WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK

John Warndorf has turned refereeing
into a lucrative side hustle

Anyone who has ever met John Warndorf knows he’s a people person. 

He loves being around people, which is why when he’s not at SD1 assisting customers with line locates or other needs, he’s probably in a local gymnasium refereeing a basketball game.

The people are what’s keeps him coming back, year after year, to the hardwood. “My favorite thing about reffing is all the gyms I get to go to and all the people I get to see,” he says.

Over the past two decades, John figures he’s reffed games in about 50 gyms, and the friendships he’s made are innumerable. 

His career behind the whistle began about 20 years ago on a softball field of all places. “I played a lot of softball back in the day, and I found out that I could go to the ballpark and umpire and make $15 a game instead of going and playing three nights a week and spending $30 a night,” he says. “So it was a way to make some extra money and still play ball and drink some beer.”

Some referee friends encouraged him to give basketball a try. “I tried it and liked it,” John says. “I wasn’t out in the hot heat, I wasn’t out in the cold or the rain and mud.”

He eventually gave up softball and took up basketball on a regular basis. And it certainly keeps him busy. This past weekend, John reffed five games on Saturday and four on Sunday. “That’s pretty typical,” he says. “Pretty much every weekend.”

“It’s just a cool feeling to walk out on the court,” he says. “The hair stands up on your neck every time you go out there. It’s a privilege and an honor to get to ref for these kids. Every time you walk out there, you just get goosebumps. It’s just a cool feeling.”

John says he’s fortunate to get paid to do something he loves.

“Being a single dad, there was never enough money,” he says. Reffing helped him make ends meet. He has no idea how many games he’s reffed, but says it’s a pretty lucrative side hustle. John has earned as much as $16,000 in a single year reffing kids leagues, men’s leagues and high school basketball. And at $20-$30 per game, that’s a lot of mileage up and down the court.

He's had two arthroscopic surgeries on each knee and countless injections. Last April, he had his left knee replaced.
Two months later, he was on the court reffing kids games. By high school season, he was ready to go. “I wasn’t sure how my knee was going to hold up,” he says, “but it was fine. The new knee works great.”

John was coaching kids games and men’s leagues when his assigner accepted a job with the 9th Region and asked several of his guys to join the high school ranks. He’s been reffing high school for about 10 years now.

He says he was happy to give up men’s league work. “Men’s league stinks,” he says. “They like to cuss and scream and they’re never happy. They’re all trying to relive their high school days or are thinking they’re playing their college days. It’s just not fun at all.”

His favorite place to ref? Highlands High School. “Being a Newport Catholic guy, they were always our arch enemy,” he says. “But when I go there, I know a lot of people. It’s just cool – they pack the house every night. It’s just a fun place to go. Great atmosphere.”

John likes to tell the story of a time he was reffing at Walton Elementary. “My partner was a big guy – bigger than me,” he says. “A kid rebounded the ball and I turned to run the other way. When I looked back, my partner is standing at about the free-throw line with his pants down around his ankles. The kid’s shoe or leg caught his pants and as he went by, somehow pulled them down. The whole place just erupted laughing. It was the funniest damn thing.”

John never planned to be a basketball referee. Growing up, he says he was more of a baseball and football guy. He played freshman football at NewCath, but quite because he didn’t like to practice. He played summer baseball (first and third base), but says he wasn’t good enough to make a stacked NewCath varsity roster.

I was a pretty good ballplayer though. In fact, John was the Northern Kentucky Pitch, Hit and Throw competition as a fourth grader and again as a fifth grader. He also was the local Punt, Pass and Kick competition in fifth grade.

One reffing experience that has eluded him, however, is the high school postseason. To qualify to ref the district tournament, you need a certain number of boys and girls varsity games and you have to pass a test.

After the 2020 season, he says he was discouraged and actually considered retiring from the basketball court. He decided to give it another year. This past season, he hadn’t been assigned very many boys games, so he didn’t bother taking the test.

“Then in January, I’m doing boys games almost every night,” he says. “And I qualify, but I never took the test!”

The assigner called and said he was disappointed because he knew John had a great year. He said coaches and ADs were regularly requesting John, and that John was probably the 9th Region’s biggest referee success story last year.

“And I said, well I’m mad at myself now,” John says. “It was a feel-good story that I screwed up in the end.”

But the good news is – the assigner told John he’s going to be working varsity every night next season. “I know that I’m pretty daggone good,” John says. “But maybe because of my age, because of my weight, I was not getting the games I thought I should. And finally this year, they saw me work a game and knew that they could use me in other places – bigger, better games. And I started to get those. And it makes me want to continue, because I was ready to give it up.”

John says he’ll know when it’s time to hang up the whistle.

“I think about it all the time,” he says. “Next year I’ll ref for sure. I’ve talked about in the past me retiring (from SD1), and I really thought I was going to go this year. But I feel good. And if I retire, whether it’s basketball or SD1 – whatever – I’m still going to have to go out and work somewhere. So I’m feeling good. I’m thinking another year at SD1 and another year at basketball. I’ll just take it year-by-year, and when basketball isn’t fun anymore, I’ll know it’s time to get out. But I would say for me this past year was one of my most fun years.”

John is an Engineering Technician at SD1. In May, he will start his 22nd year at the District.