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JamesIf March brings madness for the basketball players on the court and the fans filling out their brackets, imagine what it’s like for the referees.

With 16 years of experience as a ref, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh marketing graduate James Brockman ’06, of Oshkosh, knows a thing or two about the craziness of the season.

“I started refereeing soccer when I was 13 and got hooked from there. My dad also officiated at football and basketball games, so when I graduated high school it was great to work games with him,” Brockman said. “To me officiating high school sports is a great way to work with the amazing student-athletes who are in our schools and a way to stay involved in the sports that I played.”

On Saturday, March 19, Brockman heads to Madison to officiate the game of a lifetime as he refs the Division I high school boys’ state basketball final, scheduled for 8:15 p.m. at the Kohl Center.

“Being given the opportunity to officiate a state tournament game in any sport is a great honor for an official. People don’t realize the amount of time and work officials put in to be the best they can be and to give the student-athletes the best game we can give them,” he said. “Being able to work the Division I championship in Madison with my crew shows that our hard work and dedication has paid off. The Division I championship game is the pinnacle of high school officiating, it’s the one game that every high school basketball official wants to be assigned to.”

Brockman’s crew for Saturday’s game includes two other referees with UWO ties: Rhoderick Fields ’98, a radio-TV-film grad; and Ricky VanDrisse, who recently retired from working in facilities management since 1986.

Just like the road to the Final Four can be arduous, Brockman has spent hundreds of hours over the past 16 years traveling to and refereeing games in the evenings and on weekends. That’s on top of his day job working as a category manager for Lee Beverage in Oshkosh.

Besides boys and girls state basketball games, he currently refs high school and college football and IFL (Indoor Football League) games and serves as an on-field communicator for the National Football League (NFL).