Quarter-century of officiating and coaching keeps Lee’s Bob Eccher youthful

LEE – Recently, the Lee Youth Association recognized the 25 years of service of Bob Eccher with a winter logo jacket and a plaque.

The gesture, however nice and rewarding, pales in comparison to the joyful and happy memories Eccher holds onto after all these years, despite the impact on his knees.

“If you add up my knees – they are 130 years old together – but still fun,” Eccher said jokingly.

Eccher began his career as a teacher at Lenox High School in 1969-70, following his degree at the University of Massachusetts, where he studied French and English.

Following two years at Lenox High, Eccher enlisted in the United States Army and served as a dental instructor in San Antonio, before returning to Lee to start a family.

While Eccher remembers his job fondly serving for the U.S. Army, Eccher was forced to work at the local paper mills in the ’70s in order to put food on the table when the first of his three sons (Christopher, Brian and Nicholas) were born.

After being laid off from the mills in the early ’80s, Eccher began to get involved with the Lee Youth Association as an official with both the LYA and Catholic Youth Association in Pittsfield, as well as the Boys and Girls Club.

“Over the years, you see the boys and girls grow up a lot – as third graders through eighth grade – some are not as skilled; to see them develop over the years when they get to high school – when you hear and see them it’s rewarding,” Eccher said.

Some of Eccher’s fondest memories include watching former Taconic and St. Joe’s Head Coach Paul Brindle as a middle-school student/athlete and both Lee 1,000-point career scorers Jake LeProvost and Matt Scapin.

“When Matt was a sixth grader, he lost every game that year with a newly-formed team; the next year Jake joined him and they didn’t lose a game Matt’s seventh and eighth grade year,” Eccher recalled. “Brindle had the most quickest hands I have ever seen – he was extremely quick.”

While the CYC and Boys Club was where Eccher honed his skills as an official, umpiring and refereeing was second nature to a man who was often seen talking to kids up and down the court or basking in the sunshine on an afternoon on the little league diamond.

“I want to keep doing it as long as I can – probably, at times, I had more fun than the kids,” Eccher joked.

Coaching also came to be second nature for Eccher, as he helped lead the Lee baseball program to three straight Western Mass. titles during the ’92-94 seasons, when his son Christopher was on the team, including a trip to the State Finals in ’92.

While service has been the source of so many rewarding accomplishments over the years for the Lee painter/wallpaper contractor, Eccher still gets a kick out of the memories of today’s Lee stars like Heamon Williams, who recently officiated a fifth grade travel basketball game with the 25-year veteran.

“I remember Heamon in fifth grade – he was a wide kid with huge calves, and he would go up for a rebound and kids would just fall off him like they were nothing,” Eccher fondly recalls.

Some things never change.

Posted by Tim Davis on April 4, 2013. Filed under High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry