Darrell Monroe, still remembered as one of the best officials in Kitsap history
A great local basketball referee and an even better person was lost 15 years ago when Darrell Monroe, then just 53, died of complications from the rare disease amyloidosis.
Amyloidosis is caused by a build-up of abnormal protein in organs and tissues throughout the body. It affected Monroe’s sight and eventually his heart, forcing him to retire from officiating, which he had done for 25 years with great skill and composure.
“Oh, I called him Mr. Monroe,” says Bruce Welling, longtime teacher and fastpitch coach at Central Kitsap who officiated many basketball games with Monroe. ”Coaches loved to see him walk on the court.”
Joe Frank Guerra, also known as DJ Joe Frank, said about Monroe: "He showed me all the tricks. Because of him I was successful as an official. His basketball knowledge was very good and he was really good with people. He put in law and order in these games and did it in a cool manner. Coaches loved him.”
Monroe was originally from Waycross, Georgia, where he played basketball as a 5-6 guard. He joined the Navy after a year of college, and that led him to Kitsap County where he met and married Frances Clemente in 1975. It wasn’t long after Monroe, who worked at Bangor, started refereeing.
“Darrell and I started together,” says Jim LeMont. “Dick Todd and I started referring the Mom’s League and Darrell was one of the coaches. Then he started referring. He had a lot of desire for it. He organized a basketball tournament at the old East High Gym and he and I did about 19 games.”
That tournament, honoring Martin Luther King Jr., went on for some time.
“Darrell was great,” added LeMont. “He really, really pushed for the betterment of everybody. He would show other refs what they needed to do. Darrell went the extra mile.”
“He worked for the good of the game,” says Darrell Dieringer, assigning secretary for the Peninsula Basketball Officials Association. “He was all about seeing guys advance. I liked his integrity. He worked with fairness, trying to keep officials in the association and trying to get everybody their opportunity.
“He was instrumental in my career, getting me into college basketball work, Division II and III.”
Monroe also worked community college basketball and his skills were so good it quickly took him to numerous high school state tournaments, including state finals.
He also was a wonderful husband to Francis and father to two daughters — Neeci Washington and Marie Monroe –and was an ordained deacon at his church, Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist in Bremerton. He also was deacon board chairman and layman president at the church, Sunday school teacher and director of the men’s choir, which he also sang in. He also managed the flag football League at Bangor, became president of the PBOA and was a leader in the community. There was nothing he couldn’t do or wanted to do to help others.
“Oh my God, he was a great man,” says Ron Burley, who officiated games with Monroe and now drives a 26-wheeler delivering goods to places as far away as Montana. “I had known him for many years. He was great with people, and a great partner to work with. Yeah, he was a jewel. Well respected among the coaches, school administrators. When he was on the floor, you know you were going to get all he could give.
“We lost a lot when we lost him. He was a good father, good husband, good official and a good citizen”
Necci played basketball at Olympic High School into her senior year, when she injured a knee. Her son, Darrell Washington, just finished his first year at Fairview Middle School and split time in the basketball season between the Olympic junior varsity and varsity. He’s 6-foot guard who exhibits the same strengths and skills his grandfather did — quickness and speed — and has used it to play with the Kitsap Admirals and on a select basketball team.
“It was very tough on all of us,” says granddaughter Lanessa. “We lost a very spiritual role model. My papa was the head of the family. He was our foundation. It was very intentional the way he loved us. It’s the same way he loved his community, his church. He was a big part of our life.”
It wasn’t all rosy. LeMont laughs when telling this story. He was referring a Mom’s League game with another referee who happened to be the local FBI man. Monroe was coaching one of the teams and was giving LeMont and the FBI guy a lot of trouble by yelling at them for some of their calls that went against his team.
The FBI guy had enough. He blew his whistle and gave Monroe not one technical, but two, which meant Monroe was kicked out of the game. It didn’t stop Darrell.
“My partner kicked him out and I was chuckling because Darrell was still coaching from down the hall, “LeMont said.
There was no quit in Darrell Monroe. If it served the general good of the community and his church he was all in. And his integrity was beyond approach.
“Darrell and I pretty much refereed the same way,” says Brian Strege, who has reached the exalted status of Monroe in his many years of pounding the local maple woods. “Make the players play the way they are supposed to play, and don’t let them get away with anything.”
Jim Rye worked many years as a top rated local high school basketball referee and remembers Monroe well.
“A great guy, a very likeable guy,” says Rye, who is busy now raising chickens. “He was very dependable, had integrity and was always there for his partner. I couldn’t ask for a better guy to walk on the floor with. He always looked for the good in people. He very seldom make a call that somebody raised a voice on. They (coaches) were very comfortable with him. They didn’t have to worry about him.”
Strege added: “We worked quite a few years together. It was always fun to work with him. That was a big loss. He was a great guy, a great official.”
Neeci said her father’s humility came from the way he was raised.
“My dad came up with an upbringing to always respect others,” Neeci said. “As he got older and joined a friendship with Jesus he learned that people are God’s people and everybody has a story and it’s important to humble ourselves.”
Neeci has taken what her dad taught her and is teaching her children to be the same, on and off the court.
Darrell’s time spent officiating was a family affair. Francis and their children would often go to his games, even traveling to away contests. What they saw on display was the skill that was recognized quickly with Monroe's induction into the Kitsap Sports Hall of fame in 2008. The same year, the PBOA initiated the Darrell Monroe Award to the local official who exercises the character, integrity and skill that Monroe did. Dieringer got it his past year, the second time he has received the honor.
“It’s for performance, working with the community, communication and being a good person like Darrell was,” says referee Chris Murphy. “Darrell gave his time away from basketball. He was doing something all the time. His wife would call him and ask 'where are you?’”
Francis doesn’t have to ask anymore. She knows her husband is with the Lord. He packed a lot of good into his short life and leaves a lot of good memories of a job well done.
Terry Mosher is a longtime Kitsap sportswriter who writes about local sports personalities. Contact him at bigmosher@msn.com.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Kitsap basketball referee Darrell Monroe remembered for impact
