Officials Appreciation Week: Rossie Trujillo

In honor of Winter Sports Officials Appreciation Week, the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) is celebrating some of its fall sport officials on social media and CHSAANow.com, while member schools are encouraged to celebrate officials, as well. This can be achieved in several ways, both big and small. All of which is meant to say, thank you officials!

If you’re interested in becoming an official, fill out this form and CHSAA will contact you, or learn more information about officiating in Colorado.

On Friday, Dec. 6, Rossie Trujillo began his 19th season of officiating high school wrestling here in Colorado. There has been a lot of accomplishment packed a lot into those years and evidently more yet to come.

“I didn’t have the ability to coach with my profession, so I thought I’d be able to give back to the sport with officiating,” Trujillo says.

In terms of what there is to give back, Trujillo has more than most. From 1994 through 1997, Trujillo wrestled for the Florence High School. Then, as now, Florence reckoned as a powerhouse program in Colorado high school wrestling, though a state championship has somehow managed to elude the Huskies over the years. In his four seasons as a Husky, Trujillo wrestled at the 215 and heavyweight classes, advanced to the state tournament three times, and finished on the podium twice.

Trujillo also played football for the Huskies, a perennial contender for the state title during those years, and went on to play college football at Kansas Wesleyan University. It was, however, wrestling that brought Trujillo back to high school sports.

“I came back as soon as I could,” he says with a broad smile.

And what a mark he has made in the time he has given back to the sport!

To the casual fan, a wrestling official shows up in a gray shirt and black pants at a weeknight dual or a weekend tournament, blows a whistle for a few hours, makes the close judgment calls, and goes home. That’s the only side of being a high school wrestling official that most people see. Like so many other successful officials, however, Trujillo has invested a great deal into the less visible side of his role as an official. He is a past president of the Colorado Wrestling Officials Association (CWOA), serves as one of 10 statewide evaluators to select and assign officials for the state tournament in Denver, and serves nationally on the NFHS wrestling rules committee.

“I was lucky enough to be nominated by [the late CHSAA associate commissioner] Tom Robinson and then selected to the National Federation’s rules committee. So, I am on their rules committee that meets once a year to determine all of the rule changes for high school wrestling across the United States,” explains Trujillo.

That has put Trujillo on the cutting edge of rules changes such as increasing the points awarded for takedowns and near falls, “We’re continuing to make wrestling more exciting, and, typically, to do that means more scoring.”

As important as the work at the national level is, however, Trujillo still pays an annual debt of gratitude to his old high school.

“I go back every year to call the Mel Smith Tournament,” Trujillo explains. “The head coach there [Bob Masse] was my head coach, so I still hear him on the side of the mat more than anybody else.”

Although Trujillo’s day job is a demanding position as the Chief Operating Officer of the District Attorney’s office in Colorado Springs, the annual trip to Florence for the Mel Smith Tournament is among the less ambitious trips on his officiating schedule. Trujillo’s itinerary for December alone included stops at the Western Slope Showdown in Montrose and the Northern Colorado Christmas Tournament in Greeley.

Why so much travel? It all goes back to selection committee work to find the top 36 officials to bring to the state tournament in February.

“I try to go across the state to view as many officials as I can to make sure we have the best ones represented down at Ball Arena,” he explained.

But it’s not exactly that it counts as a hardship to travel around the state as an ambassador for the sport.

“Wrestling is a huge community in this state,” he boasts. “When I travel across this state, I can run into a wrestler, a wrestling coach, or another official, and they treat you like family. It’s a handshake. It’s a hug. Everybody is in it together, even when we’re in the most competitive aspects of the sport.”

The extra effort Trujillo has put in as an official has been noticed by many. Jason Romero, head wrestling coach at Palmer Ridge High School in Monument, reflects the appreciation of many other coaches around the state.

“He [Trujillo] has shown tremendous dedication to our sport and to the youth of Colorado,” Romero praised. “He knows that wrestling is a vehicle to lift up kids to their full potential in life.”

Hard work may be its own reward, but if you work hard long enough, people eventually begin to sit up and take notice. The Colorado high school coaching community has done that en masse in Trujillo’s case.