{"id":33233,"date":"2023-02-03T18:20:51","date_gmt":"2023-02-04T00:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=33233"},"modified":"2023-02-03T18:20:51","modified_gmt":"2023-02-04T00:20:51","slug":"dekay-brings-a-referees-quiet-confidence-to-unicameral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=33233","title":{"rendered":"DeKay brings a referee\u2019s \u2018quiet confidence\u2019 to Unicameral"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: Sen. Barry DeKay, center, with fellow referees Matt Hager, left, and Preston Foster at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln before the 2019 NSAA Class A girls state basketball final. <\/em><\/p>\n

Nebraskans who have attended a local basketball game in the past 40 years might recognize Sen. Barry DeKay of Niobrara.<\/p>\n

The newest representative of District 40 estimates that, since 1983, he has refereed more than 4,000 junior high, high school and college basketball games, from Gordon to Syracuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you\u2019re in that atmosphere,\u201d DeKay said, \u201cit\u2019s an adrenaline rush.\u201d<\/p>\n

An avid player in his youth, DeKay grew up wanting to be a basketball coach. At the high school level, that role usually is reserved for teachers, however, and he preferred working on his family\u2019s ranch to spending his days in a classroom.<\/p>\n

Shortly after graduating from Lynch High School, though, DeKay found another way to participate in his favorite sport when a friend who was working as a referee asked him to step in after the friend\u2019s partner retired.<\/p>\n

In his \u201cheyday,\u201d DeKay said, he policed fouls and double dribbles for an average of 60 nights each season.<\/p>\n

DeKay credits a \u201cquiet confidence\u201d for his longevity in a job that requires an ability to act decisively under pressure. He said he brings that composure \u2014 and a commonsense approach to resolving disagreements \u2014 to the Legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take the job very seriously,\u201d DeKay said, \u201cand I\u2019m going to give it everything I\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t DeKay\u2019s first public service role. On a bookshelf in his Capitol office sits a basketball covered in signatures \u2014 a parting gift from employees of the Nebraska Public Power District, where he served on the board of directors. Before that, DeKay led his local electric distribution cooperative and served as a Nebraska Rural Electric Association board member.<\/p>\n

In his free time, DeKay enjoys playing golf and spending time with his wife, Brenda, their two children and a new granddaughter. He likes to watch college basketball games and follows the state high school basketball tournaments, even if he isn\u2019t assigned to work.<\/p>\n

DeKay\u2019s 40th season as a referee coincides with his first session as a state senator, but that won\u2019t keep him from working a few games. After the Legislature has finished its work for the day, DeKay said, he can always notify the schedulers that he\u2019s ready for another night on the hardwood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nebraskans who have attended a local basketball game in the past 40 years might recognize Sen. Barry DeKay of Niobrara. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[276],"class_list":["post-33233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senator-features","tag-sen-barry-dekay"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/DeKay_web.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33233"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33291,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33233\/revisions\/33291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}