The Problem
Did you know that there is a national shortage of youth sports officials? It is happening across all sports and in nearly every state! Games are getting cancelled due to lack of officiating crews and it’s getting worse. Who does this impact the most? The youth athletes.
The Data
Here are the stats from the officials. A 2017 survey of 17,000 sports officials conducted by the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) found that:
-87% of officials had been verbally abused
-64% reported ejecting a spectator for poor sportsmanship
-57% of all officials surveyed reported sportsmanship is getting worse
Across the board it appears that 80% of new officials do not return for year 3 after getting their certification. The number one reason cited for leaving is poor sportsmanship and abuse from spectators and coaches.
The Outcome
So what does that leave? It leaves a shrinking number of the older more experienced officials and the ones with 2 years or less of game time under their belts. I often hear from parents about how officiating as a whole is getting worse. After learning the information above though, you can understand why. Officials are quitting due to abuse before they get a chance to get really good at the job. Would you get out there every weekend and officiate if no matter what calls you made, you got abused by wacky parents? I wouldn’t. Not only that but the existing group of officials is trying to cover the same number of games with fewer and fewer in their ranks. That means more games per day and as a former soccer referee myself, I can tell you that after game three in a day, you’re tired and more prone to errors. Not great to hear but true.
Look, there are bad officials out there. There is no question that some shouldn’t be on the field/court/rink because they don’t have the skills or mindset required. This is a very small minority however. More likely they are inexperienced and learning or exhausted from doing too many games in a day/weekend. Yes, officiating associations could and are doing more with regard to ongoing training and mentorship. But we as parents need to concede that when we go to a game, we are emotionally invested in a certain outcome and that colors our judgement.
At the end of the day we know there is a shortage of youth sports officials and we need to take action before we are all out there taking turns officiating. We can choose to improve our conduct and solve the problem.
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