Longtime referee Mike Owens has done it all.
From calling ACC Championships to SCHSL state title games, Owens has 44 years of officiating experience under his belt — at all levels of multiple sports.
Before this high school football season began, however, Owens came to a major life decision.
This season would be his last in the black and white stripes.
“I just decided I was ready to give up high school football,” said Owens. “I just felt like it was time. I’ve got grandkids I want to be able to spend some more time with.”
Owens didn’t want his final year of high school football to be mundane, however. So, he got an idea.
Owens called up his longtime buddies — Brian Shealy, Tommy Stribble, David Pitts, Scott Patterson, and Jeff Owings — and asked if they wanted to be a part of his final season.
Among Owens and his five close friends, they’ve collected over 150 combined years of officiating pedigree in South Carolina high school football.
The group has become tight-knit over the years as part of the officiating brotherhood, and at this stage of their lives, they consider every other member of the group as family.
They have a name for themselves, too — “The Wolfpack.” Mike’s son coined the term.
“It was back during COVID, and all six of us were sitting out in my backyard with lawn chairs spaced out, just shooting the breeze like we always do,” said Owens. “My son came out there and saw us all laughing and hanging out, and he said it reminded him of ‘The Wolfpack’ from the movie ‘The Hangover.’ We’ve stuck with that ever since.”
They’ve stuck with it so much, in fact, that all six of them have hats with the word Wolfpack written above a picture of a wolf.
Owens wanted ‘The Wolfpack’ to be his crew for every game of his last high-school football season.
“We had no hesitations at all when Mike asked,” said Shealy. “We were all completely on board with the idea.”
The problem is, the SCHSL rarely allows entire crews to officiate games together. In most instances, referees are individually moved around across the state every Friday, seldom working with anyone from the previous week’s crew, let alone the entire same group.
But with a shortage of referees as is — and as a sign of the respect for Owens’ accomplished career — the SCHSL granted his final-season wish.
Owens and his crew have made the absolute most of the last ride as a group. They’ve made it a point to request only to work games at smaller schools (Class A to Class AAA) and largely in places they’ve never traveled to before.
Shealy, Stribble, and Owings were actually retired, but came out of retirement for one year only to be by Owens’ side.
Working smaller games was part of their request.
“When we met with the league, we made it a point that if we were going to come out of retirement for a year to do this, we didn’t want to ref at any of the big schools this year,” said Shealy. “None of the Spartanburgs, the Dormans, any of those places. Just some places we’d never seen before. Some different cities and small-town schools.”
The gang even planned a bit of a beach weekend getaway around its week five assignment — a clash between Marion and Atlantic Collegiate in Conway.
“Of course, you know we had to go down there early on Thursday to ‘pregame,’” said Stribble, laughing. “We had to make sure we were properly acclimated to the weather down there to do our jobs properly.”
“And then we definitely needed to stay down there for a couple of rest days on Saturday and Sunday,” said Shealy, joining in on the joke.
“We’ll just say we had a really nice weekend,” said Pitts. “It was a lot of fun for all of us.”
For Owens, it’s been the perfect way to cap off an illustrious career in the business.
What better way to spend his final season next to his closest friends — friendships molded through the camaraderie of being referees?
“The thing about all of us is that, yes, we’ll all hang out and joke around and shoot everybody down with jokes like we’re doing now,” said Pitts. “And being a referee is what we do, but our friendship is so much deeper than that. When serious things come in life, we’re like a family.”
That couldn’t be more true. When Owens battled cancer in 2009, he wasn’t sure if he’d win that fight. But his Wolfpack was right there by his side in the hospital.
“We had to be there for him, one because we love him, and two, because we were worried once they gave him that anesthesia, he’d talk,” said Shealy, drawing a huge laugh from the group. “But in all seriousness, that’s what we are. We’re a big old family at the end of the day.”
“Everybody in this room, in this group, we all have been there for one another through things in our personal lives,” said Owings. “We all love to cut up together, but we walk through harder things in life together, too.”
They’ll be together for Owens’ final high school game on Friday night, working right beside him.
Owens returns to the same place he called his first-ever game 43 years ago — Christ Church — where the Cavaliers will welcome region foe Palmetto.
One more Friday night. One more road trip in the pickup truck with his best friends. One more pregame huddle where he tells his crew, his best friends, to “not screw it up” out there.
One more kickoff and one more final whistle.
One more ride — for Owens, and for “The Wolfpack.”
“My first game was at Christ Church way back in 1982,” said Owens. “It was me, Brian [Shealy] and Rick Patterson from Gaffney. I still remember it to this day.
“It’s pretty fitting that it’s going to be the final game, too. It’s bittersweet.”
