Tidwell Is in Perfect Position to Make the Call : Referee: He was born hearing-impaired but learned to read lips and now officiates football games and teaches.

Harvey Tidwell sat with his mother in front of a silent television in the 1960s and tried to read lips.

Tidwell was born with nerve damage in his ears that left him about 75% deaf, a condition that wasn’t detected until he was 4 years old.

His mother, Joyce, worried that her son would be discriminated against if he couldn’t fake his way through the everyday world. Sign language, she told him, was an admission of his disability, and he never learned it.

“She wanted me to be involved in a normal world. She would spend numerous hours working on my speech,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate in that I had a mom who was the best teacher I ever had.”

So Tidwell watched the lips of Lucy, Gilligan and Batman and told his mother what they said on the flickering screen in front of them.

Today, he can read lips up to 100 feet, can communicate with his wife, Wilma, while she’s in the stands watching him officiate a high school football game, and can tell when a coach is cursing under his breath on the sideline.

Born and raised in Orange, Tidwell graduated from Orange Lutheran in 1977, officiated his way through Chapman in four years, and earned his master’s degree in education administration at Cal Lutheran in 1985.

He moved to Los Angeles County two years ago, where he met Wilma, and now lives in San Dimas. But his Friday nights are spent officiating in Orange County.

Officiating and coaching are two of Tidwell’s passions, his way of paying back an educational system that showed him no task was too great.

He is a constant reminder that being dealt a bad hand is no reason to fold.

He teaches history and government at La Verne Lutheran High, is the assistant men’s basketball coach at Biola, and is starting to do some motivational speaking. He officiates high school football and until this year, basketball, and counts Indiana’s Bob Knight and Georgia Tech’s Bobby Cremins among his closest colleagues--he works summer camps for both every year.

“Teaching is probably the greatest profession you can go into,” Tidwell said. “You’re not going to get rich, but you get rich inside the heart.”

Tidwell, 38, hopes to head a men’s college basketball program someday. He says he’s getting a fine apprenticeship under Dave Holmquist at Biola.

“Harvey has a great work ethic and as much enthusiasm for the game as anyone I’ve ever been around, and is as good-hearted as anyone I’ve ever met,” said Holmquist, who has coached the traditional NAIA power 18 years, and this year has given Tidwell charge of the defense. “I think he has all the tools to be a head coach. He knows the game, teaches well and the guys respond to him in practice.”

Tidwell says coaching and officiating well--or doing anything well, for that matter--aren’t that far apart.

“There are a couple of key words in coaching that should be applied in officiating,” Tidwell said, referring to something Knight told him one summer. “ ‘Everyone looks, but very few see; everyone hears, but very few listen.’ We let our emotions get in the way and it inhibits our ability to really listen.”

Although recruited by Stanford to play baseball (as a pitcher and third baseman), Tidwell’s driving ambition was to be a professional umpire. He even picketed at Anaheim Stadium with major league umpires 15 years ago, during his junior year at Chapman--where he did not play baseball but umpired instead. It was at Anaheim Stadium that umpire John McSherry saw Tidwell’s hearing aids and told the kid he couldn’t make it in the bigs, that he had to be able to hear the ball hitting the glove or foot hitting the bag.

And Tidwell listened.

“You can always adjust your angle accordingly, maybe play a little deeper,” Tidwell said. “I can’t say my hearing was that bad.

“The other guys [Ed Montague, Terry Cooney and Lee Weyer] said I ought to go for it, but not being as confident as I should have been. . . . I should have shined him [McSherry] on, and should have pursued my dream. I’m a strong believer in God, and maybe He had another direction for me. Sometimes I look back and regret I didn’t have that chance, but then maybe I wouldn’t have become an educator. I’m very happy with what I’m doing now.”

As a football official, Tidwell must make few concessions. He can “hear” the vibration of the whistle, and his eyes are constantly moving sideline to sideline from his position as back judge. He sometimes turns his hearing aids off, allowing him to concentrate more completely.

About his only real compensation is that he always tries to face Dennis Wells, his crew’s referee. However, if someone behind him is trying to get his attention, forget it. Any hearing he does have is directional.

“I started umpiring baseball in Little League when I was 14,” Tidwell said. “I was always fascinated with officiating; I consider it a difficult thing to do. A lot of the general public doesn’t realize how difficult it is, to make a quick decision and be right. It takes a tremendous amount of concentration.”

And in his personal life, Tidwell hopes his students learn from his mistake with McSherry and his perseverance.

“You’ve got to live your dreams,” he said, “even though some people might think you’re weird.”