After 34 years as a wrestling official, Merrill Owens threw in the towel at the end of this year’s District/Region 1 tournaments at Lakeland High in Rathdrum.

Not because it was time, or because he’d had enough — but because in his opinion, because of the great depth of officials in North Idaho.

“For one, I don’t think I’m as good as I used to be,” Owens said. “The other is we’ve got a great group of guys now that could step in and I could disappear and nobody would notice I’m gone.”

OWENS WILL be inducted into the Idaho Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame this Saturday at the Coeur d’Alene Eagles, joining other inductees Greg Cossette of Post Falls, Bob Schreiber of Wallace — who passed away due to cancer on Feb. 12, Ron Wood, Sr. of Kellogg and Conrad Garner of Bonners Ferry.

“I’ve got some history with each of them,” Owens said. “It’s cool to see Conrad going in because he’s probably the only guy in that group that’s still working or coaching. Ron Wood, when I first started officiating, he helped get me through some stuff and even took me to his ‘Woodshed’ one time to explain what he thought officials should be doing. All of those guys have been there forever and it’s quite an honor to go in with those guys.”

At this year’s state wrestling tournament, they had this year’s inductees lead out the wrestlers for the Parade of Champions.

“It was kind of neat that Bob’s wife (Sally) came down for the state tournament,” Owens said. “Her, Conrad and I did it and it took some of the tenseness out of it because we knew we’d be all right. And it wasn’t as emotional at the time, but it will be this weekend. Bob was such a great guy and what people don’t realize is what he gave out of his own pocket for that program. Some of us, more than one of us, did it for free for him. If it wasn’t for him, that sport would have been gone from Wallace a few years ago.”

For Owens, who was an assistant wrestling coach at Salmon High (1976-79) and head coach at Canfield Middle School (1979-81), it was tough at first to accept the honor.

“The first time they approached me about it I said no and that referees don’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame,” Owens said. “Compared to the time and effort the coaches put in, we’re putting a dime in to their dollar — and now we’re on the same level. This time, it’s more about recognizing the amount of years I’ve put into it — so I’ll take that.”

Owens received some advice from Ron TerHark while coaching at Canfield to get into officiating.

“He said I should try it,” Owens said. “It was kind of neat so I kept doing it.”

One of his favorite matches to have officiated came in 1986, when he had his first solo state high school championship match at North Idaho College.

“Ron Wood Jr. (from Kellogg) won the state championship and right after that his dad was named the coach of the year,” Owens said. “That was a pretty special night.

HE ALSO had the chance to just sit back and watch the other officials work as the Head Rules Official during the 2011 NJCAA tournament in Spokane, hosted by NIC.

“It was kind of cool,” Owens said. “I’ve never been in that position before and you get to be the guy that just stands back and observes and walk around and act like you’re important.”

Fully retired from officiating, Owens will get a lot more practice at that now.

“I’m not going to miss blowing the whistle, but I will miss being around the other coaches and situations where you’re talking wrestling,” Owens said. “I’m just going from that to a fan. Probably by next year’s state wrestling tournament, I’ll be sitting on the islands in Anna Maria, Florida. I’m just kind of cruising around right now. It’s easy to piddle away a day right now. The hardest part right now will be trying to put together a speech for Saturday.”

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com.