March 3, 2008

PUYALLUP, Wash. -

By Shaun Scott, sports editor

Bruce Osborne refuses to let father time keep him from partaking in one of his favorite activities.

Each winter for the past 44 years, the 65-year-old Osborne has spent the majority of his winter evenings laying face first on wrestling mats while simultaneously signaling two, take down green, to scorekeepers sitting just a few yards away.

Osborne has been an official/referee of wrestling since beginning his English teaching career with the Puyallup School District in 1964.

"As far as I know there's only one official in the state who's done it as long as I have right now," Osborne said.

From 1964 to 1980, Osborne was a part-time official because of his wrestling coaching duties at West Junior High School and Rogers High School. Finally in 1980, Osborne decided he would become a full-time official, in addition to being a full-time teacher.

"When I first got into coaching, I started officiating because I wanted to learn more about the sport," Osborne said. "Officiating eventually became a passion of mine and I wanted to do it full-time. In the past 30 years I have been an official at a regional tournament in Washington. I haven't missed one. Refereeing is a passion of mine. It's stimulating."

Osborne, who retired from teaching in 2005, has the blessing of his wife to spend the majority of his evenings in local gymnasiums across Western Washington during wrestling season.

"I have to give a lot of the credit to my wife Ingrid. She knows she's No. 1 to me," Osborne said. "She's never made me feel guilty for doing what I do and I admire that. Since I'm retired I'm able to spend a lot of time with her. But from Tuesday through Saturday night I'm usually at a wrestling match somewhere."

The exhilaration of being directly involved with an athletic competition is one of the thrills of the job, Osborne said.

"It's just a rush. One of the biggest thrills of the job is after a match when a parent of a current wrestler comes up to me and says, `You used to ref my matches when I was in high school.' That's a pretty neat feeling."

Osborne said he plans on refereeing wrestling matches for long as he's able to competently do the job.

"I want to do this as long as I can. I don't have a target date. I will do it as long as I can make sound judgments and have the ability to make the right calls," Osborne said. "I will know the time when I can't do it anymore. My body will let me know."

Osborne's wife concurs with her husbands' sentiment.

"I love that he is involved with wrestling still. There's never a dull moment with him," Ingrid Osborne said. "I want him to continue doing it as long as he's healthy enough. He's active and It doing what he does keeps his mind and body quite healthy."

On Feb. 15 and 16, Osborne reached the pinnacle of his officiating career as he was selected by the WIAA's Jim Meyerhoff to be the head official of Mat Classic XX in the Tacoma Dome.

"I came home one night at about 11:30 p.m. and I checked my e-mail. I had an e-mail from Jim Meyerhoff. I called him back the next day and he said, `I'm going to make an offer you can't refuse'. It turned out the head official of the Mat Classic was retiring after 27 years on the job. Jim said, `I would like you to replace him.' I was deeply honored and accepted the offer."

Osborne's passion for wrestling began when he was a sophomore at Mount Vernon High School in 1958.

"I didn't know one thing about the sport," Osborne said. "I was 112 pounds and everyday I got to go up against Jack Kerr who was the returning state champion. Everyday at practice he worked me but it hooked me and really sold me on wrestling."

Unfortunately for Osborne, his parents moved to Camano Island and he wasn't able to wrestle his junior and senior years of high school in Stanwood. Osborne made up for lost time, wrestling intercollegiately at Western Washington University from 1960-1964 before beginning his teaching, coaching and officiating career in the Puyallup area in the fall of 1964.

While Osborne's teaching and coaching career are in the history books, his officiating career isn't close to shutting the final chapter in the book just quite yet.