After she handled the Sept. 29 game between the Tigers and Dayton High, he said he hardly noticed her. When you need some information, she provides it. Ms. Egan, a 1970 graduate of Walton-Verona, said her interest in football started in grade school. On Saturdays she'd help her father make wine, lugging the bags of sugar and the bottles, to get out of having to clean her room. Like baseball, basketball and soccer officials, aspiring football referees start with grade school games and move into freshman and junior varsity contests.
Officials also have to pass an annual rules test.
Ms. Egan long ago developed the requisite thick skin of a referee. She says that, at first, some coaches were apprehensive about complaining about her calls because they were not comfortable with the idea of a woman as a ref. But she has taken her licks. She suffered a hyperextended knee refereeing in a junior varsity game at Dixie Heights. She refereed her first varsity high school game in 1990 between Owen County and Millersburg Military.