January Shining Stars in Stripes Winners: Ronnie Sigmon from the Northwest Wrestling Officials Association and Raven Johnson from the Triangle Basketball Association

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association would like to recognize Ronnie Sigmon a wrestling official from the Northwest Wrestling Association and Raven Johnson a basketball official from the Triangle Basketball Association. 

Ronnie was nominated by his Regional Supervisor Kyle Dunn after working 15 years in the Northwest Officials Association. In total Sigmon has 48 years of wrestling experience under his belt. Ronnie was also a high school wrestling coach at Bandy’s High School. At Brandy’s he was able to capture 2 Dual Team Championships (2005 and 2006) and 3 Individual Championships (2004,2005 and 2006). During these 48 years of officiating Sigmon has become very knowledgeable of the rules and offers a helping hand to all young officials. He has become a great mentor and an evaluator to many officials, letting young officials know how they can improve but never calling them out for the mistakes they make on the mat. Ronnie is well known throughout both North Carolina and South Carolina as an official who is willing to educate all officials by leading and conducting local rule clinics. During his 48 year career, Ronnie has accumulated many accomplishments including working many Regional and State Championship Wrestling Matches.

Ronnie would credit Hall of Fame coach Steve Gabriel from Appalachian State for getting him started in officiating as he was his first booking agent when Ronnie started just 6 months after graduating from Newton-Conover High School. Many things keep Ronnie coming back year after year after year (just completed year 48), but two that sick out are the opportunity to mentor and pass along experiences to up and coming officials while having the opportunity to be on the mat with some of the best wrestlers in the state. Ronnie would say one of the most challenging parts of officiating wrestling is learning all the rule changes and interpretations from year to year while staying in top condition to officiate at a high level. He would encourage all young officials to get in the case book as often as possible, so they are prepared when they are called to the mat. Most importantly Ronnie says “have fun” to all young officials as he plans to officiate wrestling as long as the Good Lord allows him to.

Raven has been officiating in the Triangle Basketball Association for 10 years and in 2022 she was selected to represent the Association by working the 2022 2A Women’s State Championship. Her Regional Supervisor Greg Fogleman says, “Raven is always volunteering to assist in several of our programs, including the mentorship initiative that the TBOA has started.” Raven was also a member of the Ad Hoc Sub Committee on officiating that met throughout the Summer to study the issues facing officials in all sports.

Raven started officiating while in college at NC State University in the Intramural Sports Department.  There Raven officiated several sports including Flag Football, Volleyball, Softball and Basketball. All this lead her to becoming a Basketball Official with the TBOA once she graduated from NC State University. Raven would admit that even with officiating being a passion of hers, it comes with high stress levels and sacrifice to be a good official. The key to a long officiating career is finding a healthy outlet and a great support system to lean on and learn from. Raven would tell young officials this, as her biggest piece of advice would be “have a good foundation, study the rules and have proper mechanics on the court.” As for Raven, she believes the sky is the limit for her when it comes to her officiating! She currently officiates at the Division II Level and aspires to one day be calling Division I basketball games.

Ronnie and Raven, Congratulations from the North Carolina High School Athletic Association. We will never take for granted your time, dedication, effort and commitment to the High School Student Athletes in North Carolina. For that, we say THANK YOU Ronnie and Raven!!