The instructions to Jim Mauer from his father were clear: As an emergency fill-in on a veteran crew, the first-time high school football official should not throw his flag nor blow his whistle.

“So there’s an obvious holding penalty, and I do both,” Mauer said recently, recalling a night during the 1990s. “Half the players stop, half keep going, and a kid runs for a touchdown.”

The head referee called the play back and led Mauer to one sideline. He told the irate coach he would receive an honest explanation.

“My kid (screwed) up and blew his whistle when he shouldn’t have,” Ken Mauer, Sr. said that night while pointing at his youngest boy, Jim. “We’re going to replay the down, 10 yards from the spot of the foul.”

The rest of that squad’s members, comprised of three of Jim Mauer’s four

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