I will respectfully disagree with this. We have enough officials to work games. We have officials that are willing to take vacation from their other jobs to work games. That is not a shortage. To me, there is a huge difference between a shortage and being flexible/willing to move game times. That happens in literally every other profession in the world. If I want my internet fixed and call Charter-Spectrum and they tell me they will send a tech out at 9:00 but I wanted him at 8:00 that doesn't mean there is a shortage of techs.
Fan behavior and officiating
- Thread starter Big Red Thoughts
- Start date
No offense, but your opinion is in an incredibly small minority. You may be right, but everybody else I talk to in HS sports indicates the opposite.
If at one point in time you could ask for 8:00 o'clock and get 8:00 o'clock because there were always techs available, but now you ask for 8:00 and they say sorry, can't get there till 9:00 as we have to serve other customers first and no other techs are available...then that's a shortage. Or at least fewer than there once were.
Especially with the changes in the heat index recommendations and the use of the WGBT, no one is willingly scheduling a 3:00 pm game in the first few weeks of the season because it's their first choice of times. You're scheduling it because it's the only time that the officials can fit you in and you do not have other workable options.
Whoever thinks there’s no shortage of officials must only be from a class A school where it’s common to have afternoon games due to more than two teams sharing fields.
Flat out period there is a shortage of officials. Everyone knows it but one person apparently. Teams don’t want to play football games on Thursdays, Saturdays, or Friday afternoons. But there’s more and more of those games being scheduled and played, it’s no coincidence or a choice.
I’ve been coaching for awhile now and have been involved in the process of getting officials contracted for games. The list of officials is smaller than when I first started.
The NSAA isn’t just Lincoln and Omaha. Other schools do participate in competitions and need officials as well.
So yes there is a shortage. I will admit I have seen some younger college aged officials working games and that’s great! It’ll take them a couple games and/or seasons to fully adjust to that role. Not sure if they still do it or not but UNK offered an officiating course for students to get involved and get licensed, not sure if other colleges are doing that as well, but that is an awesome opportunity.
Basketball and volleyball isn’t much an issue because fewer officials are needed for each individual games. But in a sport like football where more officials are needed there is a shortage.
Flat out period there is a shortage of officials. Everyone knows it but one person apparently. Teams don’t want to play football games on Thursdays, Saturdays, or Friday afternoons. But there’s more and more of those games being scheduled and played, it’s no coincidence or a choice.
I’ve been coaching for awhile now and have been involved in the process of getting officials contracted for games. The list of officials is smaller than when I first started.
The NSAA isn’t just Lincoln and Omaha. Other schools do participate in competitions and need officials as well.
So yes there is a shortage. I will admit I have seen some younger college aged officials working games and that’s great! It’ll take them a couple games and/or seasons to fully adjust to that role. Not sure if they still do it or not but UNK offered an officiating course for students to get involved and get licensed, not sure if other colleges are doing that as well, but that is an awesome opportunity.
Basketball and volleyball isn’t much an issue because fewer officials are needed for each individual games. But in a sport like football where more officials are needed there is a shortage.
Bottom Line… Fans really suck.
Officials are slightly better 😜
Officials are slightly better 😜
Officials know the rules, fans don't. I can say that in NE, there arent many officials when they walk in the gym that I think to myself that they shouldn't be doing games. 90% are great, unfortunately, there are a few who have been doing it for 20+ years that really suck & keep getting games because they are friends with assignors.
Llaha57, or they are getting games because of lack of officials. how many nights do you see young college aged kids reffing, it's far a few between. you do however see the old grizzled vets working games all the time. I would say this year more then in the past i would see a young college kid with the 2 vets. how long will the young ones last is anyones guess.
As someone who has been a ref, coach, and spectator for multiple sports this years officiating in basketball was some of the worst I've seen. I agree as spectators and fans there is cleaning up to be done, however, when you see a reffing crew walk in for a game and you immediately know that the fouls will be lopsided or travels will not be called or they favor a specific play style (typically more aggressive as they don't call as many fouls) its VERY frustrating. I can name several crews that should not be allowed to ref games until they take some courses or extra education they were that bad. Take the crew that had the controversy in the EPPJ and Summerland game. Is what happened in that game enough to warrant that crew getting reprimanded? Maybe. Maybe not. But I can point out about 5 other games they did with multiple other games that made the game unwatchable. All I hear for the argument about reprimanding officials is there's a shortage and hard to get refs as it is. So hear me out, what happens if we go back to having two officials? Those two if they are good officials can see just as much as the three and it doesn't become so much of a I will watch the ball, you watch this area, and you watch the paint. Because then several refs I've heard this season say "that's not my call to make". So why can't we go back to two? I feel it would just force those refs to be more attentive instead of thinking the other two can pick up the slack. I saw a lot of JV refs (two man crews, usually people associated with the home teams) do a much better and much less biased job than the certified varsity refs that followed them. Crowds get less nasty when games are well officiated but there's a problem going on in both departments right now.
I would disagree about 2 officials, in todays age of how athletic teams are you need 3 to see everything and you can't tell me that with the average age of a officials is probably about 45-55 years old, they would have trouble working 4-5 nights a week. it's alot of wear and tear on the old body.
so what your saying in 10 years we wont have enough officials to cover Basketball at all, since the majority age of officials are as you said between 45 and 55 years old
In my opinion, all crews will call games differently and it's up to the players and coaches to adjust to the way the game is being called. I think the most important aspect for the officiating crew is being consistent with how you are going to call the game. In this day and age, no matter what style of play is being allowed - fans will always disagree and blame officials. Consistency is the key....jmo.
The NSAA has reported shortage of officials in every sport over the past 10 years, so I am not sure what you are trying to say here.
If you listen to anyone who's been through the NSAA presentation, there's a very real chance that happens. Hopefully people keep stepping up, but currently only about 25% of officials are under 30 while over 50% are over 45. It could get scary.
NUTTY, I didn't say that, I'm just stating facts and facts are there are not alot of new stripes out there coming up in any sport, be it baseball football basketball girls softball, all of them. the shortage is real and i don't have the answers to the solution but time will tell.
I agree with you, I do not know the solution either but in the next ten years it is a fact there will not be enough officials
I like your opinion here.
I once had a spirited conversation with a Softball Plate Umpire. I politely and calmly explained to this gentleman that "I don't care where the strike zone is, I simply need you to know where it is and it needs to stay put". That was a wonderful exchange.
Consistency is the whole key.
Read the comment that he was responding to. @HighPlainsCoach is coming from the same angle as you are. You are reading his comment without the context it was referring to.
I agree with you, crews from the western part of the state call games different from crews in northeast nebraska and in omaha and lincoln as well, it's part of the game and kids should adjust as well as coaches.
I agree, and always felt that to be one of the funnest parts of it. It is fun to go to a different part of the State and get to Coach/Play the game differently.
The guy stating there is no shortage of officials needs to pull his head out of the sand. The NSAA is literally pleading with people trying to get younger crews involved. In our area I'd bet half of our football officials are over 60. They do a great job but guys are hanging it up every year due to age and fan/coach behavior. It pisses me off watching coaches throw baby fits at the refs. Nobody reffing is out to get you. Plain and simple. How hard is it to have a civil conversation with an official and give them your point of view. Or bury your head in your hoodie and vent for a few seconds. I've seen some coaches worse than some fans. Usually their crowd and players act like asses because thats what they see the coaching staff doing to.
it usually starts with how the head coach acts, like i said usually there are some schools that just have bad fan behavior in general and nobody has the balls to act on it. it is that way in every sport it starts with the head guy and trickles down from there.
Perhaps we can branch off of this and instead of blaming poor reffing or poor behavior, maybe we can brainstorm ways for NSAA to get more people officiating events and incentivize ones that can be consistent and yet not punishing inconsistent crews to the point they want to quit? Higher pay/more training/end of year reviews/etc.??? Maybe if we can bring in some more good officials the fan behavior may also change in a positive way. I have noticed a trend developing that everyone in this thread has noted about this topic, I just hope it doesn't become the new norm.
supply and demand if you want more officials you have to pay considerable more
I am not sure this is the route you want to take. Are schools supposed to take a financial loss for hosting event becuse their gate won't cover the cost of officials?
This is a problem with everything in a school currently. Shortage of teachers. So you want a kid to go pay for and get a 4year college degree and start out at $38000 a year and have 80K or more in college loans. IF YOU dont raise pay we are screwed
Wasn't saying anything about what kind of money teachers make. I just think that asking a school to pay $1,000 for a football crew and $500 for basketball crews, and then losing money for both is a difficult ask for schools.
I understand exactly what you are saying I am just pointing out that in every other working field in American pay is based on need of employee and education or experience and supply and demand drive that up even quicker. BUT some how in Education and officiating we still are refusing to do this and expecting some how the shortage in teachers and officials is just going to magically fix its self. It is not, you will have to raise pay or get use to playing less games or more of your scheduled games on non traditional dates and times.
Any thought to extending the season and having bye weeks, too? (at least for football, basketball is already a really long season)
How about actively recruiting officials? NSAA could and should be actively pursuing and recruiting JV officials at games, as well as frequenting UNL, UNK, UNO at the very least and trying to convince kids who are officiating intramural games to pursue it after or during their time in school. Would be a great way to find younger adults who are clearly already at least interested in the field. Like I said before I have seen several excellent JV refs these past few seasons that if they were actually asked to pursue officiating in a more active capacity they would jump at it.
I have a couple of friends that were basketball referees. Neither of them would do Varsity Games. They would do JV games and Jr High games.
The didn't like getting home in the middle of the night, and they didn't like the fans at the Varsity Games. As one once told me, you will always have an obnoxious fan or two at the lower level games, but nothing like a Varsity game.
The didn't like getting home in the middle of the night, and they didn't like the fans at the Varsity Games. As one once told me, you will always have an obnoxious fan or two at the lower level games, but nothing like a Varsity game.
I see that side of it all the time. There are games where literally every call you have someone in the stands arguing and complaining about said call. It's ridiculous and tiresome.
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