IHSA

Girls Track & Field Honorary Referees -- 2007-08

Two individuals who have been great friends to girls track and field and to the IHSA have been named Honorary Referees for 2008. Together they have a combined 47 years of service at the girls state meet.

Named Honorary Referees for 2008 are: Jim Effinger of Wheaton and Paul Neakrase of Washington.

Jim Effinger has been involved in track and field for nearly fifty years. He competed in track and cross-country at Antioch High School and Cornell College and continues to run on a regular basis with a group of close friends. Jim coached both boys and girls track for eight years at Naperville North High School, but also put in an astounding 27 years as boys soccer coach.

Jim has been an IHSA official for 30 years and for most of those years he started and refereed an average of 40 track meets a year. He has been a starter and referee at numerous sectional competitions. Jim’s first assignment at the girls state meet in 1986 was as an assistant shot put official. He has been at the shot put ring for 22 years, now serving as head shot put official.

Jim attributes his longevity as an official and enjoyment of track and field to being able to work with great athletes, dedicated coaches, and my family who love the sport. His two daughters, Erin and Kory, competed in track and field at Wheaton North High School and became successful track and cross country coaches. They also continue to be avid runners. His wife, Rose, has been a volunteer official at the girls state meet for the past 18 years, working alongside Jim at the shot put venue.

Jim recently had the opportunity to work the boys state track and field meet, and will be back in Charleston next week as the Class A starter.

Paul Neakrase’s track career, and his love for running began as a sophomore quarter-miler at St. Rita High School in 1959. He was also on the first cross-country team at St. Rita in 1961 under a new coach, just out of NIU, Bill Mohrmann.

Paul’s high school coaching career began at Washington High Community School under Bill Farrell. He served as the assistant boys track coach from 1970 through 1978 and head girls coach from 1978 through 1987, when he left coaching to begin ministerial studies in the Catholic Diocese of Peoria. He was ordained a permanent deacon in 1992. Paul credits the late Ola Bundy, administrator of girls sports for the IHSA, with offering great support during this time.

Officiating since the mid-1970s, Paul has worked the both the boys and girls state final track meet for more than 25 years. He has served in many capacities, starting as a lane and curve inspector for many years, then as head discus judge, head triple jump judge, assistant field referee, assistant starter, head starter, and eventually as the first finish line marshal for the girls meet, attaining a position he had held for many years at the boys finals. Paul most recently has been a timer at both the boys and girls state finals. This is his third year as head timer at the girls meet.

Paul has also served in the capacity of referee, starter, and assistant starter at the sectional level. He has worked the Peoria Honor Roll Meet since its inception, being in charge of the horizontal jumps for the first 26 years of that meet. Paul continues to start and referee meets at all levels of competition and lists that as among his greatest joys in life. He will celebrate fifty years of involvement in track and field next spring.