Abusive parents driving refs, umps out of the game
Unsportsmanlike behavior makes filling their ranks tough and will eventually kill sports
Adults are killing high school sports for kids. All of those experts sitting in the stands, who feel it is part of the game to berate sports officials, are a cancer to the purity of interscholastic sports. I have news for you, spectators. Paying $3 to watch your kids play is not a ticket to be abusive to anyone. It is not a ticket to dehumanize people who are providing a community service. It is not a ticket to drive people away from serving as referees, hurting YOUR kid and his/her teammates.
When officials have finally had enough, you will not have the luxury of paying the price of admission to scream, yell and act like less than human because, without officials, high school sports cease to exist. Just a couple of recent examples in New Mexico:
Case No. 1: A 17-year-old high school student was refereeing a girls’ middle school basketball game. He made a call on a 50/50 out-of-bounds play and was called a cheating a** mother ***** r. This same high school junior had pondered, just a week before this incident, why he leaves his high school activities early to drive across town to get berated by fans. This young man has a passion for officiating and wants to excel, but he is still learning. Every incident like this diminishes his desire to officiate, little by little. Sadly, he is not alone.
Case No. 2: “I don’t know why anyone would want to referee!” This is a direct quote from my husband but a sentiment shared by many in recent months. He had spent a week at various high school basketball games and was sitting in the crowd, observing the unsportsmanlike behavior of those around him. Sadly, he had actually signed up for baseball, basketball and football officiating but could not (make it) work due to his schedule at his “real job.” Now, he is not sure he would want to be an official because of how ugly it has gotten. He is someone who knows all of the good about officiating because he hears it from me every day, yet he struggles with joining based on the actions of other adults.
The Cold, Hard Facts: We examined the age of basketball referees in New Mexico, and the numbers are concerning. We currently have 249 basketball officials who are over the age of 50. We have only 168 who are under the age of 40. As officials begin contemplating retirement, how will we fill their slots? When we have potential officials who are witnessing what our 17-year-old official experienced and my husband recently witnessed, how do we sell this avocation? Where has the respect for the game and its officials gone?
The Wrap-Up: There was recently a varsity basketball game officiated by only one referee because we had run out of officials. Everyone finds it easy to criticize officials and complain about the ones we have, yet they really lose their minds when no one is available to work. Unfortunately, few have the introspection to realize that THEY are contributing to why we are in this state of affairs.
The next time you decide to yell at an official, think about your kid’s next game not taking place because there is no one there to call it. Think about how you are embarrassing your kid and your community. Officials, like you, are not perfect, and expecting them to get every call correct is not only irrational but impossible. Officials at the professional levels have never called a perfect game, so it is foolish to think they would be able to at the high school level with limited resources.
The New Mexico Officials Association has a budget of just over $100,000 for the training, education and evaluation of officials in 10 sports, while professional ranks spend tens of millions of dollars on it. Much of the training and evaluation of high school officials is done voluntarily by those officials you choose to demean and berate.
The next time you open your mouth to yell at an official, try putting a whistle in your mouth instead. Be a part of the solution rather than killing the game, one official at a time.