Although Robert Richeson has completed 29 years at AHS as a teacher hes one of the well known D1 refs across our community. I got the chance to interview Robert Richeson surprisingly out of all the games hes reffed Oklahoma at Tennessee was the loudest, it was so loud he couldn’t hear his own whistle. during professional and most college football games there is 7 refs out on the field but since 2015 there is now 8. Mr. Richesons first ever game was 2009 at Texas state he prepared so hard for that game he knew nothing would faze him that day.

The equipment the refs are required to have are patches and flags, whistles and lanyards, penalty flags and matching uniforms with the other refs except for there numbers are different.  A game day routine for Mr. Richeson they arrive at the stadium 3 hours before kickoff. They get a checklist of things they have to go through, the other refs and himself meet up with the head coaches 90 minutes prior before they got to go on the field.  There are 8 positions for the refs which include referee, umpire, down judge/ head-line judge/ head linesman, line judge, field judge, side, back , and center judges.

What would Mr Richeson enjoy more teaching, or refing. He actually loves them both the same but he said refing games can be very exciting.  You would think traveling to all those games would not be fun well not to Richeson he loves to travel, but the only times it gets bad for him is when the flights get delayed and canceled due to storms. Referees average about 11.8 penalty calls every game. For my last question of my interview i asked Mr. Richeson were he sees himself in three years, either reffing college, or NFL. Well his goal is to get to the NFL, And hes already done that this fall the chiefs at cardinals for preseason, but he wants to not only do preseason but also as many in season games as possible.