BY KAREN SAMPLES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CARROLLTON, Ky. -- She doesn't usually attend these games, but tonight is different. Tonight there is a moment she has to see.
It comes after the national anthem, after the good people of Carroll County have settled into their seats.
Against the dark sky, sets of stadium lights glow like alien ships coming in for a landing. The air smells like hot dogs and leaves. This is high school football. These are the people who love it.
Maxine Kordenbrock used to love it more, when her own kids were playing, but now she reserves her appearances for special occasions. Tonight qualifies. Just for this, she has come all the way from Boone County, an hour northeast of Carrollton. Her daughters-in-law, Leah and Stephanie, also are here.
The loudspeaker crackles. A voice pours over the crowd, making introductions.
"Referee for tonight's game is Joe Kordenbrock . . .
"Linesman Andy Kordenbrock . . ."
The back of Maxine's neck is tingling. She had thought of this as their moment, really, but now it is hers, too.
"And back judge, Ken Kordenbrock."
There they are: The Kordenbrock boys and their dad, each wearing black-and-white stripes.
In the bleachers, the women beam.
Joe, Andy and Ken are most likely making Kentucky history tonight, as the first team of father and sons to work together at a high school football game.
Earlier in the evening, line judge Derrick Berry had said, "It's your dad's dream come true."
But the younger Kordenbrocks hadn't needed to hear this.
After all, they made it happen.
A world all their own
To understand the Kordenbrocks' moment, you have to know what it's like down there, standing so close to the action, hearing the crash of helmets, the whack of pads.
During the few seconds of each play, all other noise seems to get sucked off the field; there is nothing but motion and its rugged soundtrack.
Then voices return. Coaches screaming, fathers shouting, fans roaring in the distance.
It's a seductive business, but the officials can't be taken in. All at once, really, they must remember the rules, ignore distractions, see what happens, translate the rules to reality, throw their flags and face people who doubt their competence.
Oh, they also have to avoid getting run over.
Joe Kordenbrock Sr. is 65. He's been doing this for 23 years -- even after heart bypass surgery in 1994.
"It's a very exhilarating feeling to be out on the field where all this stuff is going on," he says. "Not everybody can do it." This is why last Friday's game, between Carroll County and Paris high schools, meant so much. Joe Kordenbrock Sr. of Hebron happens to have two sons who can do it.
Andy and Ken have not only the personalities to officiate, but also the desire.
Both are truck drivers. Andy, 34, has been officiating 14 years. Ken, 37, has been at it for 11.
Usually officials are assigned to the same crew all season. The Kordenbrocks occasionally have worked in pairs, but never as a threesome.
This year, Andy wrote to the assigning secretary for the Kentucky High School Athletic Association.
Some time later, Ken called.
"Guess what I did," he said. "Wrote a letter to the assigner requesting a game with you, me and Dad."
"You're kidding me," Andy said.
Apparently, the assigner got the message.
Friday's game goes smoothly. Nobody falls down. On tough calls, they look like professionals, not relatives, with Joe Kordenbrock calling his crew together and touching their shoulders lightly. Afterward, they go out to dinner.
This is a close family. Leah and Stephanie call each other daily.
Every summer, all the Kordenbrocks go camping together, including a third son, Joe Jr., and two daughters, Connie Wolfe and Terri Straub. Andy Kordenbrock so appreciates his parents -- their support, their 45-year marriage -- that he gets tongue-tied trying to explain it.
"I know they're my parents, but they've been really good parents," he says. "They've just been, you know, good parents."
He laughs at himself. Then he says, "I'm very proud of them." Joe Sr. is proud, too.
Ever since his heart surgery, he has had this little problem. Tears come way too easily. He'll be at some happy family event, and he'll feel it starting. Of course he figures his medicine is to blame.
Friday went well in the weeping department. Only after dinner, when Ken and Andy each gave him a hug, did his throat tighten.
This time, though, Mr. Kordenbrock managed to hide it.
Thank goodness he didn't have to talk.
Karen Samples is The Enquirer's Kentucky columnist. Her column appears on Sundays and Thursdays in The Kentucky Enquirer. She can be reached at 578-5584 or email
her at ksamples@enquirer.com
SAMPLES ARCHIVE