Where Gurell Goes, Officiating Follows

By Steven L. Tietz

In the mid-1960s, wanderlust sent multisport Florida official Gerson Gurell and his newlywed wife, Marsha, from New York City to beautiful Ibiza, Spain, on their honeymoon.

They made their home in Puerto Rico, where they stayed for close to 50 years. There he found a niche as a teacher and sports official for

I had no job, but Marsha said we could go to Puerto Rico and find work there. We kept the New York apartment just in case.”

He said when they settled in Puerto Rico, he met an Army colonel who told him Fort Buchanan was only a few minutes away and would hire him as a teacher.

“I went there and they hired me,” he said. “And I stayed for 49 years.”

Gurell taught on multiple levels and started officiating in the 1970s, working almost every sport he could find including high school baseball, softball, soccer and basketball, as well as pee wee and flag football.

“I wasn’t the world’s greatest official, but I did what I thought was an adequate job,” he said.

He’s always loved baseball and made his Army base team back in the 1950s, playing against the likes of major leaguers Willie Mays and Dick Groat.

While in Puerto Rico, Marsha earned her master’s degree, taught for a time and became an artist. They moved to Florida when they retired. Marsha was 94 when she died a few years ago. Gurell’s kept busy ever since.

Behind the Mask, Out In Front

Brian DeVos Waseca, Minn.

In 2019, Brian DeVos realized the pool of young softball and baseball umpires in his area was drying up. So, along with fellow umpire Joel Schmidt, he created Behind the Mask, a program designed to recruit, mentor, train, equip and retain new umpires.

That effort, along with his long umpiring career, resulted in the St. Paul Saints independent minor league baseball team presenting DeVos with their Lifetime Achievement Umpire Award.

Behind the Mask also aims to create funding for community and individual subsidies through partnerships and its tournaments.

SOURCE: WASECA (MINN.) COUNTY NEWS

A Different Perspective

Zach Morley Middleton, Wis.

servicemen and their children at Fort Buchanan, the island’s Army base.

They moved back to the mainland about a decade ago where he now lives with family in Palm Coast, Fla.

Gurell, now 93, still officiates all manner of sports. He says he remains healthy and says with a laugh that he’s always been able to avoid doctors. Gurell remembers every detail of his odyssey as if it were yesterday.

“I went to New York University and got a physical education degree,” he said, “but I didn’t do much with it. We got married and Marsha and I had something like $5,000 when we went to Ibiza.

“We stayed eight months and when we came back to New York

“I was about 83 when we moved back and I started officiating again, high school and rec stuff,” he said. “Mostly soccer and baseball. I feel well, and I think I’m still functional.”

He officiated his first girls’ softball game in mid-February and has also picked up girls’ flag football. He works hard to stay licensed.

“I get a little grief about my age,” he said. “People ask, ‘How old are you?’ But I keep going.”

Gurell also volunteers at elementary schools, constructs fences and does some educational writing.

He is delighted to still be officiating.

“I’m not thinking of quitting anytime soon,” he said. Steven L. Tietz is an award-winning journalist from Milwaukee. *

Big crowds at high school basketball games don’t faze Zach Morley. He was a member of the University of Wisconsin teams that played in the 2004 and 2005 NCAA mens’ basketball tournaments. As a referee today, his focus is different.

“There is noise you hear. You sort of block it out,” he told the Wisconsin State Journal. “I feel I have the ability as an official that you hear the noise but you have to be able to ignore it.”

Morley began officiating in 2016 due to his love of the game and his desire to give back. “For me, it’s a chance to stay involved in basketball without getting into the coaching side. Basketball gave me a lot through my life, between a college education, a free education, seeing the world, making money, meeting a lot of great people.”

COURTESY WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL; COURTESY BRIAN DEVOS

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