INDIANAPOLIS — For high school basketball players, getting to Gainbridge Fieldhouse for a state title is the goal. Believe it or not, that's a goal for officials, too. For some, though, that's only part of the equation.
It's no secret that being a referee, namely at the high school level, is a hard and thankless job. We certainly don't give them the credit they oftentimes deserve.
One high school basketball referee in Indianapolis, though, deserves that recognition and more. A man who now boasts a feat that no other can in the state of Indiana, and as of Tuesday night, just a couple miles west of downtown Indy — it's mission accomplished.
It was a normal winter night in Indianapolis. Sneakers squeaking, nets swishing and kids playing basketball. It was just a regular season game between Arsenal Tech and Herron at Municipal Gardens, but for Casey Gaynor, it was the final box to check.
"My two biggest goals I had when I got into officiating was obviously working the state finals, and the second one was to get to every school," Gaynor said. "I bought Dale Lawrence's 'Hoosier Hysteria Road Book' a long time ago, and that fueled my desire to get to every school."
Tuesday night, he did just that, as Don Stout Gymnasium was the final hurdle. Twenty-six years and tens of thousands of miles in the car later, Gaynor has now refereed a game at every single current IHSAA member school. That's more than 400 gymnasiums in the state of Indiana.
"It was great. The coaches told me beforehand it wasn't going to be a very good game, but that's alright. It's almost better that way because there's no pressure," Gaynor said. "And I was with my favorite partners, so we got to kind of just relax and work the game."
For a man who has seen it all — and been to every historic gym in the Hoosier state — one memory sticks out among the rest.
"Working I think the last regional at Hinkle (Fieldhouse) at 10 in the morning. I think that was '06 or '07. That was special," Gaynor reminisced. "Everyone told me how special it was, and I got assigned to it and was like, 'I can't wait.' I went there and you could see the light coming in from the top and everything. It was every bit of what people said."
As for what he took away from this nearly three-decade journey, "Perseverance," Gaynor said. "It's a lot of perseverance. You have to understand how many personalities I had to deal with from all different parts of the state just to get a game at a specific school."
"Certain areas are really hard," Gaynor said. "Northern (Indiana) was a lot harder than southern (Indiana). Down by Cincinnati, I knocked that out pretty quickly, then I worked my way south and then finally north. It's been hard. It's been very hard."
Gaynor's favorite gym is only the world's largest high school gymnasium in New Castle. As for what's next — knocking off that second goal of officiating an IHSAA state finals.
For now though, he'll enjoy being one of — if not the most accomplished — referees in the state of Indiana.