Who’s to blame for Arizona’s officiating shortage?

It’s getting crazy out there in the high school sporting arena, as a several highprofile incidents at games involving angry fans or teams have drawn attention.

The Valley has not been immune, and which has raised the question of whether such incidents have contributed to a shortage of people willing to officiate games.

Last football season, when Phoenix South Mountain was playing at Laveen Betty Fairfax, the game was stopped and players and fans evacuated after gunfire rang out from outside of the stadium. There was a post-game brawl in the first week of the Arizona high school boys basketball season between Mesa Skyline and Laveen Cesar Chavez that prompted additional Phoenix police officers to be called to the scene.

Phoenix Desert Vista boys basketball coach Gino Crump was suspended, then later reinstated by the school district after grabbing a player to help prevent a brawl in a game against St. Mary’s late last year.

A bipartisan legislative proposal recently was introduced in Wisconsin that would make it a Class A misdemeanor for harassing a sports official at any level with up to nine months of jail time and a fine up to $10,000, according to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The article said 24 states have such legislation now.

Last week, Brian Gessner, Arizona’s commissioner of school game officials, sent an email to coaches and administrators to let them know that the Arizona Interscholastic Association will be asking them in the coming weeks to reschedule competitions for either Mon

day, Wednesday or Thursday, because the number of games on Tuesdays have increased and there aren’t enough officials to work all of the games, due to “injury, illness, worth commitments and business travel.”

Gessner said the increase in abuse from fans is among the many reasons “young people don’t join our avocation.”

Chandler boys basketball coach Jonathan Rother, whose brother Larry is the school’s principal, acknowledge fans can become an issue, bu the questioned how a law like the one proposed in Wisconsin could be applied just for “getting on officials.”

“If Wisconsin wants to crack down on the abuse of officials, they should start by removing unruly fans,” he said, citing security personnel’s role in such a case.

“Now if they refuse to leave, then security has the ability to call police and press charges that way,” Rother said. “I do believe officials need to be treated better than they currently are. However, this bill is too extreme and wouldn’t solve the problem.”

Fans one part of officiating issue

Sister Lynn Winsor, Phoenix Xavier Prep athletic director, said she had to move a girls varsity basketball game to Wednesday this week, after being notified there were no officials available for Tuesday’s game.

“We really don’t

Gessner texted to

“It’s just certain days.”

In December, Sister Lynn said she attended the National Athletic Directors Conference, where a topic was on the shortage of officials and the negative behavior of fans, parents, student-athletes and coaches towards officials.

“As high school athletic directors, we meet with our parents, student-athletes, spirit groups and fans, explaining that harassment and abusive behavior will not be tolerated,” Sister Lynn said.

“For organized high school sports to continue, there will have to be more education, stiffer and more stringent penalties given for abusive language and behavior,” she added.

Marc Beasley, a current college basketball referee who used to work high school basketball games with the AIA, said said the shortage of referees in Arizona stem from five things: Harassment from parents; coaches and fans; Early game times for freshman and junior varsity contests; Low pay; Demand for officials have

ashortage,” from other high school athletic associations in Arizona; Officials seeking jobs at higher levels, with five NAIA schools in the metro Phoenix area and junior colleges.

“With aspirations of developing their craft, they are choosing to pad their resumes by working higher level games for better pay,” he said.

Taking steps to prevent trouble

Mesa boys soccer coach T.J. Hagen calls the referee issue “very frustrating.” He feels some of it stems from the AIA scrambling to find officials to fill spots, which can lead to a decline in the quality of officiating.

“As the players and coaches start to believe that the refereeing is getting worse, the players and coaches get more frustrated toward the quality of officiating and start to voice displeasure with it,” he said. That, in turn, could influence the behavior of officials and they make, creating a “vicious cycle” of tension between officials and the coaches, players and fans..

Sahuarita boys soccer coach Luis Dachtyl is trying to be proactive with a “no dissent” policy.

“If a player is yellow carded for dissent, then they are done in that game,” he said. “If a parent is yelling from the stands, they are asked to leave. We have significantly improved our parents’ and players’ behaviors with these policies.”

Kofa boys basketball coach Joe Daily said improved funding at the state level would help attract more officials and also prevent participation fees from being raised to help compensate sports officials. In addition, parent meetings should be held at the beginning of each year for each school, with the athletic director talking to parents about behavior during competitions.

Daily also believes coaches need proper training on how to handle calls that don’t go their way, because, in the end, their behavior is mirrored by their athletes.

“Our refs are humans,” Daily said. “For most of them, this is a part-time job that they do off to the side of their main job. Most of them do it for the kids. They are a vital piece to the game and development of our student-athletes. If we don’t take good care of them, they will dwindle down and eventually not have any.”