During an hour-long Zoom session with members of the media on Tuesday, June 7, the National Federation of High Schools had stern words for parents looking forward to attending high school sporting events next school year.
The hot topic NFHS chief executive officer Karissa Niehoff addressed was in regards to the official shortage. A variety of factors including economics and even harassment has increasingly affected the amount of officials available to work games throughout the nation.
“We see things on social media. We hear stories,” Niehoff said. “We’ve seen awful examples of how officials are treated. And these are experienced veterans or even brand new, late teens, early 20s starting out in the career. And they’re being treated miserably.”
Arizona Interscholastic Association head of officials Brian Gessner told the Arizona Republic’s Richard Obert that across all sports, there was a 77% increase in coach ejections and 26% increase in player ejections in the 2021-2022 school year.
“Weekly incidents of outrageous behavior from coaches, players and fans,” Gessner told the Republic. “Gaining momentum locally, state and nationally to improvement in sportsmanship.”
Numerous sources have told the Sedona Red Rock News they’ve had incidents involving officials that became physical. Just last month, the Sacramento Bee obtained gruesome video of two parents assaulting an umpire in the parking lot following a playoff baseball game. Niehoff said there are a “number of state governments” with legislation on the table to protect high school sports officials, which she said, was a “disheartening” necessity.
The Verde Valley isn’t exempt from these incidents. Referees ejected all fans during a Jan. 14 girls soccer game at Mingus Union High School for “extreme disrespect” and “unsportsmanlike conduct” toward the officials, AIA spokesperson Seth Polansky told other media outlets. At a boys soccer game at Mingus at around the same time frame, the entirety of fans in the bleachers received a yellow card.
AIA officials say the shortage of officials throughout the state — and nation — is at least in part due to parental harassment.
Mike Gillespie, Arizona Interscholastic Association Area commissioner of officiating for Flagstaff, Prescott, Colorado River Area and Reservation Schools told the Sedona Red Rock News in a December interview that over 2,000 high school contests across the state were rescheduled in January and February alone across the state. In the Verde Valley, the games throughout the school year rescheduled due to a lack of officials were in the double digits.
“The newer generation, they don’t want to put up with the parents,” Gillespie said. “It has become worse. A lot of it is, ‘they don’t pay me enough for this.’ Sportsmanship has gone down. This is my 20th year, and it has gone downhill.”
The treatment of officials hasn’t gone unnoticed to big figures in the Verde Valley sports bubble.
Camp Verde High School athletic director and boys basketball coach Dan Wall said the schools need to take responsibility in protecting officials.
“Sure, could fans do a better job of taking care of refs? 100 percent,” Wall said. “I don’t think there’s any question about that. But part of it is the school’s job to make sure that if there’s an issue, that it’s dealt with and dealt with appropriately.”
Former Mingus Union softball coach John Brown said he’s considering becoming a softball umpire following his retirement. He’s seen the treatment from parents and coaches up close in his two decades in the sport.
“I see the treatment of these guys and ladies that give up a lot of their time, and they aren’t there for self gratitude. They’re there to help,” Brown said. “Sometimes, fans and parents just don’t understand that. I know I haven’t in the past. When I was a young coach in the past I was belligerent to umpires. I thought I knew everything and over the years I’ve learned either I don’t know everything or it’s understandable that they made a mistake.”
