PREP FOOTBALL: A “Salty” finish for Brookhart as Bentonville resident calls his last high school game during Benton-Bryant showdown at Little Rock – Arkansas Online

BENTONVILLE — Benton and Bryant usually mark the end to the opening week of Arkansas’ high school football season when the two Saline County rivals play in the annual “Salt Bowl.”

The Aug. 27 game at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock represented an ending for football official James Brookhart. It was his final game to work as a high school football official — the ideal climax of a career that began 30 years ago when he served as the umpire at Pea Ridge’s old football stadium and has included working four state championship games.

Brookhart, a 56-year-old Bentonville resident, isn’t about to put up his striped shirt, the yellow flag and the whistle at the moment. He has simply turned his attention to college football, something he began to do in 2015, and he started to work games in the Southland Conference of the Football Championship Series this fall.

“It’s arguably the highest-attended high school football game in the state for the season, and that includes the championship games,” Brookhart said of the Salt Bowl. “It’s a fun atmosphere — one that you want to be a part of, and I’ve never had the opportunity to work it.

“I just viewed it as a great opportunity to put an exclamation point or a good ending to a fantastic, memorable, wonderful ending to a high school football officiating experience. I decided that one was a great one to mark that memory or make a memory in my high school experience.”

What made that it even more special was Brookhart worked the game with some of his closest officiating friends. Brookhart, who was the game’s referee, was allowed to pick who would be on the crew that night, and all six of them — field judge Justin Brewer, line judge Tommy Craft, umpire Mark Gay, side judge Bill Gregory, head line judge JaSon Harris and back judge Sam Richardson — quickly accepted.

Because the officiating dressing room at War Memorial Stadium is small, the group was provided a place to dress and have their pregame meeting at Arkansas-Little Rock courtesy of Grant Watts, a university employee who also serves a high school basketball official. Watts even provided the crew with transportation to the stadium and back so they could ride together.

“I was honored, to say the least,” Gay said. “James and I started off together. We were the same rookie class back in 1992 and been a member of his crew off and on a few times and worked with him a lot. We have a great friendship, and I felt honored to think he thought that much of me to ask his last. Gollee, what an honor was that.

“It was a great group, pretty much an all-star crew. Getting to ride to the stadium together, that was big time. That’s something a college officiating crew would do, and it was a thrill to have that opportunity. And James was like he always is. He’s steady Eddie. He’s so good with coaches, players and crew. I didn’t see anything that would indicate it was his last game.”

Bryant went on to win the game 38-17 before an announced crowd of 29,150 and extended its win streaks to seven against its Saline County rival and 42 games against teams from inside the state’s borders in that time. And Brookhart made sure to savor every moment he could whenever the opportunity presented itself.

“Before the game, there was a lot of emotion because you get done with the business of preparing for the game,” Brookhart said. “But then you get to the business of the game, and I intentionally took some time — timeouts, change of quarters, stuff like that — to stop, look around and soak it in.

“The crew did a great job. I didn’t have to worry about a lot, working and officiating the game. The big emotion was when we were done. I gave each crew member a big hug and a thank you for sharing it with me. Going up the tunnel, I took one last look and said ‘Thank you, high school football. This has been a great journey.’ It’s given me more than I had put into it.”

Before this game took place, Brookhart said he began to go through his notes and compile a list of people he had worked football games with throughout his career. He came up with 94, although he’s sure he has forgotten some names and that group would surpass the 100 mark, and that number just blows his mind.

It’s allowed him to build many great relationships throughout the years. Brookhart then said what he has learned during many of these games is something that can be applied to everyday life.

“You’re part of something that’s bigger than yourself,” Brookhart said. “The game of football, to me, is a great microcosm of life. For everybody involved — players, officials, coaches, fans, parents, ground crew, chain gang — things aren’t going to go as planned. Something is going to fail and somebody is going to fail.

“How do you respond when something doesn’t go your way? That’s what football is. There’s never been a perfectly played game. There’s never been a perfectly officiated game. Something has gone wrong. How you respond is a test of your character, and it’s a test of you being on a team, helping your teammate and supporting your teammates.”

AT A CROSSROADS

Brookhart said he began to entertain the idea of moving up to the college football officiating ranks in 2005. His devotion to family, however, caused him to put that thought on hold until 2015, when he started working games with the Great American Conference.

“I had been officiating for 13-14 years at the time, and I knew I wanted to try it,” Brookhart said. “But I talked to some guys who worked college football games, and I saw the commitment it would take. Basically, you’re gone on Friday afternoon and not back home until Sunday afternoon. So your weekend is bought up and you have no free time at all.

“I looked at the age of my kids at the time and said ‘No, that’s something I don’t want to give up right now.’ In 2015, two had graduated and the other was close to graduating, so I said ‘OK, let’s look into this. Is there a possibility still at almost 50 years old to make that step?’ and things worked out.”

Brookhart worked GAC games for three years, then he made the move in 2018 to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, an NCAA Division II conference that consists of schools from Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Nebraska.

During that time, he still worked a number of high school football games in the state, including a full slate of games in 2020 when the MIAA didn’t have games because of the coronavirus. But it didn’t take long for Brookhart to discover what kind of strain working high school and college games on the same weekend put on him.

“It was more mental than physical,” Brookhart said. “The physical, you can recover from, but the mental is the most taxing. There are two sets of rules, two sets of mechanics — you’re working five-man in high school and seven- or eight-man in college. So it’s two totally different games. That was the indicator for me to say if I’m going to do college football, I’m probably going to have to step away from high school football.

“I worked a little bit in 2021, but it was then I decided if I was getting this opportunity to work in FCS — and it was starting to show I would get a chance — I had to step away from high school football. It was a difficult decision, but I was at a crossroads. I had to make a commitment one way or another.”

Brookhart’s opportunity to work FCS games came earlier this year when he was hired by the Southland Conference. Most FCS conferences require their officials to travel on Fridays and be at their game locations before 6 p.m. that day, which led to Brookhart’s exit from the high school ranks.

He then hit the ground running with his new assignment. His first FCS assignment was Sept. 1 in Commerce, Texas, where he worked a game between Texas A&M-Commerce and Lincoln University, then he traveled to San Antonio for a game between Incarnate Word and Southern Illinois two days later.

“The other Southland referees, they try to give us the experience to work with an FBS officiating crew,” Brookhart said. “There are five referees in the Southland, and the other four were working as alternates at Big 12, Mountain West games.

“But the Southland had two games that week, so the commissioner called me up and asked if I was OK working two games in three days. I was excited and ecstatic for that opportunity.”

A week later, he worked the Lindenwood-Houston Baptist game, and Lindenwood blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown with 26 seconds remaining for a 21-20 victory. He then returned to Commerce last weekend to work Texas A&M-Commerce’s game against North American University, an NAIA team from Houston.

In between those assignments, Brookhart received his first taste of major college football when he was asked to serve as the alternate official for the Kansas-Houston game.

“CFO West — College Football Officials West — is the officiating organization for the Big 12, the Mountain West and the Southland,” Brookhart explained. “At the beginning of the season there are many, many nonconference games, so you have more games than you do crews.

“Because the Southland didn’t have that many games, you get the opportunity to step work and work a Mountain West or a Big 12 nonconference game. They try to give officials in the Southland an FBS experience. I was assigned as the alternate official. I wasn’t on the field, but I got to experience the pregame and watch close hand how they work a game — how they communicate with coaches and players. There were so many experiences notes to take from guys who did it every week.”

Brookhart will enjoy two weekends off before he returns to FCS action with a game at Houston Baptist, then he works a game at Incarnate Word the following weekend. The Southland schedule is only made out for eight weeks, so he must wait to see if he will get another game or get another NCAA Division II game to work.

He eventually hopes that this will eventually turn into a full-time opportunity to be an official with the Mountain West or even the Big 12, which he considers a “pipe dream,” before he calls it quits

“In that Big 12 game, the line judge — who is probably one of the most mobile on the field — is 64,” Brookhart said. “That inspired me. Internally I’ve said to myself as long as the joints hold out and I can still run well and process and mentally be in the games, I’m going to see where it takes.

“If that’s 5 years, if that’s 8 years, if that’s 2 — I’m going to let my body and my mind tell me what the runway is. But there’s no doubt I’m in the last part of my officiating journey, and God willing I want to see where it ends up. I’m not done yet. I’m still get excited and I still love it, and this — the FCS experience — is all brand new. It’s almost like starting over.”

 

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