Survey says a lot about officiating

There’s an easy way to know what officials are thinking about the state of their profession in 2018: Ask them. The National Association of Sports Officials did, in a survey they characterize as the largest of its kind ever done.

And the results of the survey say a great deal.

The NASO said it had 17,487 respondents to its survey across the country. It’s especially relevant in this context because the vast majority — 72.76 percent — were varsity high school officials.

Of the 17,487 officials, the average age was a little over 53. Nearly 70 percent of the officials were white, and 6.43 percent were female.

The most popular answer to why did they start officiating and why do they continue is love of the game for the former and “to challenge myself and to mentor newer officials” for the latter.

Nearly half — 47.94 percent of male respondents and 44.74 percent of female respondents — answered in the affirmative that they “have felt unsafe or feared for their safety because of administrator, coach, player or spectator behavior.”

Half — that’s sad, but not shocking.

One in five female officials stated they “have felt uncomfortable or threatened by other members of the officiating community.”

Maybe this is a silver lining in some way, but only 57 percent of officials believe sportsmanship has gotten worse. Granted, it’s not much to latch onto, but at least 43 percent believe there’s some status quo in this day and age.

Officials were asked, “Who causes the most problems with sportsmanship?” Nearly four in 10 — 39.54 percent — said parents, followed by 29.57 percent for coaches and 18.25 percent for fans.

The second-most popular answer to “How many new officials have you personally recruited in the last year and throughout your career?” was zero in

the last year and zero in their career.

That says a lot — and so does this: 42.8 percents of survey takers believed the adage, “Most new officials quit within the first one to three years.”

Nearly 29 percent of officials believe they have been discriminated against due to age, with 13.03 percent of respondents citing gender and 11.07 percent citing ethnicity.

More than half — 53.93 percent — think coaches are most responsible for improving sportsmanship.

This is a little scary: Only 51.63 percent of respondents “feel supported when penalizing or ejecting based on poor sportsmanship.” Shouldn’t that be a uniting factor? Apparently not, sadly.

More than 64 percent

answered in the affirmative they have had to ask for a spectator to be removed for poor behavior.

Unfortunately, it goes downhill from there — albeit a lot of this is far from unexpected:

Of the officials surveyed, more than 70 percent believe coaches, and 84 percent believe spectators, treat them unfairly.

Nearly six in 10 have had to step in to break up a fight, and 86.98 percent have suffered verbal abuse while in their roles.

In this survey, there were actually 13 percent who said they have been physically assaulted.

Think about how horrifying that is — there is a somewhat decent chance you have encountered an official who once had to fear for their safety for doing

their job.

There are 40 percent of officials who believe the level of sportsmanship gets worse at big events.

As far as money paid to officiate, 30 percent stated they have made between $1,000 and $2,500 last year, and 31 percent said between $2,500 and $5,000.

It’s likely high school officials fall into the first category — and yet 63.47 percent of officials surveyed acknowledge they are underpaid “but accept there are budget constraints at the level they work.”

Around 30.5 percent spent more than $250 on gear, uniforms and supplies last year — and nearly 30 percent incurred more than $800 in personal costs that were not reimbursed.

But commendably, more

than 84 percent say they would still officiate even if they didn’t need the money for supplemental income.

The point of all these numbers seems simple: Underpaid. Underappreciated. Overworked. And under pressure. As it’s been stated before in this space, it’s no wonder why it’s so difficult to retain officials.

Yes, part of the duty falls on us — and yes, officials are not perfect despite every effort to be.

But if you ask them, there are some harsh realities to their craft — and this survey exemplifies that perfectly.

Lillstrung can be reached at CLillstrung@NewsHerald.com; on Twitter: @CLillstrungNH

Chris Lillstrung