(If there are those who might be offended by this post, I apologize up front. But I’m really not sorry, so I guess that is disingenuous. If you attempt to lead in any capacity – whether it’s in the smallest of groups – all the way to being the leader of the free world, someone is going to be aggravated or mad at you all of the time. So, lead well, learn well, and try not to lose any sleep over it).
If some national trends continue, your grandchildren, or depending on your age,
your children may not have enough experienced or qualified referees, umpires, etc., to officiate their sporting events in the future. This problem is already starting to effect the current situation.
Young people are opting to “just say no” to the entering the world of sports officiating. I don’t blame them. There aren’t enough young officials coming through the training pipeline for the future of recreation ball, middle school, and ultimately our High School sporting events.
It was many years ago, but as a somewhat recognizable church staff member in our area, I was standing and yelling my head off at a middle school basketball game.
The Good Lord Was Looking Out For Me
Photo by Daniel Fazio on Unsplash
I didn’t do that a lot, because the good Lord took me down a pathway where I couldn’t. I had three children who excelled in High School Sports, but for majority of that time I was either a) doing the public address announcing in the gym right behind the scorers table or b) I was serving on the local Board of Education and couldn’t act like a jack-ass (Christian cussword).
It’s a very common malady. Somehow, all sense of wisdom and reason momentarily gets sucked out of our brain when our child (or grandchild) is on the basketball court, or the football, baseball, soccer fields, or name your sport.
Although I consider my probable IQ somewhere in the neighborhood of a 45, I have had the privilege of seeing some of this stuff through a unique lens.
So why aren’t your children and grandchildren going to have enough sports officials?
One word. Us. Parents (and sometimes grandparents) and friends think it is within their rights as a human being on planet earth to disassemble the character, value, and integrity of a referee or umpire right in front of God and everybody. I would say don’t get me started, but I done did (any kids reading…don’t you EVER use that grammar).
Well, Mr. self-righteous Sloan, your kids went all over the place in high school and even college to compete. You mean to tell me that you’ve never seen any “home cooking” officiating? My answer is, with hundreds and hundreds of games under my belt, there have been some VERY infrequent instances in “out of town” situations that it crossed my mind.
So, yeah, (in my emotions of the moment) I thought the officiating was skewed toward the home team a couple of times. Probably wasn’t true. But, even if it was true, that would still mean that about 99.67% of the officials with whom I have contact only try to do what’s right.
Watch the high school games right now, folks. Notice anything? Pay attention and you will notice more 60 and 70 year olds making their way up and down a field or court trying to call a ball game. Younger guys are refusing to be recruited because of the idiotic abuse they will have to take from fans for literally a small pocketful of money.
I wouldn’t be so patient
I wouldn’t do it. I’d be throwing most everybody and their mommas out of the stadium or gym. There wouldn’t be anybody left but the players and their little Aunt Susies who were respectful enough just to sit and watch the game and yell in support of their team.
Sitting behind a scorers table at a packed out basketball gymnasium, as one of the PA announcers, I would see and hear the call that the ref would make as he/she came to the scorers table. All the while, there were guys (and gals) sitting up in the stands who had no clue what was happening – ripping, snorting, and shouting the most condescending statements to that official that I had just seen make a correct call.
Give me a break, dude.
One such fellow from a visiting county, had been giving the officials fits all evening. I’m surprised the official had the patience to let it go as far as he did. Well, one of our home team players was down – on the court hurt. Trainers and coaches were around the player and crowd was silent – except one goofball. He just kept shouting at the official.
So, I politely (and seriously, I was polite) asked him to cool it a bit. Well, instead of having a reasonable discussion about the situation, this adult man invites me to settle it in the parking lot. You have got to be kidding me! Did your mommy pick you up from your 3rd grade class and drop you off at the game tonight? (I’m sorry, that was an insult to 3rd graders).
Kicked Him Out
Well, I didn’t take one more second of that. I “symbolically” put on my Board of Education hat. I gave a slight motion to the School Resource Officer, who promptly escorted the gentleman to spend the remainder of the game in comfort of his automobile in the parking lot.
These are not small, isolated incidences.
Let’s take local high school football for instance. I enjoy access to a lot of places that I 
may not have access to when I no longer have an “public official” title. And that’s fine with me.
But, if you talk to these officiating crews, you will find that they are just regular folks who have lives like yours, love their wives, kids and grandkids, work a 9 to 5, pay bills, go to church, and generally are just like we are.
However, Officiating perfection is expected from them.
Gotta’ be perfect, man!
Do they miss a call sometimes? Sure do. They look at game films and these guys can’t stand it when they realize they’ve missed a call. So, put yourself in real time out there on that 100 yard field with the action going on as fast it does. See if you get it right all of the time.
I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who is, without a doubt, the most knowledgeable, competent, and experienced football official that I have known in my life. He’s forgotten more about middle, high, college, and NFL football rules than most of us will ever know. So, he guided me through an example of one (just one) very common play that occurs multiple times in every high school football game.
Just My Ignorant Self
He systematically explained to my ignorant self the myriad of procedures, rules, and new regulations for which he was responsible on just that single play. He said he had to consciously cycle those rules and procedures over and over through his mind literally in the time frame, that in reality, could only be 5-6 seconds.
These guys are working real day jobs. They’re having to get off early on Friday evenings (and other times also), drive to the stadium, which, in some cases could be a couple of hours away. And they do so because they love the game, and love people. Quite honestly, many of them got into officiating when we acted less stupid in the stands than we do now.
Notice I Said “WE.”
A couple of weeks ago I found myself standing to my feet yelling across the field at an official who couldn’t even hear my stupid self because he made the correct call on something about which I didn’t even know the current rules.
And if this statement is an exaggeration, it’s not much of one. I don’t know if I have gone to 2 high school games in a row in the past few years where I haven’t heard someone say or imply that the officiating was slanted toward helping the opposing team win. Ridiculous.
“Call it both ways, ref!” After the last 15 year of my life, I know enough about what is going on with the men and women in those striped shirts, that if I slip and yell out that statement – I’m going to punch my own self in the face.
It was absolutely a thrilling time of our family’s life when our three kids were participating in athletics. I wouldn’t have missed that for anything!! And each of them excelled in at least one sport. We had a blast! However, I’m quite sure that my children would be just fine today had they chosen not to be athletes.
(0.0537% of high school basketball players will make it to the NBA. For football, the teams are larger so the NFL number is a whopping 0.1658%. Major League Baseball is 0.1308%. Soccer – 0.1197%. I would have still have encouraged my children to play sports, but I certainly would have done it in a different fashion).
It’s time, my brothers and sisters. Let’s show our kids that we really do have self control, integrity, honor, and class.
Let’s all take a deep breath and get a grip.
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Brian Sloan