Bill and Emma Musser have refereed several area games together, and though father-daughter combos are rarer than father and son combinations, there has been some precedent for it in District 6 according to District 6 Male Officials Representative Chris Rickens.

Rickens provided three other current father-daughter crews in basketball — John Mansell and Pam Grimminger, Jamie and Alexandra Boyles and Jason Moschgat and daughters Mollie and Bailey Moschgat. He also said George Wozniak and Alexis Wozniak had done it in the past.

“It’s very fun, and it gives me a lot of confidence knowing I have my dad on the court with me,” Emma Musser said. “He can pick me up if I miss something. If I feel uncomfortable in any situation getting yelled at, I know he’s there to back me up. I don’t have to worry about if a coach or fan is going to get out of hand or get too crazy. I also get to watch him and learn a lot of things from him. It’s good to have constructive criticism. No official is perfect, so it’s nice to go home after the game and talk about what they saw and what I might have missed.”

Bill said talking about the games they do together afterward is also part of what he loves about working with Emma.

01/14/26 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Emma Musser officiates the Altoona Area varsity girls basketball game with visiting Williamsport at the Altoona Fieldhouse.

“I have been blessed,” Bill Musser said. “My crew was Denny and Jay Detwiler. Working together with them and then having Emma come into it has been a lot of fun. Like she said, it’s been fun to come home and have these conversations. I coached football with my son Grant. My son Gavin is going to get into coaching with us. I get to officiate with my daughter. I feel very blessed about that.”

Bill, who is the head football coach at Juniata Valley, got into officiating in 2011.

“My friend Jason Anders and I talked about how we could stay active in sports but not necessarily have the coaching aspect of things,” Bill Musser said. “We decided to get together with the help of some of our friends like Tracy Cornelius and Denny Detwiler and take the test and get into officiating.”

Doing so helped change his perspective of officials while he was coaching.

“It settled me down on the field,” Bill Musser said. “It made me understand that we’re all in this together. I’m not an adversary to a coach when I’m officiating, and when I’m a coach, I’m not an adversary to the officials on the field. We’re working together on this. We’re all human, and we’re all going to make mistakes, but at the end of the day, we’re all in it for the kids.”

Emma getting into officiating came as a surprise to her father.

“She came down and told me she took the test,” Bill Musser said. “She was in her room, she came down the stairs and told me she took the officials’ test and asked me what I thought. And I told her — let’s go.”

Emma, who is an assistant coach for the Juniata Valley girls volleyball team, also has developed more compassion for officials after becoming one.

“In high school, I never really screamed at officials — but I got annoyed at officials,” Emma Musser said. “Now I understand that hey — sometimes I miss a play. We all have to move on, and we’re all working together. They are doing their best and so am I.”

Rickens is appreciative of children following in their parents’ footsteps. In fact his son, Damon, is currently officiating.

“My son followed in my footsteps,” Rickens said. “It’s obviously quite an honor, and I’m very proud of it. He takes a lot of pride in it as do I. It’s just really cool to see him, and I’m sure other parents feel the same way, it’s just cool to see him running on the floor and doing the things you teach him and see him coming along and him taking advice from others. It’s really an honor, and I’m very proud.”

Rickens said children following in their parents’ footsteps helps officiating numbers across the state, but that there is still a need.

“They have improved,” Rickens said. “But we’re still definitely in need. I think the juniors officials program across the state has helped quite a bit. We haven’t had a ton in the Altoona area, but we have had some junior officials in other areas of our chapter that it’s really helping. They take the test to become a junior official and work in junior high, and if they stick with it, they already have a couple years of experience when they get into junior varsity and varsity games.”

For the Mussers, sports have just always been part of who they are.

“Maylin was the head girls basketball coach for Juniata Valley whenever Emma and Grant were being born, and sports has just always been with us,” Bill Musser said. “It’s something that we all enjoy and all get to talk about.”

Though she’s relatively new to it, Emma said she thinks officiating is something she’ll stick with.

“Right now, yes, I think I want to,” Emma Musser said. “I coach volleyball, and that’s a passion of mine. I like coaching and being involved in sports and helping the younger generation. I like that I can coach volleyball and officiate basketball. Maybe in the future I’ll look into college or stick with high school basketball, but I think I’ll be doing it for a good while.”

Bill said his original crew, the Detwilers, helped make his experience of refereeing with Emma a reality.

“I want to thank the Detwilers, the Burketts (Randy and Jarryd) and the Rickens who are father and son tandems that have proven it can be done,” Bill Musser said. “It’s enjoyable, and it’s something special for us as a father-daughter tandem.”

Some other father and daughter crews across other sports were mentioned by Rickens as well.

In soccer, Julio Valerio and Anita Young are currently officiating, and past crews included Jim and Krystal Fee and Jim and Taylor Campbell.

In track, Steve Rhodes and Lauren Merschiltz both officiate, and in swimming there’s Charles Brown Jr. and Michele Graham.

He’s also aware of one mother and daughter tandem in gymnastics officiating — Brandi Corbin-Helton and Brianna Helton. Rickens said there may have been others, but when he reached out to District 6 officials, those were the names he received.

He encouraged anyone who has an interest in officiating, whether there’s a family tie or not, to pursue it and help continue to make PIAA events going strong.

“The numbers are still down,” Rickens said. “We still need officials to come. The younger they are, if they stick with it, the better just for longevity. But we need officials at all levels and in all sports pretty much across the state.”