A well-read womanwith an insatiabledesire to cram yetmore knowledge intoher mind was sittingpoolside at an Aruba timesharedwelling in the summer of 2015.Simply reading doesn’t cut it for JuneCourteau. Inquisitive since she wascoming of age as a girl in St. Paul,Minn., during the 1950s, Courteauemotionally digests her favorite booksas passionately as a scrumptioussteak dinner with a sparkling glass ofwine. And as a captivated Courteauread Daniel James Brown’s 2013masterpiece The Boys in the Boatduring that picture-perfect day, she was highlighting numerous passages from Brown’s stirring account about the University of Washington’s eight-oared crew, comprised of members who had struggled to succeed during the Depression, achieving spectacular success during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. There were so many parallels between what she was reading and what she was trying to accomplish in her new role.
One year earlier, one of the most decorated and respected officials in the history of women’s basketball had to be convinced to become the NCAA national coordinator of women’s basketball officiating. Once she accepted — and Courteau’s wife, Teresa Dahlem, deserves a great deal of credit for that — this woman committed herself to raise the bar in officiating, just as she has since first pulling on a striped shirt. Her 43 years of women’s basketball officiating, during which she worked 12 NCAA Final Fours, including five national championship games, served as a formidable foundation when she became just the fourth person to hold the title of national coordinator. But Courteau has never been one to rest on her laurels and she used that highlighter extensively as she turned the pages of the book in search of potential teaching points — and drove Teresa nuts as her wife was trying to read a book of her own at that poolside four years ago.
“Here’s what I remember,” Dahlemsaid. “I couldn’t read my book. I’mlike, ‘God dang it, shut up! I want toread my book!’ She kept interruptingme over and over and over again. Shewas clearly inspired by it and keptreading the quotes. She was like, ‘Oh,Terry, you’ve got to listen to this!’”
As Courteau raved, shecontinued highlighting passages. Shemarked, “Good crews are blends ofpersonalities; someone to lead thecharge, someone to hold somethingin reserve; someone to pick a fight,someone to make peace; someoneto think things through, someone tocharge ahead without thinking …somehow, all this must mesh.” AndCourteau also highlighted the passage,“If you don’t like some person in theboat, you have to learn to like them. Ithas to matter to you whether that crewmember wins the race and performs attheir best … not just whether you do.”
That quote crystalized perfectlywhat Courteau tried to instill duringher many years of excellence asboth a rules master and a bridge ofcommunication with irate coaches andplayers. And those words were also agreat teaching point for a consummateleader who intended to leave collegebasketball officiating far better thanwhere she found it. Even if the newposition, as Dahlem recalled, couldbe so overwhelming at times thatit sometimes brought Courteau totears. And now that she is walkinginto the sunset as she approachesher 71st birthday in September,Courteau can do so knowing that thejob she reluctantly accepted — butembraced once she did — has beendone remarkably well. Those crews ofofficials she helped mentor are rowingin unison more than ever, puttingaside egos for the common interestof getting it right for the players andcoaches with whom they work.
“I’m proud of all those officialsrunning up and down the floor, tryingto get it right,” Courteau said in oneof her farewell messages as she headsinto retirement with Teresa, who hasbeen in education for 32 years.
“June is an icon,” said PattyBroderick, coordinator of the Women’sBasketball Officiating Consortium(WBOC) and a retired official.“Obviously, she is the best teacherand trainer in the country in the past,present and future that there couldpossibly be. She is the one who wrotethe book on Officiating 101, in myopinion. She spent the majority of her life training and teaching and identifying young officials shedeveloped. She’s a motivator.She had a vision of how to besttrain and teach aspiring youngofficials to be their best, withtechnology, with psychology,with actually walking on thefloor with them and trainingand teaching and sitting inclassrooms. She’s the master, theabsolute master of that.”
Those who learned from Courteau likely were peppered with a series of questions from her about a missed call that was made. Her intent was not to humiliate the official but to make her or him understand the mechanics behind the call. It was her nature to be inquisitive as a means to gauge just how prepared that official was and to reinforce how crucial proper mechanics are at all times. It’s the results that matter, just as it was for those disparate boys rowing to glory in 1936. Some officials brag about enduring the “Courteau Treatment” to this day.
“June is legendary inwomen’s basketball,” saidVicki Davis, the MinnesotaIntercollegiate AthleticConference supervisor ofwomen’s basketball officials.“Officials who have had theopportunity to officiate withher will claim that braggingright. I remember being in thelocker room after a game witha basketball crew and afterthe critique, we talked abouteveryone’s next assignment.Without hesitation, one officialsaid she was heading home toget a good rest and study herrulebook to be on top of hergame in preparation for thenext day, when she would beofficiating with June Courteau.”
How thorough wasCourteau? Just ask Dee Kantner,who worked the NCAA nationalchampionship game in April.In 1984, Kantner was an upstartserving a tough, but ultimatelyfulfilling apprenticeship underCourteau’s watch, and it startedon a sobering note.
“This is not an exaggerationand I am sometimes prone tohyperbole,” Kantner said. “I wasonly 24 and I was working atUT-Chattanooga my first yearin the conference. She cameto watch and, after the game,she handed me seven pages ofnotes! I just looked at them andsaid, ‘Holy smokes! Really, did Ido anything right out there?’ Butshe was very supportive. Shejust said, ‘Those are seven pagesof notes because your mechanicsare awful, your positioning isnot that good, but what youhave — that feel for the game— I can’t teach you. So I thinkyou’re going to be all right.’
“Since the age of 24, and I’m now 59, June and I have talked basketball almost every day. So you tell me how many conversations are about notes and plays and rules and situations.”
Courteau, true to hernature, was long reticent to beinterviewed for a story. It wasnever about her, it was about herbody of work, which said all shecared to say. No egos allowed,remember? Besides, when sheput words out there for publicconsumption, she has long beenconcerned with how they mightbe bent and twisted.
“I’m politically astute, I’ll watch TV and I’ll go, ‘You probably shouldn’t have said that because they’re going to focus on that and they’re going to miss your entire point!’ she said. “I’m just kind of that way. I’ve probably said some things, not necessarily to the media, in my career I should have thought about before I said them. I’m very protective of myself. I have always been protective about the media.”
But now that Courteau hasopened up, she has a story to tellabout her life that foreshadowedher 43 years of excellence as abasketball official. It started inSt. Paul, where she was bornSept. 18, 1948, the fourth childof Don and Helen Courteau.Growing up on a corner lot at1689 Barclay St., in Maplewood,a suburb of St. Paul, with oldersiblings Mick, Sharon andBill, Courteau has a mentalscrapbook of memories withnumerous relatives who were inher life.
“My dad was French andmy mother was Greek,” shesaid. “There were five sisters inthe Greek family and, of course,they had many cousins andkids. You’ve seen the movie MyBig Fat Greek Wedding where you had the loud family that takes a half-hour to say hi and takes you a half-hour to say goodbye? We’re very much like that and I grew up like that. My mother and dad lived two houses away from my mother’s sister, Auntie Zera. Both my mom and aunt were very athletic and they were our coaches. They coached our softball team and those were great learning experiences.”
Character traits that wouldone day make her a toweringpresence in officiating werestarting to reveal themselvesduring those days. Courteauwasn’t afraid to speak her mindand she didn’t hesitate to dig inwhen it came time to hold herground. Could she be difficult?Sure, Courteau concedes thatshe could be and she makes noapologies all these years later.
“I was a challenge when Iwas a kid with my family andluckily, I had a mom and dadwho understood that ‘this oneis going to speak out,’” she said.“My two brothers and sisterwould say to me, ‘You need tobe quiet a little bit more.’ Well, Ithink I came out of my mother’swomb saying, ‘Could you turnoff that light? It’s a little brightin here!’ I would look at mymom and brothers and sisterand say, ‘I’m not talking back!I’m just asking questions.’They would roll their eyes andgo, ‘Oh my God!’ I’ve alwaysbeen like that. And I’ve beenopinionated and strong as awoman. I remember I was in thekitchen making something to eatfor myself and my brother said,‘You need to make somethingfor me.’ And I said, ‘Excuse me?’He said, ‘You’re the girl.’ And Isaid, ‘Boy, there’s no way you’regetting anything from me!’
Mark Johnson, one ofCourteau’s cousins from the oldneighborhood, recalled a bornleader.
“She was good when therewas a discrepancy because shewould be able to settle peopledown and talk it out,” he said.“She would take charge rightaway, number one. And whenshe talked, you listened. She wasvery stern, very fair, had greatintegrity. As she grew up andbecame the official she became,I used to give her all kinds ofgrief about officials. I’d do iton purpose to get her all riledup and it was fun to hear herdefend her profession becauseshe was so damn good at it.”
All the components were inplace for Courteau to becomethe mover and shaker theofficiating world is thankingtoday. The initial inspirationcame from her parents and thereis one memory with her fatherCourteau recalls that causes hervoice to crack with emotion.
“You’re going to learn rightnow that I’m an emotionalGreek,” she said as her voicestarted cracking. “I was sittingon the floor and we weretalking. He said, ‘You can dowhatever you want in life. Itdoesn’t matter if you’re a girlor a boy.’ My dad was a uniqueguy. He would do the dishes. Hewould scrub the floor. He wouldhelp my mother. They were ateam back then.”
Her late father’s words have resonated within Courteau since. After graduating from North St. Paul High School in 1966, she earned a Bachelor of Science in physical education, health, speech and theater from Winona State in ’72 and then a Masters of Arts in speech and communications from Northern Iowa in ’76. She started officiating in 1968 at the age of 20 and built a spectacular career at the college level, with the International Basketball Federation and in the professional ranks. Even in her earliest years, Courteau had a way of controlling games and not backing down from coaches who clearly tried to intimidate her. This was a woman who kept her composure even in the tensest situations and calmly reminded irate coaches that just as they stated their position, it was only fair that she be given the opportunity to counter with hers. Hey, why not build bridges instead of walls?
“When you say, ‘Coach, what are you seeing that I’m not seeing?’ people don’t realize that’s a powerful statement,” Courteau said. “That means indirectly, ‘You’re kind of better than I am because you’re seeing something and I recognize that!’ So, that makes them feel a little bit better and it’s like, ‘She’s not dissing me.’ So now we’re having a conversation! It’s at least trying to establish that two-way relationship. And then after you’ve been in the business, they know how to approach you. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.”
Over the years, Courteaubecame a master of making herpoint. One memory is with LisaLeslie, a 6-foot-5 superstar withthe Los Angeles Sparks duringCourteau’s time as an official inthe WNBA from 1997-2010.
“Lisa Leslie was starting tobump as she was coming intothe post and I said, ‘Lisa, easeup in there, ease up,’” Courteausaid. “And she looked at melike, ‘Who the heck do youthink you’re talking to?’ AndI thought, ‘Oh, OK, fine!’ Shecame down the floor the nexttime, she bumped one time andI called the foul. I said, ‘Arewe cool? Are we good? Are weOK?’ And she said, ‘Yep, I gotit.’”
Another memory involvesAndy Landers, the longtimeGeorgia women’s basketballcoach, during a game againstTennessee and its legendary latecoach, Pat Summit.
“Those two coaches … ofcourse they recruited againsteach other, they were in theSEC and it was a tough, toughgame,” Courteau said. “Andy isin my ear about something andhe was going on and on. Sureenough, I miss a lane violationbecause I’m listening to him!I turned around and I said tohim, ‘Andy, you have a choice.You can either talk to me andI’ll miss things or you can leaveme alone and let me referee thisgame. Your choice.’ He said,‘OK, June, I got it.’”
That’s June Courteau foryou. Always cool. Always incontrol. Cindy Moore, a retiredhigh school administrator inMinnesota who has knownCourteau for more than 20years, recalls both a bridgebuilder and a proactive achiever.One example was around1996 when Courteau served asDahlem’s assistant coach for theHastings (Minn.) High Schoolgirls’ volleyball team.
“There was a parent in thestands and I think he thoughthe should be coaching,” Mooresaid. “She had a conversationwith the parent as the gamewas going on and she providedemotional support, which Ithink the parent was trying todo, but in a real inappropriateway. So she is able to providesupport and she does it in sucha way that she leaves peoplewith a sense of dignity andmakes them better in the longrun. People remember the wayyou made them feel and that’sthe way I think it is with June.And she’s always there.”
Courteau was just asimpressive off the court, andMoore recalls one incident atDahlem’s school.
“I remember one time inWhite Bear (School District)there had been a tornado andTerry’s school had turned intoa crisis center,” Moore said.“I went there and June wasalready organizing who wasgoing to get water, who’s goingto get the ice … she ran aroundand got all the coolers. Nobodytold her what to do, but she wasthere doing it. She was thereorganizing. She’s a doer, not justa leader.”
Just as Courteau hasgiven so much to officiating,officiating, in a sense, gaveCourteau her ultimate gift inlife. That came in 1989 whenshe met Dahlem before a gameat the University of Minnesota.Dahlem, who is just completinga 32-year career in education,the last 13 as principal of OnekaElementary School in Hugo,Minn., almost immediatelysaw that certain something inCourteau.
“We met throughbasketball,” Dahlem said. “Iwas a young official back inthe days when Division I wasworking two-person crews. Inthe Big Ten, they would hirea standby in case somebodywent down. It was my very firststandby job. It was a Decembernight in 1989, I knock on thedoor of the locker room andit was June. I knew of June, ofcourse, and I was definitelyafraid of meeting her. I openedthe door and this is going tosound real hokey, but it wasliterally love at first sight.For me, I had a hard timeseparating being in awe of theofficial and being in awe of theperson.”
They have been togethersince, sharing a commitmentceremony Aug. 7, 2003, andgetting legally married Aug.10, 2013. Tina Tomlinson,Courteau’s first cousin, singlesout Dahlem for changingCourteau’s life.
“We were at a Greekspaghetti Christmas party andshe walked in the door and shelooked so happy,” Tomlinsonsaid. “I said, ‘You metsomebody, didn’t you?’ That’swhen she had met Terry andthat’s when they got together.That’s a story I’ll never forget.”
It’s a relationship thatendured for Courteau andDahlem, who make their homein Centerville, Minn., just 21miles from where Courteau wasraised. (Dahlem was born inHershey, Pa.) What has Dahlemmeant to Courteau?
“She’s grounded meand we get along so well,”Courteau said. “She’s a womanof high integrity, honesty andsensitivity. We’ve talked about itand we said I’m better becauseof her and she’s better becauseof me.”
It was Dahlem whoencouraged Courteau toaccept the national coordinatorposition in 2014 and watchedher make an enormous impactin her position. Occasionally,she worked under a great dealof pressure.
“I’ll tell you what, it’sbeen the toughest five years,”Dahlem said of Courteau’scommitment. “When all roadslead to you, it’s an incrediblystressful job and literally for thefirst time in my life, I saw hercry based on work stress onceor twice during that five-yearperiod of time. It was hard tosee that happen, but once wegot all that emotion out, it waspick up the pieces and figureout how to move forward.”
Maybe the pinnacle ofCourteau’s career came inher last Final Four as nationalcoordinator. It was the semifinalmatching UConn and defendingchampion Notre Dame atAmalie Arena in Tampa, Fla.,and Courteau was near thescorer’s table wearing a headset.Five minutes into the game,official Michol Murray wentdown with a knee injury anddidn’t get back up, somethingthat had never happened in agame of this magnitude. Whatfollowed in the figurativesense was that the boys in theboat started rowing in unisonfor a common cause. WhatCourteau read in that bookfour years earlier, what she hadtried to inspire during her runas national coordinator, wascoming alive before her veryeyes. This chain of efficiencystarted with standby officialGina Cross.
“I said, ‘Gina, you’re goingin. You’ve been watching whatthey’ve been calling, you’vegot the tempo and the tone,just warm up,’” Courteau said.“She said, ‘OK, I’ve got tocalibrate my whistle.’ That’s thefirst thing she said — calibratethe whistle to make sure itaccurately stops and starts.”
And then Courteausummoned officials Joe Vaszilyand Beverly Roberts.
“They’re taking Michol offand then I blew with my fingersin my mouth and they cameover,” Courteau said. “I lookedat them both and said, ‘I knowthis is emotional, guys, andwe’re going to have time for allof the emotions to come out, butthis is for the players. Take careof the game.’ And they bothlooked at me, they get a grin ontheir faces and they said, ‘We’vegot this, June.’ And then wentout there and nailed it.
“And then we need astandby. I get up, I go behindthe scorer’s table, the game’sgoing on and I’m heading intothe locker room and there isLisa Jones. She was watchingthe game in the locker roomand she’s already dressed in herstreet clothes because she didthe first game. She saw Micholgo down and said, ‘They’regoing to need a standby, youguys.’ So she changes againand comes out. I said, ‘Hey, areyou going to take care of yourcrew?’ She said ‘yes,’ and goesout. We didn’t miss a beat.”
It truly was the boys in theboat rowing in unison underthe inspired watch of Courteau.
“It went so smooth in sucha high-pressure game that itwas amazing,” said officiatinggreat Marcy Weston, a formerNCAA national coordinator ofwomen’s basketball officiating.“The prep that goes intothat, June is the master atthose kinds of things. Sheloves the detail and havingall possibilities covered. Allpossibilities were covered andthey had to be activated. If youwould have turned on the TVfive minutes later, you wouldhave never known anythinghad happened because theywere so smooth.”
What has Courteaurepresented as nationalcoordinator? Consider anotherpassage from The Boys in theBoat that she highlighted atAruba during the summer of2015. It was something she usedto close each of her seminars asnational coordinator with.
“The trick is to findthe few who have the rawpower, superhuman stamina,the indomitable willpower,the intellectual capacitynecessary to master thedetails of technique, butthe most important is theirability to disregard his/herown ambitions, to throw egooverboard and pull, not just foroneself, not just for glory, butfor the crew … and for us …the game.”
Peter Jackel is an award-winningsportswriter from Racine, Wis.
