The referee bubble

[TheSportsPredictor]

Abuse, pay driving referees away in public high schools

Coming crisis in officiating, says USA Today. Older officials nearing retirment + too much abuse + travel teams needing officials + low pay = not enough refs. And even fewer than that soon.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I've thought about doing it, I definitely have the time with my older boys about to leave the house ... but yeah I just couldn't handle the parents.

 

[Chef2]

I don't hear the parents. I've been an official for over 25 years. Doesn't matter if it's basketball, baseball or football, I just don't hear it.
It's just all noise. Especially in basketball (closed quarters, really loud) and football (you're hundreds of feet away from the coaches---in my case because I am a back judge----and even further away from the fans.)
I quit umpiring baseball a few years ago because high school baseball out here is so orgasmically bad, I got tired of watching 22-1, 19-2 games that featured 782 walks in a brisk 2+ hours. There are a small hand full of DECENT teams out here. The rest are putrid.
I didn't do basketball last year for the first time in 15 just because it was so much of a pain in the ass to get off work early for all of those dates. Now, I'm on a different crew and we're splitting it up more.
I'm on year 8 for football and absolutely love it.
I'm very very fortunate to work with a great group of guys. We are all very close. The times going down to the games, the games themselves, and My God, the drives home after the games are priceless........those are memories I'll have with me forever.

 

[Buck]

I can think of few activities less appealing to me.
I applaud the men and women who take the time to do these activities - officiating and coaching. If any of my children decide to participate in sports I will never criticize a coach or official within earshot of the children.
It angers me when parents - including some people in my own family - run down coaches and officials in front of their children.

 

[YankeeFan]

This thread just isn't what it should be without Devil here to weigh in.

Isn't there someone who can get him to come back?

 

[poindexter]

This thread just isn't what it should be without Devil here to weigh in.

Isn't there someone who can get him to come back?

That was easily one of the top five flabbergasting posts in sj.com history. Can make a case for #1.

 

[TyWebb]

That was easily one of the top five flabbergasting posts in sj.com history. Can make a case for #1.

Link?

 

[poindexter]

Link?

No can do.
A soccer ref, maybe in South America, maybe in latin America, was killed on the field.

Devil posted that, (I am paraphrasing) "well...... he did make some pretty bad calls...."

 

[TyWebb]

No can do.
A soccer ref, maybe in South America, maybe in latin America, was killed on the field.

Devil posted that, (I am paraphrasing) "well...... he did make some pretty bad calls...."

Yeah, that's next level stuff right there.

 

[JC]

I'm sure Devil has found another board where he is enlightening the members daily.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Buddy of mine refs HS football and basketball. He's around 50. Hasn't been doing it all that long so just recently worked his way up to the varsity level. Sounds like a lot of hassles involved. But he enjoys doing it and will keep doing it as long as he enjoys it, I'm sure. He doesn't need the money, so while more pay would be nice that's not the reason he's doing it. He laughs about the hecklers.

 

[Iron_chet]

I used to ref basketball and volleyball in high school and university, am considering getting back into reffing hoops as a way to stay around the game.

 

[Moderator1]

A buddy of mine used to run all the youth leagues near me, he roped me into umpiring T-BALL. Three one-hour games a night so it was an allegedly easy 30 bucks. Brutal. Coaches and parents were worse there than I ever saw anywhere else. When I tossed a coach from a T-BALL game, I came to the conclusion that it might not be worth $300 a night. Let alone 30.

I admire those who can do it but damn, no way I could be one of them.

Also, during my year as a freelancer/ne'er-do-well/sketchily employed guy, I did some part-time work for the local minor-league indoor football team. As much fun as I've had doing anything. Did PA duties during games and had fun with that. One time, three of the five refs on the field threw their arms up in the TD signal so I said, "TOUCHDOWN, REVOLUTION" real loud into the microphone. Then they brought their hands down and huddled so I said, "Ok maybe not." Yep, waved off. They gave me **** at halftime and I told them how about not 60 percent of you throw your arms up if you aren't really sure? Crew chief apologized afterward, said it was indeed on them. No ****.

 

[HanSenSE]

No can do.
A soccer ref, maybe in South America, maybe in latin America, was killed on the field.

Devil posted that, (I am paraphrasing) "well...... he did make some pretty bad calls...."

This, and Chris Long's story in the Ailes thread, are the closest I've come to a coffee spittake on this board in a while. Keep up the good work!

 

[JohnHammond]

No can do.
A soccer ref, maybe in South America, maybe in latin America, was killed on the field.

Devil posted that, (I am paraphrasing) "well...... he did make some pretty bad calls...."

RIP, but the refs that have the most problems with fans, as did one did over and over, usually are ****ty.

No excuse for the kid to do that, but when you ref basketball or soccer, nothing sucks more than working with a ****ty ref because you are getting a lot of blow back on the calls the other person is making.

 

[Spartan Squad]

I often feel for officials taking verbal abuse from coaches because there are always calls that are missed or a decision that is borderline. It feels like coaches think it's part of coaching to yell at them.

Conversely, I've seen guys who have no business being on the court or field. Saw one basketball ref blow his whistle in advertently but signaled everyone to play on. The ensuing restart there was a foul called. The ref got together with his partner and said the foul was void because play should have stopped at the first whistle and awarded the ball to the other team. I have never seen the coach on the south end of that get as mad as he did that night. I believe that same ref threw a player out of a game because she dropped a swear after hitting the ground saying she swore at him.

I've even seen umpires go to the wrong school and refuse to drive the 15 miles to get to the right school because the assignment is at the edge of their boundaries.

Basically it sucks all the way around.

Ultimately the pay and the travel are **** for officials. I've seen a lot of turnover and even had coaches beg me to do stories on the shortage. Unfortunately when I try I get nowhere with the assigning agencies so the story dies.

 

[poindexter]

Haha, it was worse than I remembered.

Thanks.

 

[fossywriter8]

Between my sophomore and junior years in college, I got roped into umping a girls softball game.
I'm the only ump, the pay's maybe $30 and the players were only about 5 or 6, but it seemed like no big deal.
Game's moving along with the most challenging thing being having to run out to make calls at second or trying to stop pitches that get way from the catchers.
Then one of the girls steps into the very front of the batter's box — almost on the front line — to the point where both of her knees are WAY in front of the plate.
Pitch comes in. She lets it go by. It crosses at her knees, goes over the plate, and drops in the dirt just behind the home plate point.
I called "Strike 1."
The batter's coach went berserk. Just lost it. Yelling, screaming, doing everything but swearing, but it seemed as if that wasn't too far away.
And he just kept going.
I had to halt play and tell him to be quiet.
Since my pay came from the league organizers, I left as soon as the game ended and never looked back.

 

[Webster]

I reffed hoops games in college and law school to pay the bills. All different levels but rarely got abuse.

As I mentioned in another thread, I recently reffed my 11 year old's soccer game a few weeks back when the ref no showed. Shocked at the lack of decorum from the parents of both teams and the other coach. Definitely a coarsening of the culture

 

[LongTimeListener]

I reffed hoops games in college and law school to pay the bills. All different levels but rarely got abuse.

As I mentioned in another thread, I recently reffed my 11 year old's soccer game a few weeks back when the ref no showed. Shocked at the lack of decorum from the parents of both teams and the other coach. Definitely a coarsening of the culture

I blame replay. People are too damn used to watching games where they can always take another look and change the call. Their brains don't switch into no-TV mode.

I don't even know what you'd say when you run out there to dispute a bang-bang play at first. But 3-4 times a game, the coach is out there and parents are acting like it's Jorge Orta redux.