DETROIT – As a first-year college student, Rick Massa needed spending cash, prompting him to answer a want ad in an East Lansing newspaper.
What followed is a relationship with amateur athletics that’s lasted for nearly half a century.
“I realized that I needed a little extra money while I was at Michigan State,” said Massa, who graduated from Ferndale High School in 1972. “So, I answered the State News ad for sports officials. They needed guys to work touch football games.”
Massa made such a good impression on the gridiron that he was invited to work basketball games the following semester. A year later, he was a registered official with the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA), assigned to varsity baseball, softball and basketball games.
This week, Massa, who is an associate director of maintenance engineering in Wayne State’s Facilities Planning and Management Department, has a four-minute commute from his Cass Avenue office to Tom Adams Field, where he will begin his 47th year as a high school official in Michigan. On Thursday, Massa will be the back judge at the 18th Xenith Prep Kickoff Classic between Clinton Township Chippewa Valley and West Bloomfield at 7 p.m.
Massa, who will turn 70 in February, said he never expected to have such a long and fulfilling career in officiating. But when asked about the possibility of hanging up his whistle, he doesn’t have a concrete answer.
“That question comes up every year,” he said. “I'm probably not too far away from retirement from my job here at Wayne State. But in a weird way, I don't know what I'd do if I quit officiating. It's been such a part of my life for so long. I kind of want to stay active and it’s helped keep me healthy. So, I think I'll stay involved at some level. I may not work varsity schedules anymore. I may help train young officials and work some JV and freshman games with them and get them started. Though I’ll get home early for a change, so that'll be a good thing.”
Hoops has always been Massa’s favorite, but 23 years ago he added football to his fall schedule when he was asked to join a crew. He gave up baseball and softball in 1994.
“I didn't like the idea of getting rained on or being out in the weather and the cold stuff,” said Massa, who played football, basketball and baseball in high school. “Mark Richer, a good friend of mine and a partner in basketball, asked me to work football. I figured if he could do it, I could do it, and honestly, I stepped onto one of the top football crews in metro Detroit. I had more support around me than you can imagine.”
Massa’s first football game turned out to be a game he wasn’t scheduled to work.
“I was going there to just walk the sidelines and get a feel for things,” he said.
Lamont Simpson was supposed to work the night game but he suffered a broken arm during an afternoon game in Detroit. Simpson now officiates in the Big Ten and was a member of the first all-Black crew in Power 5 history when Michigan played at Minnesota in 2020.
“It was about 10 minutes before kickoff and the referee Mike Smith looked at me and said, ‘You got your uniform?’ I said, ‘Yeah, it's brand new in the bag in the car.’ I got dressed and there I was all shiny, bright and new. Then Mike came over, shoved the flag down in my pocket and said, ‘You won't need this tonight.’”
Unfortunately, Massa was forced to throw a flag on the game’s first series when a player made a tackle and stood over his opponent before stepping on him near the sidelines.
“I was in the middle of it when all hell broke loose by the team bench,” Massa said. “So that was my initiation into varsity football. Sometimes you just get thrown into it. But it's been a fun ride ever since.”
REFLECTING ON THE PAST
Having been assigned to so many high-profile games over the years, Massa has enjoyed a lifetime of fond memories. He’s rubbed elbows with some of the greatest to ever play or coach in Michigan, like Mary Lillie Cicerone, Al Fracassa, Kurt Keener, Ben Kelso, Tyrone Wheatley and so many more.
Over the years, Massa has been involved in so many exciting overtimes, buzzer-beaters and nail-biting finishes. But as the years pass, most of the contests blend together like a mosaic tapestry.
Yet, there’s one event that stands alone.
Last September, Massa and his football crew were assigned to a Week 2 game at Oxford. The Northern Oakland County community packed the bleachers more than an hour before the Wildcats played their first home varsity game since Nov. 30, 2021, the unthinkable day when a school shooting left four students — Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin, Justin Shilling and Tate Myre — dead.
Myre was Oxford’s star running back from the previous season, and his family participated in the opening coin toss on an evening that was about so much more than just football.
“I’ve had a couple state championships and several Catholic League finals, and a lot of those games are certainly real memorable. I had the Orchard Lake St. Mary’s and Flint Beecher basketball final in 2000 that went to overtime, and that was a wild one,” Massa said. “But there's one that stands out in my mind that we did last season, Oxford's first football game. Just the emotion around that game, and when they brought Tate's family out for the coin toss. … I am choking up just thinking about.”
During a special pre-game video presentation, clips of Myre in Oxford’s 2021 playoff win over Clarkston were featured. Ironically, Massa worked that game too and was now standing at midfield watching highlights from what was Oxford’s last win before the tragedy.
“They showed on the big board where Tate made the big play to stop Clarkston on the final drive,” Massa said. “Tate's jumping up in front of me, ‘We did it! We did it!’ As they were showing the video I was like, ‘Wow, quite a connection there.’”
PAIN COMES WITH LONGEVITY
Massa’s stellar reputation as an impartial arbiter was formed years ago as a basketball referee, and he remains in high regard among many coaches and league directors in metro Detroit. He’s worked dozens of local conference title games, as well as state championships in Class A girls’ (1998, 2011) and Class B boys’ (2000, 2013) basketball. But Massa was a quick study with the football rules and mechanics, too, and it wasn’t long before he earned his first state football finals assignment in 2005. Since then, he’s worked three more title games at Ford Field, in 2010, 2017 and 2021.
Mike Gentry has been officiating nearly as long as Massa. A former Wayne State student in the 1970s, Gentry says he’s always appreciated the masterful work his friend does in every sport he’s officiated.
“I’ve always enjoyed working games with him,” said Gentry, who’s beginning his 46th year as an MHSAA official. “I’ve always called him Uncle Rick because, officiating wise, he is that guy who will do anything and everything for you. He’s the type of guy when you see you’re assigned with him you know nothing is going to vary from the rules. He knows them and applies them. Philosophy, execution and mechanics are always some of Rick’s strong points, no matter what the sport. He’s very good with people and you can always count on him taking care of bench problems. Technicals may fly in basketball but the problems will get resolved.”
There’s also a physical toll associated with officiating. The years of running up and down grass fields and hardwood courts wear on knee joints, ankles, hips and lower backs. Massa isn’t immune to the standard aches and pains, and he’s been told he has a reduction of cartilage in both knees. But 20 years ago, a physician told him that officiating is what was keeping him healthy. So, he’s taken his doctor’s advice and focuses on wearing out, instead of rusting out.
“I got on a vitamin regime and I take turmeric and some other over-the-counter things,” Massa said. “But I'm fortunate to not be on any other medications. I watch my diet. I do exercise and do more of that now than I did when I was younger. I try to get ready for the seasons, though there's always that two-week painful curve when a new season starts where it just hurts to do things. But I focus on getting the reps in and I get through it.”
FROM MENTEE TO MENTOR
When he first began officiating as a college freshman, Massa admits that money was the main reason. But the games became more than a paycheck when, as luck would have it, the youth league’s supervisor of officials took a liking to him. Soon the pair was working youth and high school basketball and baseball games together throughout Ingham County.
The supervisor was Tim McClelland, who went on to have an illustrious 33-year career in Major League Baseball. He is, perhaps, best known for his role as the home plate umpire in the infamous Pine Tar game involving the Kansas City Royals’ George Brett at Yankee Stadium in 1983.
“Tim and I ended up working high school basketball together and some baseball when I was at Michigan State,” Massa said, “and that kind of set me on this path.”
Now, an MHSAA-certified basketball trainer who has mentored over 100 new officials, Massa’s career has spanned 102 total sports seasons and he’s enshrined in three hall of fames — Detroit Public School League (2008), Detroit Catholic League (2008) and the Basketball Coaches of Michigan (2009). He’s also worked at the collegiate basketball level in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Wolverine–Hoosier Athletic Conference and Michigan Community College Athletic Association.
“I don't know if I ever expected to do it as long as I have,” said Massa, who is past president of the Metro Detroit Athletic Officials. “It was something I enjoyed, and it's something I was good at. There are lots of reasons why people get into officiating. At first, for me, it was a little money thing, and then it was staying in touch with the game and giving something back and all those standard answers. But what I tend to gravitate to is my core reason, which is I really appreciate how, when I have worked a difficult game and I come out the other side of it, and I know I've done a job that others might not be able to do, there's a sense of self-satisfaction about that, that I don't get from anything else in my life. I think that's what keeps me going and keeps me involved.
“I've been very fortunate that I've met some absolutely wonderful people doing this over the years. And staying connected with them is also a big reason that I still continue to work.”
For more information on how to become an official, visit mhsaa.com/Officials. Information for the Southeastern Michigan Officials Association can be found at www.smoa.info and the Metro Detroit Athletic Officials at MetroDetroitAthleticOfficials.com.