Officiating keeps Lee connected with game she loves

WICHITA – To say this is a year of change for Donna Lee would be an understatement.

The longtime Wichita first-grade teacher retired after 37 years at the only school where she ever taught, McLean Science and Technology Magnet Elementary. Her plans also include scaling back her coaching responsibilities with Shockwave Volleyball Academy to spend more time with her father in Arizona.

But Lee, a former Iowa State volleyball standout who coached at Wichita Heights in the late-1990s and early-2000s, will keep her spot atop the referee’s stand at high school volleyball matches this fall. She is eager to begin her 23rd year as a registered Kansas State High School Activities Association official.

“That’s my giving back to a sport I thoroughly enjoy,” Lee said.

Lee, who turned 60 in August, is one of almost 700 KSHSAA-registered volleyball officials across the state. She got her start doing junior varsity matches in 1992 after a brief stint as an assistant coach at Bishop Carroll.

“I’d planned to quit coaching to start a family,” said Lee, a mother of two sons with her husband, David. “Instead of coaching, I just started officiating and jumped in that way.”

Lee, an Illinois native who moved to Wichita in 1983, first filled her volleyball void as an adult by practicing with Wichita State players during their spring workouts. Her move to officiating gave her a new perspective of the sport.

“I can’t even explain it when it’s just been a part of your life your entire life,” Lee said. “I started playing when I was 10, and now as an official you see it from both sides. You’ve got a set of rules that you have to call and it’s black and white in that way, but there’s also a grey area in there.

Clinics for volleyball officials took place two weeks in August.

“I don’t know if officials in other sports see that, too.”

If they are, it’s a group sharing Lee’s perspective in smaller numbers.

In early August, KSHSAA had 695 registered volleyball officials on its rolls for the fall season – one more than 2020 but down 92 from the 787 registered two years ago. There were 1,079 registered football officials, down from 1,148 last season and 1,242 in 2019. Boys soccer enters the fall with 227 registered officials, even from last fall but 42 fewer than two years ago.

“Right now, there just aren’t a lot of young officials in volleyball,” Lee said. “The people I officiate with are pretty much all over 50 years old.

“When I’ve done state tournaments the last 10 years, everybody is basically my age.”

KSHSAA has made the recruitment of officials a priority, spotlighting it in many of the publications it distributes as well as social media. The organization offers training and clinics across all sports.

Lee sees it as a golden opportunity for former high school athletes who still enjoy their sport, or for young adults or college students as a source of income.

“In volleyball, KSHSAA offers those clinics prior to the season on part of a Saturday,” Lee said. “You bring a whistle and go over every aspect. You’ll get up on that stand and work as an R1 and work as an R2. It’s really about finding mentors that can work with you, and you not being afraid to ask questions.”

Lee said she calls on Mike Welty, one of several Kansas volleyball area supervisors, when questions arise during a season. She and her peers, Lee added, “are bouncing stuff off each other all the time.”

As a former player and coach, Lee said her understanding of volleyball’s intricacies helps her develop a rapport with participants. Her enjoyment of officiating comes from a mission she adopted when she first started decades ago.

“I want to do right by these coaches,” Lee said. “I want to do right by these kids. I want them to do their things and not have to worry about anything but putting their best foot forward and trusting the officials who are calling their game.”

For information about becoming an official, visit KSHSAA.org.