Longtime Brewer fan Wakely enjoys team’s football rejuvenation

If you’ve been to a Brewer football game at Doyle Field you’ve seen John Wakely. He’s always there. He’s the guy standing on the top row of the stands, just behind the band.

Wakely is a 1968 graduate of Brewer High. And from his perch near the 50-yard line he’s seen it all. He saw the great Brewer teams of the late ’60s and early ’70s. He saw the 1980 team that went 6-2, losing twice to Bangor, both times in overtime.

“I go to all the home games. I have been [in that spot] for a long time. It wasn’t because of good luck. There have been some lean years,” Wakely laughed.

But now, Wakely’s view from the top of the stands is much better. The Witches are 7-1 and validated their championship aspirations with a win over Belfast last Friday night.

Wakely works for the U.S. Postal Service, delivering mail in the Newburgh area. He says he was a late bloomer in sports and played golf in high school. Once he began to bloom he began playing basketball in the highly competitive Brewer Rec League.

Wakely’s association with the league has led him to write a weekly report on the league for the old Brewer Register, The Weekly Shopper and The Weekly over the years.

“It’s had several incarnations,” he concludes.

Wakely follows the Brewer High teams around the area and has been a regular at Brewer basketball and baseball games. He is enjoying the Witches’ success.

“It seems awful good to have a winning team to follow. I don’t think anybody expected it to this degree,” Wakely said.

He points to the team’s diversity as being a key to its success. He says the Witches have a good balance on offense and are fun to watch.

“It feels very good standing up there right now. And I think the basketball team is going to be good. This is going to be a good sports year for Brewer.”

That’s the view from Wakely’s perch, anyway.

Skating off to Salt Lake City

Stacey Livingston says to earn the respect you seek, you sometimes have to take some bumps and bruises along the way.

She should know. Livingston has been skating in a man’s world for years now. She has absorbed the mental bumps and bruises of being a hockey referee when she was the only woman on the ice.

“I started out in a men’s league. It was like the more they saw me the more they respected me,” Livingston said. “It was hard at first. You have to get their respect.”

She has since earned the respect of those in women’s ice hockey. The evidence came last week when she was named a referee for the 2002 Winter Olympics

“I was really shocked at first. It took a couple of days for it to sink in,” Livingston said.

Livingston, who lives in Hermon with her husband Jay and their 21/2-year-old daughter Jayci, has been around hockey for much of her 28 years. She played on travel teams as a youth while growing up in Whitesboro, N.Y.

The University of Maine was next where she played on the school’s club team before becoming its assistant coach. Then she served for head coach for one year as the program moved up to the varsity level.

She left UMaine to become head coach at Colby for two years, but left to concentrate on officiating.

“I officiated all through college. I started out in a men’s league, then went to USA hockey, moved to high school and then to college, refereeing in the ECAC,” Livingston said.

Livingston received her certification as an international official in 1999. She officiated at the Four Nations Cup last November in Salt Lake City and at women’s world championships last April in Minnesota where she was evaluated and graded. The final evaluation was to have taken place recently at a camp in Germany. However, once events of Sept. 11 forced the camp to be canceled she was named an Olympic official.

“I just can’t wait,” Livingston said. “It’s going to be a great season. I have a 30-game schedule with the ECAC plus international games which will include the Olympics beginning February 8.”

Don Perryman can be reached by calling 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or by email at dperryman@bangordailynews.net