2004 Honorees

Meritorious Service Awards

Agnes Stegmuller

Agnes Stegmuller has enjoyed an outstanding career as an interscholastic sports’ official. She is presently active in five sports and serves as the rules interpreter for the Brandywine Chapter of Field Hockey Officials and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Basketball Officials. She was a member of one of the first groups of women to register with PIAA as a sports’ official. In her career at Bartram High School, she served as physical education department chairman as well as athletic director. She has officiated championship contests in swimming, track and field, field hockey, basketball and lacrosse at both the high school and collegiate levels. It is through her officiating experiences, Aggie has had the opportunity to travel abroad. She has organized frequent trips for interscholastic girls’ teams to compete in other countries and has promoted the expansion of girls’ sports and sports’ officiating through these experiences. Internationally, Agnes has earned numerous opportunities to serve as a field hockey umpire in both men’s and women’s competitions in countries such as New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, England, Ireland, Holland and Canada. Agnes has been inducted to numerous Halls of Fame including Temple University, Delaware County and United States Lacrosse. Currently, Agnes still serves her alma mater Temple University as an adjunct professor in the Department of Kinesiology and annually recruits prospective sports’ officials through her participation as a clinician at various camps and clinics.

Mary Jane Christian

Mary Jane Christian has been a registered PIAA swimming and diving sports’ official since 1972 when PIAA first started to register women sports’ officials. After graduating from Temple University, Mary Jane became involved in swimming officiating through the efforts of “Bess” Halpin, Pennsylvania Swimming Hall of Famer, who assisted in the development of the local swimming chapter. This Board was organized in 1928 and has been recognized by the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) for 75 years of excellence in officiating women’s sports. After many years of coaching interscholastic and intercollegiate field hockey in the Philadelphia, in 1985, she and colleague, Agnes Stegmuller, coordinated the first international field hockey trip for a girls’ high school team from Philadelphia. Mary Jane has officiated the PIAA Swimming and Diving Championships for many years and has assisted in training numerous officials in swimming and diving, as well as field hockey. Additionally, Mary Jane served as the co-swimming director for the Keystone State Games for 15 years and, in 1991, received the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches’ Association Official Award. In 1998, she received the NFIOA Official of the Year for Girls’ Swimming and volunteers much of her time to mentor newly registered officials and the Philadelphia Special Olympics.

Distinguished Service Awards

Joseph M. Frisina

Joseph M. Frisina has been a registered PIAA sports’ official for 54 years. He has been registered in the sports of baseball, basketball and football. Joe’s athletic career started at an early age and after a stellar interscholastic sports career at Tidioute High School he enlisted into the United States Navy where he served during World War II. After returning to the states, Joe played professional baseball for eight years in the minor league systems of the New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers, Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians. After his playing days ended, Joe received his bachelor and master’s degrees from Edinboro University and spent a good part of next 34 years as a minor league coach and manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates and a scout for the Montreal Expos. As a PIAA football official, Joe officiated for 46 years and culminated his high school achievements with an assignment to the 1997 PIAA AA Championship Game in Altoona. He has been a very valuable asset to the development of the PIAA officials’ observation and evaluation program by providing much expertise and insight. Joe has been honored by being inducted into the Warren County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Hall of Fame, being bestowed the PIAA District 10 Outstanding Official Award and honored as the 1999 NFIOA Football Official of the Year. Joe has attended each of the ten PIAA Officials’ Conventions and has been a mentor to numerous District 10 sports’ officials. Joe and his wife, Martha, live in Tidioute and they have five children and stepchildren.