Sunday Sit Down: Mason Dixon Football Officials Executive Board Member Dennis Cutlip

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - This Week’s Sunday Sit Down brings us Dennis Cutlip, an executive board member for the Mason Dixon Football Officials.

Cutlip has spent a total of 15-17 years as an official, and he’s not stopping anytime soon, “Until I can’t, until my knees finally give out, I will do it, and then I’ll find a way to do it, because it’s gratifying for the kids, especially the younger kids, just to see them smile, and make a great hit or you know steal a base and they get up and they’re cheering and they’re all happy and then mom and dad in the stands, that’s really important,” said Cutlip.

Being an official is a pretty great all-around gig, “It’s gratifying, we do this for the kids, and its just an experience where its hard to explain, where you actually get to be involved with the kids abut at the same time, make a little extra money, so it’s kind of a cool thing, you know you always love seeing the kids out there smiling, have fun, and that just makes your day.”

There has been an on-going shortage of officials in the area, and the Mason Dixon officiating board has been working to get more on board, “We will teach you, we will teach them the rules, we will teach them situations that you would encounter and prepare them and get them ready for contest.”

The board has also been thinking of creative ways to get high school seniors involved, to show them what being an official is like first-hand this fall.

If the shortage of officials continues, high school sports, down to the pee-wees could start to look different, as it could get to the point where there are not enough officials to field games, “For football, it’s a little different, the varsity games are Friday nights, so there’s a chance that some of them could be moved to Thursdays or Saturday nights, we don’t want that because it’s hard on a crew to do a couple games in a row and whatever because you run a few miles on a football field, but you know softball, baseball, volleyball there could be chance that we have to cancel games.”

Let’s get the board some new officials! If you are interested in becoming an official or learning more, please visit www.mdofa.org.

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