He was saved by you.
Mike was not expecting to hear those words when he walked onto the field of the Redwings minor league ballpark. The man who has worked for national television as a rules analyst for the last decade and once worked as an official in the National Football League was nervous about throwing the first pitch at a baseball game.
A woman tugged on his shirttail and pointed to a man who was walking up ahead of them as she cried.
The man was shocked. Are you the one who saved his life?
She said you saved his life. She was going to change her name to Lisa Pilgreen and marry the man she was referring to. He was recently retired after 18 years of service in the United States Army, during which he did six tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, adding to the action he saw in Bosnia.
In May 2015, Pilgreen retired from the army. The next couple of years were terrible. The life of a civilian felt strange. He went through a lot of failed job interviews. His attempts to self-medicate resulted in an overdose. He was unmoored even after he met Lisa and fell in love.
He looked like a man with purpose on this day. The man walked with his shoulders up. The man was smiling. Lisa grabbed Mike's hands.
She said that she used to not want to go to work because of her fear. He had a smile on his face when I returned. He thought he found it. I wanted to know what you found. He said, "Battlefields to Ballfields" There is an official whoOfficiates. I will try this.
B2B is a foundation that was started in 2016 He leaves his home state of California at the end of the football season to travel to Oregon. The trip was preceded by a visit with some veterans. After they hung up their uniforms, several of them were homeless. He heard it all the way up the coast. He came up with an idea that would become B2B, with the goal of trying to solve two problems at once.
The first thing to do is to give back to men and women like Pilgreen and those men he'd met in LA, helping them reintegrate into their community.
To be accepted again, to be wanted again. A lot of these guys are looking for that. He is an operations and readiness officer with the naval information warfare training group. He is one of B2B's regional directors. I'm leaving the military in two years and I'm going to miss the camaraderie that I have with my unit. It's difficult to find that kind of stuff when you're a grown up.
Those who are hurting need to be able to be a part of something, to have that fellowship, and Battlefields to Ballfields gives them an avenue to do that. That's correct?
Is it? Being part of a team is what a sports official is supposed to do. It requires study, attention to detail and the ability to digest a lot of visual and sensory information in a short period of time. A chain of command, a tradition of mentorship, and a sense of understanding the job that only those who don't wear the uniform truly understand is part of the military experience.
It sounds like the military.
It is similar to the army. In Southern California, a B2B participant is moving up the ladder from youth football to high school games. You've got a lot of camaraderie when you have your squad and your team. Right now, I have two brothers. There are many ways to save a man. He saved my life in Iraq. My child was named after me. My life was saved by the battles to ballfields. The man saved my life. These are men who do the right thing. Men who were honorable.
A decade and a half has passed since TaraNGO served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo. He lost touch with his oldest son after a divorce. He was unable to leave the house when he was discharged from the hospital. He would water his lawn in the backyard because it gave him a sense of control over something in his life. When he left the house, he rode nervously as a passenger when friends or family would drive, his brain was alarmed by the sight of any trash on the side of the road, which made him fear for his life.
Tarango's phone number was given to him by a mutual friend who was a local football coach. He didn't know who the analyst was when he called.
"Mike P. said he wanted to help vets get back out in the streets." Tarango says he heard you needed help. I don't need anyone's help. I need you to help me see my son.
I can't promise that, but I heard your son plays football. Perhaps this can help you.
Tarango sat in a B2B meeting filled with other veterans as well as local sports officials who were there to teach and help. It was the first time in a long time that Tarango felt like he belonged. Soon, he was coaching youth football players as a downfield official, and he was also chasing youth football players as a downfield referee.
"Here's the thing about these veterans, you only have to tell them something once, so I use Tarango as a representation of nearly every former serviceman and woman I work with." "Officiating is about mechanics, positioning, where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be there and concentrating on a specific area of the field." They've been doing that for their whole adult lives in the military. I only have to explain it once, if I say, "Hector, you have to stay back and keep the play in front of you." After that, they just do it.
Tarango joined B2B after the first day. He worked games on a weekly basis after a couple of years. He shared the field with his son after a long time.
It was a great time. He would tell me to go on the field. It was a big deal to me. Joey, now a college graduate and in the Army, says he feels like he has that thing he needs. He says his father was healed by the fact that he was an official, and that the purpose of the game was what his father called the mission. He would be like, "You were holding him." I said no, I was not. It was funny when we argued back and forth.
B2B provides scholarships, covering the cost of equipment and training for anyone who wants to become an official. It can be quite steep starting out in youth and high school sports, all of whom pay nothing at all.
That brings us to the second problem that Pereira is trying to solve, an issue that is becoming more apparent to anyone who watches or attends sporting events, no matter where or at what level.
When Veterans Day arrives in the fall, it is in the middle of the sports season when football is at its peak and basketball and hockey are starting. Throw in soccer, volleyball, field hockey, even cross country and water polo, and from professional leagues all the way down through your local youth sports organizations, there is no less busy time for athletics than this time.
There is an increasing lack of people who are willing to work for the league and teams. The number of referees, judges, umpires, and other people who are willing to enforce the rules of the game are decreasing.
There are a lot of reasons for the lack of officiating talent, starting with unforeseen costs and the length of time it takes for anyone to reach the big league. He became a college official because of his dad. It took the junior nearly 15 years in college to get a call from the league. A lot of college football officials spend years at the high school and junior high level before they get a chance to work a game.
Time and low pay can be overcome when compared to the issue of sportsmanship. More and more would-be officials are walking away from the sport because of the dangerous conditions created by angry parents, coaches and athletes.
An annual survey is conducted by the National Association of Sports officials. Sportsmanship has gotten worse, and 40% of the people who responded said parents were the main issue. The top reason given by those who did walk away was the constant venom thrown at them by their parents.
The numbers don't dispute that.
More than half of the 7,400 officials surveyed by the NCHSAA had considered quitting over the last two years. In San Diego, where B2B has recently established a partnership, the number of youth football officials has fallen over the last two years. The people who are in charge are showing their age. The majority of North Carolina officials are over the age of 55.
High school games across the nation are being moved to Thursday and Saturday because of the lack of personnel in the future. On Saturdays and Sundays, inexperienced men and women in stripes are being thrust onto stages they aren't ready for.
The hotel rooms of the officials of the National Football League were changed in the middle of the night due to death threats. The personal information of an SEC official from the Alabama-Tennessee game was posted on a message board. It's not hard to find videos of fans attacking officials on a weekly basis.
Those who do do it well. Those who love it are trying to find ways to get more people involved.
Where were the young men and women who played high school sports after their senior year? "Pereira, what's the matter?" Is it possible to keep them from getting out of sports and going off the rails? We've never gotten people involved inOfficiating at a younger age. I challenge people to come up with ways to address the shortage.
Even though the "Say Yes to Officiating" campaign has been launched, help is still needed. The battles to Ballfields are doing what they can. B2B's membership has grown from 200 to 700 this season, despite the fact that the number of officials in the country has fallen. They can get to 1,000 in the next two years, according to the man.
Pilgreen says they're used to being yelled at or put into difficult situations. Those that have deployed, been in combat, a parent or a coach raising their voice, it's okay. The drill sergeants yell at you all the time during basic training, so it's like, "Okay." We don't let it affect us because we're used to it.
Tarango says there is a lot of similarity. People don't like you first of all. Half the people there will be angry at you. People come to you. There cannot be a game without a ref. Tarango laughs. I'm similar to a soldier. My assignment is complete. My goal has been trained for. If something gets a hand, my white hat is going to have your back. A platoon sergeant is the same thing. It's the same as a squad leader. There are no bullets being fired at you here. What do you mean?
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