The big break that led Kim Royston to a career in educational leadership, as well as becoming an MSHSL football official, was an actual big break.
If his name rings a bell, that’s because Royston
was a supremely talented football player. He was a first-team all-state wide
receiver and defensive back at Cretin-Derham Hall, where he graduated in 2005.
He played football at the University of Wisconsin for two years before transferring
to Minnesota, where he finished his career in 2011.
He earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors, received the Carl Eller
Award as the Gophers’ outstanding defensive player and also was named Minnesota's
defensive back of the year.
What broke was one of his legs. He suffered
the injury during spring practice in 2010 and missed that season. He was
granted a medical waiver for a sixth year of eligibility and in 2011 he started
at safety in all 12 games and led the team in tackles.
Before the injury he was focused on working
toward a career playing professional football. But his time on the sideline, as
well as on the practice field and in the film room, shed new light on his
future. Already a team captain, he basically became a Gophers coach.
“I enjoyed that process of working with
younger guys,” he said. “I had my undergrad degree already and I didn’t have any
intentions to get a master’s right away because I had set my mind on the NFL. But
I started working on a master’s in education and really developed a passion for
leading and developing young people.”
He spent a year as a graduate assistant
football coach at Temple University in Philadelphia and was an assistant coach
at Armstrong High School before moving into an administrative career. He was activities
director at Minneapolis Southwest High School, assistant activities director at
Shakopee and is currently an assistant principal at Plymouth Middle School.
His name was in the news in April when he
was the first building administrator to arrive at
an incident where a student fired a gun. He was known as an unflappable
athlete, and he’s the same as an administrator as well as a first-year football
official.
At 34 years old,
Royston is married with a 10-month-old son and quite busy. But he wanted to
stay connected and give back to the sport he loves while helping ensure that
today’s student-athletes are allowed the opportunity to play.
“It’s been on my radar for at least five
years,” he said. “I knew how hard it is to find officials.”
Royston is the back judge on a crew that includes
referee Jarrod Leder, umpire Toby Sackett, head
linesman Chad Evenson and line judge Dean Kockelman. Having played defensive
back, Royston is used to being positioned in the secondary. But officiating is
clearly different.
(From left to right are Kim Royston, Jarrod
Leder, Chad Evenson, Dean Kockelman and Toby Sackett.)
“When we worked our first scrimmage, he’d
act like a free safety,” Leder said. “He would line up even with the slot and
get into his crouch like he was covering him. I said, ‘Don’t get into your
crouch, you just want to stand and watch.’ You can see why he was such a great
player, because you tell him something once and he does it the next time.”
Royston has worked a varsity game every
week this season as well as a number of sub-varsity games. It used to be quite rare
for rookie officials to be on the varsity level right away, but there are fewer
officials than in recent years.
Leder, 44, had an open
spot on his crew this season. When Gopher State Officials Association assigner
George Winn told Leder there was a new official named Kim Royston, “I distinctly remembered watching him play at Cretin,”
Leder said.
“I said to George, ‘If he wants to be in
officiating, based on his background, he’ll go as far as he wants. I’ll give
him the best foundation I can give him.’ With his background and the way he
picks up information and translates it to the field, the sky’s the limit.”
Leder, who is also an official in the Wisconsin
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, has attended officiating clinics all over
the country. He said people in Minnesota don’t always realize the quality of high
school officials in the state.
“We have some of the best officials in the
country,” he said. “I see officiating in other parts of the country and I meet
people and think, ‘How are guys even on a field? You wouldn’t last in Minnesota.’
”
That level of quality is important to Royston,
who said the game has slowed down for him as the season has progressed.
“First and foremost, I’m fortunate to be
part of a great crew, and Jarrod is a great mentor and teacher,” Royston
said. “The biggest thing helping me as a back judge is reading keys, knowing if
it’s a run or pass, watching the DBs, making sure the ball doesn’t get behind
you. It’s almost like playing safety. When I started, my natural instinct was
to go towards the ball on a pass. But you want to make sure you’re stationary
and focus on the play. I needed to emphasize that with myself.
“I’m loving it. I’m learning new things every week. It’s really therapeutic after a long hard day at the middle school to go out there in nice weather, working in the game you love.”
Royston is trying to recruit new officials
to join the profession, just as he has.
“I’ve been doing my best to get the bug
into the friends I played with,” he said. “I’ll continue doing that.”
Leder, who works as a product manager, said
his daytime job entails plenty of people management, just like officiating.
“I’ll talk about stressful situations with
a coach and being able to work through it. I think football has made me a
better employee,” he said. “I just love doing it. You’re going to deal with
people who are idiots, but you also deal with so many great people.
“This year has been really nice. About
every game I get at least one person who goes out of the way to tell us thank
you. People are treating us way better than in the past and I appreciate that.
But really, all we want is for people to relax, get some perspective and don’t
act like a jerk.”
--TO LEARN ABOUT BECOMING AN OFFICIAL,
CLICK THIS LINK:
https://www.mshsl.org/officials-judges/officiating
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