top of page

Message from the President

(Mike Wonder)

Fellow Officials,

Yes, it is right around the corner. I hope everyone has been getting in shape for the 2015 season. Our 1st KFOA General Membership meeting is next Wednesday July 15th at Waggener H.S. starting at 7:00pm. Please make every effort to attend this meeting and every meeting scheduled thereafter. The KFOA Board of Directors, Assigning Secretary, and Supervisor of Officials have worked hard to prepare class work for teaching rules knowledge, as well as protocol for each position. All dates, times and class agenda for the year have been posted on our website (www.kfoa.info) for your convenience. The expectation is for EVERY official to come prepared for EVERY meeting throughout the season.

As I mentioned in my email back in January, each President encounters new challenges and changes. Your BODs have been working diligently to tackle these challenges and changes on behalf of the KFOA.

Our first challenge/change was to replace the Supervisor of Officials position when Steve Ishmal retired at the end of the 2014 season. The job was posted within the KFOA membership with requirements and an outline for the position. After reviewing resumes, interviews were conducted by the BODs and Stephen Coleman was selected to be the new SOO for the KFOA. Since accepting the position, Stephen has accomplished a tremendous amount of ground in a short period of time and has worked with our Assigning Secretary Don Hudson and the BODs on the training and evaluating our officials for the upcoming season. He will address the GM at our first meeting and explain some of the changes and additions in the LL and Middle School levels.

The next issue we chose to address immediately was recruiting. This is a challenge for each BODs every year. Bill Townsend headed up the Recruiting Committee this year. As always, with help from (you) KFOA members providing names of prospective officials, Bill used a few new tactics. Including using an Officials Informational 30 second video spot on Time Warner Cable. Thanks to the generous offer from Chris Bowling, our spot was shown on, ESPN, ESPN2, Fox Sports, Big Ten Network, and the NFL Network too, for the whole month of June at all times of the day. I know many of you called and said you saw the KFOA promo on some of these channels. It is also posted on our website (www.kfoa.info) if you did not get to see it. As to date Bill has recruited 18 rookie officials, 11 of which have already registered with the KHSAA. He has also reached out to officials who have been inactive for 2 or more years and has gotten 6-7 of them to return. This is a great start and we still hope to have more show up next Wednesday!

The issues and challenges being addressed:

  • Don Hudson and I have sent multiple requests to the Athletic Directors we serve, requesting hot showers and respectable dressing rooms for the upcoming season.
  • The BODs have implemented the Purchase Order process, so all dispersal funds are pre-approved. Our budget is balanced and each expenditure and credit are tracked diligently by our Treasurer, Paul Richwalsky. The KFOA financial statement is in the best shape it has been in, for almost 10 years.

These are just a few issues your KFOA BODs have put behind us, and many more are being worked on as we speak. As I said in my first email earlier in the year, if you would like to be part of a committee or get involved with the BOD’s please contact me (502-643-7627) or any other board member. We can always find something for you to do, to help YOUR KFOA.

I look forward to a great upcoming season with all of you.

Thank you,

Mike Wonder

KFOA President

bottom of page