Joe Rossi Hall of Fame

1999 Hall of Fame Inductee Steve Usechek, Jr. – Northglenn Steve Usechek, Jr. became a member of the Rocky Mountain Umpires Association in about 1968. He maintained membership in RMUA until the CHSBUA formed in the early 1970's. Steve umpired in all of the metropolitan area conferences in high school baseball through 1984. Steve also umpired games for the local colleges and universities including conference games in the Western Athletic Conference and the Big Eight. An important accomplishment for Steve in his career was that he umpired state championship games in all classifications of high school baseball at one time or another. Steve served as the assigning commissioner for the Skyline and Front Range high school leagues for several years. He endeavored to give many young umpires the opportunity to work through the ranks as junior varsity and eventually varsity level umpires. He was regarded as an assignor who was fair and gave deserving umpires a chance to break in the high school baseball. The umpiring career of Steve Usechek came to an end in 1984 when he accepted positions on the basketball officiating staff of the Western Athletic Conference and the football officiating staff of the Big Eight. He has continued to work football for the past fifteen years and has worked may bowl games including the Freedom Citrus, Copper, Las Vegas and Sugar Bowl (twice) games. He was also an alternate in the 1994 Rose Bowl. Steve has been married to Florence for 34 years and has three daughters and two granddaughters. He retired from the Boulder Valley School District in 1998 after a 31-year career as a special education teacher. Currently he works for Indian Peaks and The Ranch Country Club golf facilities.