Mike Colbrese was planning to direct a JV ball game in Sequim, a little city exactly 60 miles Northwest of Seattle, on Tuesday evening when his telephone unexpectedly ejected with celebratory pings.

The previous 27-year WIAA Leader Chief had known for around fourteen days he was going into the NFHS’ Public Secondary School Lobby of Popularity in July, however was simply ready to impart the news to his loved ones.

Until Tuesday, when news spread after the NFHS reported Colbrese among the its 2024 class. The notes came from individuals he met along his many stops across the secondary school sports scene over the last 40-a few years.

“The timing is horrible,” Colbrese joked to SBLive Tuesday evening. “I must work a ball game today and it’s been truly close to home to get to this multitude of messages. It’s really lowering.

“You don’t do what you manage without remaining on a many individuals’ shoulders. Furthermore, I’ve been lucky to have a ton of incredible shoulders to remain on.”

He’s one of 10 set to be enlisted in a service at the NFHS Summer Meeting in Boston on July 1 — alongside any semblance of first polling form Baseball Lobby of Popularity catcher Joe Mauer.

Colbrese, 74, resigned from the WIAA in 2019 yet didn’t leave secondary school sports by and large. He spends his retirement as a secondary school ref and assignor following 37 years of secondary school state affiliation experience in Montana, Wyoming and Washington.

He showed secondary school English for a long time, then, at that point, enjoyed five years as an associate chief with the Montana Secondary School Affiliation and six more as the magistrate of the Wyoming Secondary School Exercises Relationship before he was recruited to lead the WIAA in 1993.