Brett Kramer lives in his hometown of Hortonville, Wisconsin, with his wife Abby, their two young sons — 3-year-old Harvey and 1-year-old Lucas — and their golden retriever, Rollie.
But instead of spending every evening at home with his family after work, the 31-year-old can often be found in high school gymnasiums making tough calls as a basketball referee.
Outside of his day job at Cintas, Kramer doubles as a referee with the Green Bay Officials Association. He's been officiating since he was 14 when his uncle, who was also an official, recruited him.
"Yeah, he kind of just gave me an ultimatum. Just like, you're going. I'm picking you up at this time. I couldn't even drive and I was still going to go ref a basketball game too," Kramer recalls.
He quickly fell in love with officiating and has been refereeing at the varsity level for about 12 years.
Kramer is officiates varsity basketball and football and is certified to umpire baseball too.
"I love being a part of the high-pressure moment too," he says.
But this part-time job comes with considerable sacrifice. Kramer gets up before 4 a.m. for his day job, meaning he sometimes gets only an hour or so with his children in the afternoon before heading off to officiate games.
"That can get hard especially when you go leave to ref and you tell my oldest 'Hey dad's got to go ref' and he says 'No dada don't'," Kramer shares.
While the extra income from refereeing helps, Kramer isn't spending time away from home for a glamorous payday. He says usually earns about $30-$40 for a youth game, $55-$65 for a junior varsity game and $85-$110 for a varsity game. According to Kramer, pay usually varies by conference and referee availability.
He's certainly not doing the job to win a popularity contest either.
"Whenever you blow your whistle, 50 percent of the population isn't going to be happy what you called," he explains.
Staying calm amid the intensity of heated games is crucial. When asked how he maintains composure during tense moments, Kramer says, "Not trying to live up to the intensity of that moment because if you let emotions get the best of you, that's when mistakes happen."
Tim Marquart, the president of the Green Bay Officials Association, notes that early negative experiences often drive away new officials.
"We want to get them a positive experience so they stay with it because we need to develop officials for the future as well," Tim says. "We're the third team on the court or the field…. It's part of being a team just like being on a basketball or football team."
Those who persevere are rewarded with lasting friendships, like the ones between Kramer and his crew mates of seven years, Tim and Paul.
"Personally, we've grown together so much as a crew that it's basically turned into a lifelong friendship," Kramer says.
"When you're going to war with somebody night in and night out, you got to be able to trust them and have the belief and the confidence that they can officiate at the level that you prefer."
Kramer emphasizes that fans may forget referees are not robots but people trying to improve youth and high school athletics.
"High school sports aren't going away, they continue to evolve. We need to make sure that as officials we try to create the best support group as we can so we can keep as many young officials as possible too," he says.
"Some people might not like officials. We are still a necessity of the game yet too."
Years of long nights finally paid off for Brett. This year he officiated in the boys state basketball tournament for the first time in his career.
If you're interested in learning more about becoming an official, you can contact the Green Bay Officials Association on their website.
This story was reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
