Hollister resident to officiate in Rose Bowl

Scott Campbell thought he was in a dream.
He was. Living One. On Dec. 10, the longtime Hollister resident found out that he was selected to officiate in Wednesday’s Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena between Stanford and Michigan State. The Rose Bowl is the oldest bowl game in college football, hence its nickname, the Granddaddy of Them All.
“I had to do a double take as I was checking my email,” said Campbell, who is an umpire in the Big 12 Conference. “I thought to myself, ‘Am I seeing this correctly?’ I was overwhelmed.”
Campbell, 45, has been a firefighter and paramedic for the city of San Jose for the past 19 years. The flexibility in his schedule allowed him to travel for 16 consecutive weekends this season to officiate some of the top Big 12 games this season, including Oklahoma-Texas, Oklahoma-Oklahoma State and Baylor-Texas Tech (which was played at Cowboys Stadium) — just to name a few.
Campbell has also officiated a Michigan game at The Big House in front of 112,000 fans, but his next assignment takes the cake. Even though conference referee supervisors won’t say it publicly, it’s pretty much a given that only the officials who have graded out the highest are selected to be a part of a crew to officiate a bowl game.
As an umpire, Campbell is the official positioned in the middle of the field behind the linebackers. Campbell also is in charge of figuring out the down and distance, enforcing penalties and maintaining the status of the clock.
“I’m kind of the jack-of-all trades person on the crew, like a catcher on a baseball team,” Campbell said. “I want to make sure the game flows smoothly and make sure the referee looks good.”
Campbell’s career has been on an upward trajectory since he started refereeing Pop Warner football games in Hollister in 2000. From there, Campbell worked his way up the proverbial ladder, getting assignments for high school football games in ’02, junior college in ’03, small-college (Division II, III and NAIA contests) in ’04 before getting his big break in ’08, when he was hired by the Mountain West Conference.
A year later, the Big 12 came calling, and Campbell has been a regular there ever since. He has also been officiating in the Arena Football League for the past seven years, and, to his credit, still officiates high school basketball and baseball games, proving his versatility and love for officiating still extends to the grassroots level.
Raised in Sunnyvale, Campbell always had a fascination with officiating, even though he was a standout athlete in baseball, basketball and football at Fremont High-Sunnyvale.
“I was one of those kids who always paid attention to a baseball umpire’s strike zone, because every umpire had a different one,” Campbell said. “And I always thought it was weird that in baseball they’re called umpires, in basketball they’re called referees, but in football there’s a referee and the rest of the guys had letters on their backs. So I was always intrigued by officials and what they did.”
And to think: Campbell would’ve never started his officiating career or become a firefighter and paramedic had it not been for one of the lowest points in his life — the day he was cut from the UC Davis baseball team, in 1990.
“When I got cut, I didn’t know what to do next,” Campbell said. “It was horrible. I just had this empty feeling, a helpless feeling. Your dreams of continuing your baseball career is over, and to make it worse it was the first time I was ever cut from a team. To have that bitter taste in your mouth, it kind of puts a chip on your shoulder to succeed at something else.”
A chip? For Campbell, it was more like a boulder. Instead of wallowing in pity, Campbell used his shortcoming as fuel, powering his way to success in two entirely different fields. A couple of days after being cut, Campbell found himself in the gym; after all, he couldn’t attend baseball practice anymore.
“The next thing I know, I meet this guy in the weight room and he’s an EMT (emergency medical technician) in an ambulance,” Campbell said. “So I ask him if I could do a ride-along with him, and I got hooked. I got a job in an ambulance in Sacramento, then went to paramedic school and got hired by the San Jose Fire Academy in 1995.”
While on duty as a paramedic in 2000 providing services to the San Jose SaberCats, Campbell asked one of the referees how he could get into officiating. A different person came back with information about a local football officials’ meeting that was taking place a couple of days later. Of course, Campbell attended the meeting, and his path to officiating was just beginning.
“The next thing I know, I’m working the Hollister Viking Pop Warner games,” Campbell said.
From there, Campbell started attending referee football camps multiple times each year, diligently honing his craft while making connections along the way, including with current NFL referees Bill Leavey and Walt Anderson, who is the current supervisor of Big 12 Conference officials.
Campbell has previously worked the Capital One Bowl, the Gator Bowl and the Russell Athletic Bowl, but his selection to officiate in the Rose Bowl comes with an added bonus — his wife, Jeanette, will be joining him in Southern California.
“Well, the first thing she said was she couldn’t wait to see the Tournament of Roses (parade),” Campbell said. “I’m like, ‘I’ve got a game to officiate.’ But it’s going to be a memory of a lifetime for both of us.”
Considering the progression Campbell has made as a referee, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before NFL comes calling. The league hires anywhere between zero to five new officials every year, and Campbell has applied for a position for the past five years.
Of course, the competition is fierce and the spots are few, but Campbell has a great perspective in regards to his officiating career.
“I’ve been fortunate and blessed to be given the opportunities I’ve been given,” he said. “If I can make it to the NFL one day, it would be another dream come true. When I first started doing Pop Warner games, I thought to myself, ‘If I could just work the Friday night (varsity) games under the lights, that would be the pinnacle.’ Everything else from there was a bonus.”
Even though Campbell needs to have a laser-eye focus for 170-200 plays (the typical amount of plays during a college game), he still takes time beforehand to soak in the atmosphere and smell the roses — no pun intended.
“When you walk into these big stadiums, they’re like monoliths, cathedrals,” Campbell said. “It’s surreal.”
Every time he steps onto the field, Campbell pinches himself before thinking, ‘Am I really going to be on the football field in front of 100,000 people? Is this really happening?’
For Campbell, reality has been better than a dream.