By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
After officiating high school basketball games for 23 years, Dave Kanarek decided to leave his black-and-white striped shirts hanging in the closet this season and try something new.
The 43-year-old Florence resident joined the boys’ basketball coaching staff at Cooper High School and he’s been enjoying the game from a much different perspective.
“Honestly, I was looking forward for the first time in 23 years to just being a spectator, sitting in the stands and watching from there, and here I am doing the opposite sitting on the sidelines,” Kanarek said. “But it really has been an enjoyable experience. And I look forward to seeing what the next couple weeks will bring.”
The Cooper Jaguars earned a berth in the 9th Region Tournament that begins next week at the Bank of Kentucky Center. If they win their first-round game, they’ll advance to the semifinals to be played on Sunday, March 8 with the championship game set for the evening of Monday, March 9.
If Cooper takes the 9th Region title and makes its first trip to the state tournament at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kanarek will be in familiar surroundings. He was on the officiating crew for state tournament games there in 2012.
Getting selected for the boys’ state tournament is the ultimate honor for Kentucky high school basketball officials. Since Kanarek had already achieved that, he felt like it was time to turn the page on that chapter of his life.
When Cooper head basketball coach Tim Sullivan heard Kanarek was retiring as an official, they talked about him joining the coaching staff. Kanarek had never coached on the high school level, but that didn’t matter to Sullivan.
“I had a couple other coaches ask me, ‘What are you trying to do, get in good with the officials,” Sullivan said. “I said, ‘No, Dave’s just a great guy. He knows our kids, he loves basketball and he knows the rules.’ That’s why he’s been a great addition to our staff.”
The fact that Kanarek was willing to volunteer the time he spends with the team without getting paid also impressed Sullivan.
“In this world, it’s hard to find good people who are willing and have just one goal and that’s helping young people,” Sullivan said. “There’s no hidden agenda with Dave. That’s the purity of it.”
Kanarek did not play basketball when he was a student at Boone County High School. While attending the University of Kentucky, he officiated intramural basketball games on campus to make some spending money. He liked it so much that he joined the 9th Region Basketball Officials Association when he returned to this area after getting a degree in finance.
But the demands of working a full-time job as a risk management manger for Macys and being a high school official began to wear on him recently.
“I was getting tired of being gone three, four, five nights a week,” he said “I kind of lost the fire for it. Somebody way back when told me when that’s gone it’s time to get out and I was ready.”
As a coach, Kanarek has more time to spend with his wife, Sheri, and their two sons, Alex, 10, and Brycen, 15. His oldest son is a student assistant for the Jaguars so they’re sharing in the team’s successful season together.
“I’ve had a great time getting to know the kids (on the team),” Kanarek said. “That’s one of the coolest things about this. We’ve got a great group of kids at Cooper and they welcomed me with open arms right from the beginning and listen to what I’ve had to say. Some of the relationships we’ve built will last forever.”
Kanarek has also retained his friendships with the veteran 9th Region officials that he worked with over the years. But he tries to limit his conversations with them on game days.
“I try not to socialize with them before a game because I understand the politics of it all and how it works,” he said. “I would never want to put anybody in a position where people say Cooper is getting the calls because Dave Kanarek is sitting on their bench.”
Unlike many assistant coaches, Kanarek tries to keep his emotions in check when he disagrees with an official’s call. But now he understands why coaches tend to react that way.
“When you’re a coach you get so caught up in what’s beneficial for your team,” he said. “You’re so emotionally invested that sometimes you lose sight of the big picture. But I’ve been in (the official’s) shoes too and I know it’s a different mindset for them, because you’re trying to be totally impartial. Unless you’ve done both, you really can’t get an appreciation for both ends of it.”
Terry Boehmker, NKyTribune sports writer, is former sportswriter and editor for The Kentucky Post. He is an award-winning writer with extensive background in both print and digital. Reach him at terryboe@yahoo.com.