DENVER – WAC Supervisor of Women's Basketball Officials Kaye Garms will be presented with the 2014 Naismith Women’s College Official of the Year award at a ceremony this weekend in conjunction with the NCAA Regional Officiating Clinic in Phoenix, Ariz.
The award is presented annually to the women’s official whose extraordinary effort has made contributions of outstanding significance and have created a long-lasting positive impact in college basketball.
It is presented to individuals “who display character, integrity and dignity, and have contributed mightily to the growth, success and viability of college basketball.”
To be eligible, an individual must have been involved with the sports as a game official for a minimum of 20 years, worked the NCAA Tournament as a game official and worked conference tournaments as a game official.
“We are so proud of Kaye,” WAC Commissioner Jeff Hurd said. “This award is both a reflection of Kaye’s current work and career achievement and she is most deserving.”
Garms, who has been in her role with the WAC for more than 23 years, assigns officials for all WAC women's basketball home games. She also works extensively in the identification, recruitment and development of WAC women's basketball officials while enhancing the training and evaluation of its veteran officials.
A pioneer-era player in women’s basketball, Garms was a four-year member of the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens from 1954-58, when women’s collegiate teams played in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). Her teams went 131-1 and won four AAU national titles during her career. Garms was an AAU All-American in 1956 and 1957 and was co-captain and MVP of the Flying Queens in 1957-58.
In 2013, she and her teammates were recognized as “Trailblazers of the Game” by the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Individually, Garms was inducted into the Wayland Athletic Hall of Honor in 1996.
Garms earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and history at Wayland and earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Oklahoma. She then began a 33-year teaching and coaching career, spending 25 years as a physical education instructor and girls basketball and track and field coach for Jefferson County (Colo.) Public Schools.
Garms was selected to officiate the first 15 state girls basketball tournaments and was assigned to 12 state championship games in Colorado from 1975 until her retirement in 1991.
On the collegiate level, Garms worked the 1990 NCAA Division II women’s championship game, the 1989 and 1990 NCAA Division II Regional Tournament and the 1989 Division I Women’s Midwest Regional. From 1987-89, she served as an NAIA Tournament official, officiating the championship game all three years.
In 1995, Garms was the first woman official to be inducted into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame. She received the Dorothy Mauk Pioneer Award from the Sportswomen of Colorado in 1983, and was inducted into the Colorado High School Activities Association Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Colorado Coaches of Girls Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.
Previous winners of the Naismith Women’s College Official of the Year award are listed below.
| Year |
Name |
| 1988 |
Patty Broderick |
| 1989 |
June Courteau |
| 1990 |
Bill Stokes |
| 1991 |
Sally Bell |
| 1992 |
Sue Kennedy |
| 1993 |
Arthur Bomengen |
| 1994 |
Larry Sheppard |
| 1995 |
Darlene May |
| 1996 |
John Morningstar |
| 1997 |
D.A. Kantner |
| 1998 |
Bob Trammell |
| 1999 |
Violet Palmer |
| 2000 |
Dennis DeMayo |
| 2001 |
Scott Yarbrough |
| 2002 |
Lisa Mattingly |
| 2003 |
Yvette McKinney |
| 2004 |
Melissa Barlow |
| 2005 |
Wesley Dean |
| 2006 |
Joe Cunningham |
| 2007 |
Tina Napier |
| 2008 |
Tommy Salerno |
| 2009 |
Nan Sisk |
| 2010 |
Denny Mayer |
| 2011 |
Mary Day |
| 2012 |
Doug Cloud |
| 2013 |
Marcy Weston |