Eighteen years. This championship, his championship, finally came after 18 years.

There's no wonder why, then, after all of those years, after that phone call came, why he started to channel his inner youth and become a human pogo stick.

There was nothing more deserving of his time at that moment than pure elation.

Eric Updegrove is 41 years old now and has worked as a high school football official for 18 years. He's the president of the YAIAA chapter of officials after taking the office in November after serving as vice president for several years.

You talk about experience. This man has it.

But he's never worked a PIAA championship game at Hersheypark Stadium.

That all changes Saturday.

Updegrove, who lives in Hanover, will work the sidelines of the most prestigous game of the football season, the PIAA Class AAAA championship game that pits Bethlehem Liberty against Bethel Park, this weekend. It's the first state championship game he's ever worked.

"My wife said, 'You've been working for this for 18 years,'" Updegrove said by phone on Tuesday. "At 41, hopefully there will be more to come. I plan on doing this for a long time to come."

We often talk about how athletes feel as they prepare for the magnitude of a championship game. But we often forget about the people who do the little work to make those things happen.

You every wonder how those people feel going into those games?

You think athletes are the only

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ones who are stoked for these types of events? Updegrove says this week he's been giddy at work, where he handles accounts at Utz Quality Foods. He says he's had daydreams about what will happen Saturday.

He's called his crew, seven others from York County that he's known in the 18 years he's been officiating, to talk about these things - game situations, the mannerisms of each team and potential unforeseen obstacles.

Updegrove is 41, but he's a kid again.

Aside from some of the few essential moments in life - marriage, the birth of a first child - there was little that could have topped that phone call when the man from the PIAA said to him, 'You, along with your crew, are the best in Pennsylvania and we would like you to work the most important game of the year for us.'"

That was the phone call that made cemented his passion.

"The feeling when we got that call was exciting," Updegrove said. "I kind of jumped around a little bit. We were calling each other. How are we supposed to work now? We were like little kids again."

Contact Cory Mull at cmull@eveningsun.com. You can read, listen to audio and watch video on his blog, A Handful of Sports, at http://blogs.eveningsun.com.