Spedoske noted, so did Payne – and how he used that knowledge is part of what the crew annually celebrates.
Payne remained an MHSAA registered official through 2004-05, most years for football, basketball and baseball and also once for softball. He officiated six MHSAA Semifinals in either football, girls or boys basketball, and championship games in 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2001.
Conlin recalled a week when he and Payne worked a junior varsity football game at Leslie on a Thursday with two rookies – taking the opportunity to pass on their skills and experience in front of mostly players’ families.
Two days later, Payne officiated a Big Ten game in front of tens of thousands, not counting those catching the game on TV and the radio waves.
Stanaway’s first girls varsity basketball game was with Payne, a last-minute opportunity for the then-newer official. During the ride to the game, Payne quizzed Stanaway on rules, plays and handling people, then continued that support during the game and provided the “most honest and constructive feedback I have ever received” when the game was done, Stanaway said.
Within a couple of days, Stanaway was contacted by his assigner, who had changed all of his sub-varsity games for the rest of the year to varsity games – per Payne’s recommendation.
“Tony had gone out of his way to help me by contacting the person in charge and recommending me for ‘bigger’ games,” Stanaway said. “I thanked Tony over and over, and he only responded by saying that someday I would have the opportunity to help someone else, and when I did, I had better help them along.
“Tony's words are a driving force in my desire to be a part of the Capital Area Officials Association, added Stanaway, who serves as the CAOA co-director of basketball operations. “Tony has been a role model for me in teaching other officials about our avocation and supporting their officiating dreams. As I've watched new officials grow, improve, and achieve their dreams of working their first varsity game, their first tournament assignment, their first State Final or even advance to collegiate opportunities, I thank Tony for showing me not only how to help them, but why to help them.”
Conlin serves as assigner in the Capital Area Activities Conference and sets the game for the crew to work each year in addition to also working it most seasons. He and Payne went back to 1989, and Conlin hasn’t worked high school games regularly since moving to the Division I college level in 2000 – aside from the last few Tony Payne Games.
The CAOA gives a lifetime achievement award each year in honor of Payne, the association’s first treasurer.
“We work hard to keep Tony’s name out front,” Conlin said, “to make sure people don’t forget where he came from.”
While the crew always donates its fees from working the Payne Game to the scholarship fund, the biggest annual boost comes from the Art Don Tony Memorial golf outing at Arbor Hills in Jackson. Proceeds from the annual event will fund scholarships in three officials’ names: Payne’s for a student attending Lansing Community College, late Grand Rapids official Don Edwards’ for a scholarship at Grand Rapids Community College, and late Jackson official Art Willard’s for a scholarship to Jackson Community College. All three died during a two-year stretch.
The CAOA, with an initial donation from Alro Steel founder Al Glick and later contributions from the West Michigan and Jackson associations and crews Payne knew from college levels, has raised $75,000 – enough to make those three $1,000 scholarships endowed – and make it possible those scholarships could be given for the first time next year.
Comparatively, the money raised by the crew working the Tony Payne Game is only a small percentage. But the game is as much for that group of officials to work together in remembering Payne and then meeting together after at whoever’s house is closest to unwind and remember some more.
“It’s easily the most important game on my schedule in the fall, for me personally, and it’s fun to be able to work with those guys once a year,” Spedoske said.
“After the game we end up at somebody’s house, and that’s kinda what it’s all about. We end up telling a lot of the same stories over and over. It’s about remembering Tony and the times we had on the field and off the field with him, and keeping his memory alive.”
PHOTOS: (Top) The crew for this season’s Tony Payne Game at Haslett lines up for the National Anthem, in order from left: Rob Stanaway, Bruce Keeling, Jeff Spedoske, Mark Coscarella, Craig Weirich, Mike Maisner and Tom Minter. (Middle) Craig Weirich signals between plays. (Below) Tony Payne officiates a basketball during his career that stretched more than two decades.
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.)