This article is © The Morning Call Newspaper Company                Date: Friday, February 4, 2000                  WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE, COACHES WANT WAAS ON THE MAT                 by TED MEIXELL, The Morning Call                 You stink, Waas!                 Time for you to retire, Waas!                 What match are you watching, Waas?                 Waas, you s---!                 There's two teams on the mat, Waas!                 That's just a sampling of the sweet little epithets I heard sitting matside at the No. 1 vs. No. 2                 Northampton-Easton showdown in the Rovers' packed 25th Street Gym two Saturdays ago.                 They weren't directed at me. They were aimed at 39-year-old Gene Waas, the unfortunate soul officiating                 the match.                 They began almost at Waas' first whistle. They never let up.                 The match, which featured some of the best, most exciting bouts these tired old eyes ever saw, also                 featured an incredible number of close calls -- every one of which Waas had to make, or decide not to                 make, in the blink of an eye.                 Almost every decision was met with vitriol from one side of the gym or the other. Both head coaches,                 Northampton's Don Rohn and Easton's Steve Powell, strode to the scorer's table a couple of times.                 Ostensibly, they were there to "ask for a clarification." In reality, they were there to argue.                 Wrestling's rules allow the former, but emphatically forbid the latter. They also call for the deduction of                 a team point.                 Waas, their target, listened. Patiently. Quietly. Impassively. He explained his calls. He gave the coaches                 their say. He waved them back to the bench. And he walked back out into the eye of the storm.                 The fans' epithets?                 "I heard 'em," Waas said early this week. "You always do. But -- and I mean this sincerely -- I honestly                 don't care what they think. That's why it doesn't bother me."                 The complaining coaches?                 "I do care what the coaches think," Waas said, "and I do care what the kids think. I tell them beforehand                 that they can ask me (to explain a call). And I'll always listen to them. I'll hear them out. Then I stick with                 my call.                 "That (Northampton-Easton) was one of the most difficult matches I've ever had to call. So many (calls)                 could have gone either way."                 They began in the very first bout, at 103 pounds, between Easton's Chad Sportelli and Northampton's                 Jake Cole. It ended with Cole, whom Sportelli had ridden the entire third period, on the brink of not                 merely an escape -- which would have sent the bout into overtime --but of a reversal -- which would                 have given Cole the win.                 With everyone screaming, Waas waited, patiently -- and made no call at all. In his eyes, Sportelli had                 maintained control, if ever so precariously. Sportelli won, 1-0.                 Rohn begged to differ.                 Waas listened.                 He described what he saw.                 Rohn, unconvinced, returned to his bench.                 Waas stuck with his call. He made no move to penalize Northampton.                 "That was extremely close," Waas said. "Donnie (Rohn) had to argue. He had to stick up for his kid. I                 know if I were the coach, and Don was the ref, I'd have argued. Look, you'd like to never miss one, but,                 hey ... perfection's not in the cards.                 "Do the rules call for a (team) point? The answer is yes. For me to have done it would have been stupid.                 All it would have done was create a totally negative situation. Why fan the flames?                 "I hear them out. I let them have their say. I don't act cocky with them, I don't say anything smart-assed. In                 all the years, I've never had a serious problem with a coach, or a wrestler. You have to stay unflappable.                 You can't be cocky, because you're not God. And when you do miss one, you have to be man enough to                 admit it."                 Despite his relative youth, Waas, a 1978 Bethlehem Catholic graduate, is a 20-year veteran of the                 officiating wars. He is regarded as the very best ref in the Lehigh Valley. Many think he's the best in the                 state, including me.                 Many coaches are, too. That's why he's the guy most of them want in the striped shirt for their most                 important matches.                 Said Powell, who questioned several of his calls that same night, "With Gene, a coach or wrestler can                 pretty much expect what he's going to call and when he's going to call it.                 "He's very good at remaining consistent, and at not making makeup calls. If he misses one, he doesn't let                 it get to him. He retains his cool and always calls it as he sees it."                 Naturally, neither Powell nor his coaching brethren always see it the same way. That leads to another                 thing Powell likes.                 "I know the PIAA may look at it as a negative," he said, "but, for a coach, he's very approachable. He'll                 listen to you without flying off the handle. Sometimes, a little while later, he'll drive you a little nuts;                 he'll sidle up next to you and say something, very quietly, like, `You know, you may have been right                 about that one.'                 "The bottom line is, if you're in a big match, the coaches and the kids are very comfortable when Gene's                 out there."                 Chris Grammes is one of several good, young guys presently working their way up the officiating ladder.                 He was the second man on the mat for Northampton-Easton, responsible for watching the clock and                 keeping Waas apprised toward the end of periods.                 As should any ref worth his salt, Grammes believed he was ready to work such big matches himself.                 With a twinkle in his voice, Waas said Grammes reconsidered that night.                 "Chris told me later he knew he wasn't ready," Waas said. "Then, at our chapter meeting, he repeated it.                 He said, `I thought I was ready for a match like that one, guys. But now I know I'm not, not even close.                 That was a different world out there.'"                 Few, if any, officials stay in the game 20 years without support and understanding at home. Waas, who                 lives in Hellertown, gets it, without strings, from his wife, Mary Ellen.                 That's not surprising; she's the former Mary Ellen Bold. Her brother, Tom, was a state champion at                 Bethlehem Catholic, later a star at Lehigh.                 The Waases' daughter, Janine, is a sophomore at Penn State. Her boyfriend, Joey Killar, was a state                 champ at Saucon Valley. Now a junior at Harvard, he's ranked fourth nationally at his weight.                 Son Eric, 15, is a sophomore at Becahi. He wrestled last year, but chose to concentrate on cross country                 this year.                 "Wrestling's been part of both our families since we were little," Mary Ellen Waas said. "I know some                 wives give their husbands problems (about officiating), but I support it. I grew up around the sport."                 Asked if she attends Gene's matches, she said, "Some, but not as many as I used to."                 Laughing, she said, "I had to listen to all the crazies calling him names."                 She recalled one match in particular.                 "It was nuts," she said. "People were all over Gene. A guy sitting next to me said, `Can you imagine what                 it would be like if that was your husband?' I just laughed and said, `That is my husband!' The guy didn't                 know what to say!                 "I never let it get to me that much. I always said that the people doing most of the yelling are the ones                 who don't know what's going on."                 During his high school days at Becahi, Waas was a Christmas City Tournament, District 11 and                 Northeast Regional champion. He wrestled one year (1978-79) at Wilkes University, and finished fifth in                 the EIWA Tournament. He left college after one year and took a job with Western Electric, now known                 as Lucent Technologies.                 He got his officiating license in March of 1981 and began doing high school matches the next year, at age                 21. He worked his first District 11 Tournament in 1984, his first regional in 1985. He became chief of                 officials at districts in 1988 and at regionals in 1989.                 He refereed state tournaments in Hershey in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1994 and 1995. He was asked to work                 states twice since, but declined.                 "Our chapter (The Lehigh Valley Chapter of PIAA Wrestling Officials) has gotten very strong," Waas                 said. "We have several other guys who deserve the chance."                 Waas considered retiring following the 1996-97 season, but reconsidered.                 "I came into the chapter with certain guys," he said. "Richie Santoro and Dougie Collina, two of my best                 friends, got out -- and I thought it might be time for me to go, too.                 "But (34-year veteran) Bobby Colletta and Barry Rutt (Forks Township's midget coach) convinced me to                 stay, and to just cut back on my schedule. Now, instead of taking 25 to 28 duals, I pick and choose. I'll                 only take one or two of the big ones instead of six or seven.                 "I want the young guys -- the Jimmy Milots, the Tony Phillipses, the Bobby Kerns -- to experience the                 high profile matches I've experienced. They deserve it.                 "I know I'm not going to do 30 years, like Bobby (Colletta). But I'll keep reffing as long as it's still fun.                 And it's still fun."