GOLD WHISTLE AWARD: JOAN POWELL

Award

JOAN POWELL

OPTIMIST, BUILDER, MENTOR

While strolling down the sunny side of the street during her nearly 71 years on this earth, Joan Powell has never allowed anything to impede her journey. Oh, there’s been plenty of frustration along the way, but anyone who focuses on building bridges instead of walls is going to one day reflect on a life well spent. It’s a mindset inspired by her late mother, Marian McCormick, whom Joan recalls, “always found the good in people. And she believed that whatever obstacle comes your way, you can overcome it.” There’s just no stopping Powell. When she lost her beloved husband, Dick, after a tragic fall following nearly 38 years of marriage in May 2021, she grieved, but she also continued to achieve as one of the most influential and beloved volleyball officials and mentors in the history of the sport. Just this year, she was appointed the Western 5 Consortium coordinator of officials. And she is still routinely driving the E470 Tollway from her Colorado Springs home to Denver International Airport for another jobrelated flight. Is there an endgame in sight? Let’s answer that question this way: A woman who used to jog five to six miles a day for 40 years before undergoing hip replacement surgery in 2013 now pushes herself through 105 laps around a swimming pool every day except Sunday. Quite simply, Powell’s life was never equipped with a set of brakes. Let it also be said she’s not about to stop and smell the roses during her golden years since she already has been doing that for most of her life. Why shouldn’t someone who loves what she does continue sharing her immense gifts?

Meanwhile, the awards keep coming in, the most recent of which is the most prestigious. That’s the Gold Whistle Award, the highest honor in officiating, which will be presented to Powell on Aug. 2 in Denver, just 70 miles from her home. Barry Mano, president of the National Association of Sports Officials, captured the essence of Powell when he said in his announcement, “Just look at all she has accomplished and in a way that causes so many to revere her integrity and enthusiasm. She has and continues to shine such a positive light on officiating and on the leadership path for officiating administrators. The selection of Powell as the Gold Whistle recipient was an easy one.”

Better yet, let’s call it a slam dunk. That was underscored all the more when PAVO Executive Director Katy Meyer effusively reflected on the supersized impact Powell has been making on volleyball almost since she started pursuing it when she was a teenager in the late 1960s.

“When I consider this question, two words immediately come to mind — opportunity and pioneering,” Meyer said. “On the first, I’ve been in the room when the ‘please stand if your own officiating journey has been impacted by Joan Powell’ instruction is given. Whether the room is filled with veteran officials, novice officials or those with experience levels in between, nearly the entire room will stand! My own personal officiating journey would not likely have been the same without Joan’s help in maneuvering a roadblock or two. More globally, however, is how Joan is quick and committed to

BY PETER JACKEL

building up others. In a way that other leaders can benefit from, Joan seeks and embraces the strengths of those with whom she surrounds herself. Delegation of duty? Maybe. The bottom line is, those who answer her call are duly recognized for their strengths and contributions — big or small. Let her 2022 motto support this point: A rising tide lifts all boats!”

Powell is even more than a rising tide. She is more like a tsunami of positive energy who has time for everyone and who has an uncanny knack for making sticky situations so much less tense. She might flash a hint of her anger over the subject of social injustice, which was something she dealt with during the pre-Title IX days just as she was coming of age in her hometown of Tucson, Ariz. And anyone who accepts her invitation to play ping-pong will likely see her unrelenting competitiveness, as her younger sister, Nancy Meech, attests. “She is wicked good and ruthless,” said Meech, who possesses the same warm voice as Powell. “She’s kind of, ‘Hey, do you want to play?’ just like a hustler. And then you get out there and you’re like, ‘What?’ I mean, who has a really good backhand in pingpong?”

But the same woman who will overwhelm opponents at the ping-pong table will offer gentle counsel and wise guidance to anyone in volleyball who seeks her out. She has time for anyone within the realm of volleyball and she has profoundly influenced countless lives. As Doug Beal, a former USA Volleyball CEO, said, “I have a hard time imagining almost anyone who is more deserving than Joan. She has achieved at a real high level in so many different arenas of our sport. I think she sees life and the sport and people in such a positive way and I think people connect to her partly because of that and partly because of her confidence and professionalism.”

Anne Pufahl, the NCAA volleyball secretary-rules editor and coordinator of officials for the Big 12 and Sun Belt conferences and the Summit League, has known Powell for those virtues for years.

“Joan is not only the best volleyball referee I ever watched or refereed with, she’s probably one of the best human beings I’ve ever known in my life,” she said. “(The Gold Whistle Award) is due. She’s earned this. Anyone she talks to, she instantly relates to and makes them feel good. She’s not, ‘I’m Joan Powell. I’ve done nine Final Fours.’ She’s, ‘I’m a

Joan Powell and her husband, Dick (who died referee too. Let’s talk.’ It’s her likability. She draws people in. in May 2021), And her willingness to help were married any referee, no matter what for nearly 38 level, who asks her questions, years. They are pictured with their daughter, she’s going to give her full attention and help. And she’s Ashley. going to want to mentor them down the road. She’s just so giving to our sport and to other human beings that I can’t even describe it. It’s a trait I wish I had and could do, but she has it and does it without trying.” The essence of what Powell is all about is illustrated by a story that took place shortly before she was interviewed for this story. The setting was the home she shares with her 42-year-old daughter, Ashley, not some volleyball “JOAN IS NOT ONLY THE BEST court. A freeze had caused VOLLEYBALL REFEREE I EVER WATCHED a pipe in her house to burst, OR REFFED WITH, SHE’S PROBABLY ONE which caused considerable OF THE BEST HUMAN BEINGS I’VE EVER water damage in her basement. KNOWN IN MY LIFE.” In the spirit of Murphy’s Law, this emergency — Anne Pufahl, NCAA volleyball secretary-rules editor occurred on a Sunday, meaning overtime was going to be in order for the serviceman who repaired her pipe. Indeed, it was a whopper of a bill, but as Powell signed the check, she removed the sting by mentally drifting 6,000 miles to the east. Ukraine had been invaded by Russia on Feb. 24 and Powell couldn’t help but think the drain on her checking account over this household matter was nothing

compared to the suffering of so many innocent citizens in that war-torn nation. Handing her check to the repairman, Powell said, “Do you know what? I don’t live in Ukraine.” She had the same mindset when presented another sizeable bill after the water damage in her basement was repaired. Powell was preparing for a Zoom call to discuss becoming the consortium’s coordinator of officials when contractors were making all kinds of racket in her basement.

“I mean, I’ve got two minutes for one of the most important Zoom calls of my life with five representatives from five other conferences,” she said. “A big decision is going to be made about whether I’m going to be at the helm of a consortium on the West Coast, so I’m asking the guy who is shooting the nail gun, ‘OK, are you almost done?’ Then he walks up the stairs just as I’m putting on the Zoom and he wants to talk to me! As a friend of mine used to say, ‘The sprinklers were on because I was sweating already!” But Powell kept her cool, just as she always does. And now her basement is as good as new and she is the coordinator of the Western 5 Consortium of Officials, which covers the Pac-12, Mountain West, Big West, West Coast and Big Sky conferences. Somehow, everything always seems to turn out OK in Joan Powell’s world.

It’s all about perspective for Powell and that’s something she started to learn in the late 1960s, when the fourth of John and Marian McCormick’s five children was an aspiring cheerleader at Salpointe High School (now Salpointe Catholic) in Tucson. Powell wasn’t selected in each of her four years of high school to make the final squad of cheerleaders, which would cause a fair amount of heartbreak for any teenager. Powell was no exception. Being a cheerleader was someone to be back in those pre-Title IX

Left photo: Joan Powell’s officiating career included NCAA championships at all three levels. As a coordinator, she has participated in NASO Summits (top, right) and helps prepare the next wave of officials for the big games at events like the Pac-12 Volleyball Officials Diversity Camp (bottom, right). days. It was prestigious. As far as athletic competition in those days, that was strictly for the guys. If girls were fortunate enough to express themselves athletically, it was likely accomplished at the intramural level while quite possibly getting stuck wearing unflattering one-piece uniforms.

“All my friends were doing it,” Powell said of cheerleading. “It was the only gig in town for young females at that age. I wanted to be part of a group. Sports does the same thing, but back in the ’60s, it wasn’t as popular. You were kind of a tomboy. You were targeted as kind of different, where cheerleaders were the most popular and the cutest. I never made it, but my mom said to me, ‘When God closes the door, he opens the window.’ And sure enough, I tried out for volleyball. What I say in clinics, “Hey, had I made cheerleading, I would have never been able to go to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing!”

But this journey wasn’t always easy, and it started right in Powell’s own home. It was in 1969 when Powell, accompanied by three high school friends, visited the University of Arizona to chart their respective futures. While her friends chose more traditional departments to pursue in college — nursing, communications and education were their choices — Powell was uncertain. “What am I good at?” she recalls pondering. And then she had an epiphany. Why not physical education? After all, she grew up playing outside with her two brothers and two sisters “until the sun went down,” she said. And she more than held her own on volleyball courts for Salpointe when cheerleading didn’t work out. So, she walked to the end of the campus to sign up in physical education and was thrilled to inform her parents of her choice over dinner that night. More than a half-century later, Powell can still hear the deafening silence from her father, whose head went down upon hearing his daughter’s career plans.

“My dad was a very quiet man, but he really got quiet,” she said. “He didn’t engage me in questions or say, ‘Oh, that will be good for you!’ There was just nothing. So, I was doing dishes at the kitchen sink and I asked my mom, ‘What’s up with that?’ And she said, ‘Oh, Joanie, he has an aunt who was a physical education teacher and she was gay.’ And I think right there, my dad just assumed that if I went into physical education, I’m either gay now or I’m going to turn out to be gay. He was worried. Think about it. This was 1969 and nobody talked about it. So fast forward four years at the University of Arizona, I had straight friends, I had gay friends, I had married friends … it was just not a big deal. And to this day, I have friends and I don’t label them as anything. But my dad came in with a prejudice already. So how about that?”

How about this? Powell tried out for the women’s volleyball team at Arizona and became a four-year starter as a 5-foot-4 setter. In 1972, Powell helped her team qualify for the national tournament, but it was not the celebration one might expect. When all was said and done, the dreams young women dared to dream were instantly vaporized by the harsh reality of those days.

“We were happy as clams,” she said. “Meanwhile, we drive our own cars or sometimes we’d get rentals — very low budget — and we had uniforms that basketball and softball also used. One set of uniforms for three sports. We don’t know the difference. We’re just happy as clams to be playing. So now we’re going to the big dance, right? A national championship. First time ever! A women’s team sport is going to represent the University of Arizona. Our athletic director goes to the president to see if there’s any funding. And the answer is no and we did not get to go. In those days, we were just submissive to reality, which was, ‘You are not worthy.’”

But Powell, for one, was so worthy. There was just something about her that stood out to Dr. Kathryn Russell, the coach at Arizona, that strongly foreshadowed future greatness. A half-century later, Russell reflected on the qualities that would make Powell this year’s recipient of the Gold Whistle Award.

“She wanted to be involved, she wanted to make a contribution and to my knowledge, anything she was involved in was better because of her participation,” said Russell, who is in her 90s but met Powell for lunch this year. “She never backed down. She was willing to confront if confrontation was necessary, she was willing to let her feelings, her standards, her beliefs be known, she’d explain why, she had a strong sense of right and wrong and she was a leader. She just was a delightful person to know and a delightful person to work with.”

Powell took a course taught by Russell in sports officiating. “That gave me the impetus,” Powell said. “We were introduced to making money.” As a sophomore, Powell secured the opportunity to work softball games for the parks and recreation department four days a week. After working three games a night in the Tucson heat, she would dig up the bases at around 11 p.m. “It was 100 degrees at 11 o’clock at night,” she said. “What was it when we started to work?”

Top photo: Powell coached volleyball at Coronado High School in Colorado Springs from 1978-2006. Left: She’s also seen here during her early days of her 40-year volleyball officiating career. Right: In college, Powell called balls and strikes, safes and outs on the softball diamond before leaving umpiring behind to focus on volleyball.

That was the start of a prestigious officiating career, during which Powell ultimately focused on volleyball, serving for more than 40 years as a USAV and NCAA national referee. Her resume includes working nine NCAA Division I championships and several Division II and III championships. One career highlight came in 2008, when she traveled with the U.S. women’s national team to serve as head of delegation or team leader — responsible for logistics — at the Pan Am Cup, the World Grand Prix and the Olympic Games in Beijing.

But officiating was only one facet of Powell’s impact on volleyball. Fresh out of college in 1973, Powell returned to Salpointe High School, where she coached her sister, Nancy. By 1976, Powell settled at Coronado High School in Colorado Springs, where she was head girls’ volleyball coach and a physical education/health teacher until 2006. During her run, Powell coached three state championship teams and was named Coach of the Year seven times. And just as she coached her sister at Salpointe, she also coached her only child, Ashley. That was up there with any of Powell’s achievements because as she says, “My family — my two sisters and brother (her second brother is deceased) and especially my daughter now — are my support system, my rock!”

Ashley recalls learning tough lessons from her mother, just as countless others over the years certainly did.

“I would love to take my four years back, meaning I was a pistol,” Ashley said. “I had an attitude. I wanted a perfect match. I just would not accept mistakes. I’ll speak for Mom and say I think it was extremely hard for her. There were times when she couldn’t take it anymore and it was, ‘You’re out! Sub! Knock it off and respect others!’ I never saw her that firm, that strict, and it was in front of my teammates. Mom and I talked about it after the match and I felt better. I felt like a different Ashley. You have to respect others.”

Looking at her mom after all these years, there is nothing but respect from Ashley.

“I saw she is the most positive, inspirational and driven person in the volleyball world,” Ashley said.

There are countless others who agree with that.

“She just constantly looks to improve and help us grow as people, which also helps us to grow as officials,” said Kaili Kimura, a Pac-12 official. “Joan makes an effort to make sure we have the best training, the best equipment. She’s in there pushing for things that will make it easier for us, whether it’s higherresolution cameras, whether it’s better coverage, whether it’s having a standardized set of equipment so we can get better looks. The consortium has gone in her direction, which to me is a no-brainer, because she pushes so much for the improvement of our sport and the improvement of officials. It’s all about for the betterment of the game.”

Marcia Alterman, a former PAVO executive director who coordinates officials for the Big Ten and six other Division I conferences, can vouch for Powell being a worthy recipient of the Gold Whistle Award. After all, she received the award herself in 2015.

“Joan is a leader in our industry,” she said. “Of course, she specializes in volleyball, but she’s been a leader in so many ways for all officials. This is the appropriate award for her because she has been the face and the name and the advocate for officials in general for decades. She always is a problem solver and because of that, it’s, ‘What’s the next problem and what are my options or solutions to take care of that?’ It’s never, ‘I can’t deal with this! It’s more than I can handle!’ I have known her for over 30 years and I have never sensed that. It’s always been, ‘OK, there’s a wrinkle in the road and I’ve got to figure out how to get around it.’”

What a journey it has been for Powell. And there are likely so many more miles remaining for a woman who overflows with so much vitality and so many ideas. What’s difficult to ponder is what if she had made her cheerleading squad more than a half-century ago at Salpointe and never pursued volleyball?

“Joan slipped and fell on each of her routines, never making any of the squads,” Meech said. “Although crushed each year, she was happy for her girlfriends and continued her quest the next year, but ‘settled’ to play volleyball each year instead. How lucky was the volleyball world that Joan never made the cheerleading or the pom squads? And how lucky for a little sister to learn the lessons of perseverance and knowing that from failures can come ultimate success?” Peter Jackel is an award-winning sportswriter from Racine, Wis.

The Gold Whistle Award

was created by the NASO board of directors to honor an individual or organization that has gone above and beyond in overall integrity and has made signifi cant contributions to the betterment of offi ciating. The Gold Whistle is among the most coveted awards in the world of sports offi ciating. To be selected as the award recipient by the NASO board of directors, consideration is given for:

• Signifi cant contributions to the betterment of offi ciating. • A high degree of integrity and ethics. • Qualities that are held in high regard by the industry. • Consistent record of presenting offi ciating in a positive light. • Exhibiting a

“service above self” attitude.

Public service to offi ciating, having a motivating eff ect on others and/or strong community involvement are considered.

The award can be made posthumously. posthumously. made the cheerleading or the pom squads? And how lucky for a little sister to learn the lessons of perseverance and knowing that from failures can come ultimate success?” Peter Jackel is an award-winning sportswriter from Racine, Wis.