A Plea for Help
I originally posted this essay on my LinkedIn profile. Here is the link for LinkedIn
One of many, many inspirations for this essay:
Don’t Be This Guy: Crazy Soccer Dad Runs On Field To Tackle Ref After Call He Didn’t Like
This is a plea for help for our Sports Officials (Referees and Umpires). Many who read this post may have a loved one who plays sports, or you play sports, or you just enjoy watching sports.
Most of you who know me on a more personal level have heard (sometimes whether you wanted to or not 😊 ) about my alter ego, the soccer referee. I referee ~100 games per year at various levels of competition: high school, children, recreational, weekend, weeknight, travel, or state level. I chase teenagers on a 120x70 yard field. This past weekend I refereed multiple games and my Fitbit logged 26k steps. For me, ~2k steps is a mile, so you should be able to do the math. For many years I have been selected to referee state level high school playoff games.
Sports official assault is unfortunately a growing issue. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, 80% of high school sports officials quit before their third year. A recent survey of U.S. youth sports officials found:
- 13% have been assaulted,
- 47% have feared for their safety,
- 57% have had to break up a fight between players and
- 64% have ejected a spectator over unruly behavior.
We have arrived at the point where verbally abusing sports officials is almost ‘normalized’ or expected at any sporting event. This verbal abuse can and does escalate into physical abuse. Literally every week there is a new video of an incident. Most of these episodes are happening at children’s sporting events! The television news video below happened at a recent soccer game for teenage boys. We do not like seeing these videos from any community.
How can you help? You can help by showing respect for all sports officials and being the calming influence at the events you attend. Everyone reading this post is a leader at some level. Demonstrate your leadership. The sports officials out there need your help. If you are attending a sporting event as a parent, family member, fan, coach, player, or even as a fellow sports official, please respect the sports officials working that event, especially those teenagers you may encounter.
Not surprisingly, it is getting more difficult to recruit and retain officials. The side effect being that in some areas of the country sporting events are being canceled or rescheduled due to the lack of officials.
Sports official assault is a felony in most states, including my home state of Florida.
Thank you.
MCOA Sports Officials