Athletes are bigger and stronger. More girls play sports than ever. Schools are expanding their athletic departments, buying new equipment and expanding fields.
Pretty picture, isn’t it?
Now visualize a girls’ lacrosse match being officiated by only one person. Worse yet, perhaps he or she is a staff member at the home school.
Imagine a two-day storm that forces athletic administrators to cancel a wrestling rivalry, instead of rescheduling it, because there’s no referee available to cover the snow date.
See an indefinite freeze on freshman basketball because every certified official is tied up with varsity and junior varsity games.
This isn’t fear-mongering or fantasy. We haven’t yet reached the apocalypse of youth sports in Maine, but inconveniences are imminent due to a drastic shortage of qualified officials.
While sports itself continues the head-spinning growth that commenced with the 1970s advent of Title IX, the nationwide number of officials is static or shrinking in all activities. Alas, the only number on the rise seems to be the median age in a hobby dominated by middle-aged men.
Maine is hit hard by its relatively low population, fluctuating economy and odd geography.
“It’s not as attractive to become an official as it used to be,” said Larry LaBrie of Auburn, assistant director of the Maine Principals’ Association, which oversees high school sports in the state. “We’re getting by, but the question is, what is the breaking point?”
Five years ago, the MPA posted an informational page on its Web site, www.mpa.cc, as a preemptive strike. It lists the name, address and phone number of the contact person for an officials’ organization in 14 different sports.
The game program sold at November’s MPA football state championship games contained a half-page advertisement with the most urgent plea to date. Calling the shortage a “statewide problem,” the ad flatly stated that games could be canceled if there is not an influx of prospective officials.
Local officials’ boards announce training clinics in the newspaper, hang posters at colleges and even teach adult education courses. Each fishing expedition might hook a half-dozen who are curious about refereeing. Those who continue beyond the first season rarely match the number of veterans who retire or simply quit.
“We’re all having a good time,” said Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School athletic director Jeff Benson, a respected baseball umpire and basketball referee for 23 years. “But you can tell that at some point in the near future, we’re going to need some help.”
Not worth the hassle?
Referees have been the butt of jokes from time immemorial, but now they occasionally are targets of violence. At least 19 states have passed a bill toughening the penalties for an assault against a sports official. Lawmakers have proposed similar legislation in Maine.
National and state organizations are proactive. The National Association of Sports Officials committed its 2001 conference in Norfolk, Va., exclusively to the concepts of recruiting and keeping officials. USA Hockey established a zero-tolerance policy regarding verbal abuse directed at referees from the bench.
Maine Basketball Commission and Maine Association of Basketball Coaches memberships met recently to foster relationships between referees and coaches.
MABC spokesman Tony Hamlin, boys’ basketball coach at Penquis Valley High School in Milo, addressed more than 150 officials at a November meeting in Bangor. Hamlin then sent a letter to his fellow coaches, imploring the group to be more conscientious in on-court communication this season.
“Like us, (officials) are not motivated by money, fame or notoriety,” Hamlin wrote. “Like us, officials are second guessed by parents, fans and self-appointed experts. Like us, officials examine their efforts, are self-critical about their level of performance and go to clinics to grow professionally.”
Even thick-skinned officials find the job physically, mentally and emotionally demanding.
“Some people just don’t want to deal with the confrontation,” Benson said. “They start it, try it and say, Boy, this just isn’t for me.’ Everybody needs to keep things in perspective. It’s kids playing a game.”
There are other occupational hazards. Benson said it’s a limited number of people who enjoy seeing a 90 mph fastball heading for their chin. His right knee has been surgically repaired 10 times.
Time also is a handicap. Most soccer, field hockey and baseball fields in the region aren’t equipped with lights. Typically, only educators and the self-employed are available to officiate day games. And many sports enthusiasts on school staffs either are coaching sports or furthering their education.
“You see the effects,” LaBrie said. “We already see field hockey games with only one official.”
In October, one of the two officials at an Edward Little-Mt. Ararat boys’ soccer game grimaced slightly when his 3:30 p.m. game went into overtime. He was due in Jay for another varsity contest at 6 o’clock.
“There is a huge shortage,” said Brad Fogg of Gray, who recently completed his 32nd season as a soccer official. “All the assigners make sure that there are two officials at all high school matches. After that, it’s hit or miss.”
Junior high feels the brunt of the officials’ shortage in every sport. It is common for faculty members, some of whom are not board certified, to adjudicate games.
Officials are expected to learn at lower levels. After a season’s worth of two-hour round trips to seventh-grade games, many decide to jump off the learning curve.
“You really have to be committed to the sport,” Fogg said. “The geographical areas we cover in Maine are a difficult thing. People from Portland find out they don’t want to travel to Mollyockett Middle School in Fryeburg.”
Numbers don’t add up
Wally Devoe, a teacher at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford, assigns officials to all high school wrestling matches in Maine.
“Yes, we have a shortage, and we have several of them due to retire in the next few years,” Devoe said. “I’m busy finding a ref for two meets (on the same day). Does that answer the question?”
He is limited to a roster of only 36 active wrestling officials in the state. Thirteen have worn the striped shirt for 15 years or more.
Field hockey is one of the most notoriously short-staffed activities. Lacrosse, which has been sanctioned by the MPA less than 10 years, lacks adequate coverage for a similar reason: There aren’t enough adults who understand the rules to either game.
Pam Newton, a long-time field hockey official and assigner in the Central Maine region, said this fall that nine recruits joined in the last year. Whether or not they are teachable and patient enough to persist through apprenticeship remains to be seen.
“It’s a work in progress,” said Gail Santerre of Gardiner, a retired field hockey official and current spokesperson for the association. “We try to go talk to former players and say, Why aren’t you officiating?’ But playing and officiating are two completely different things.”
Bill Gallagher of Winslow is high school hockey’s assigner. When he sits at the computer to survey a full slate of Saturday games from Presque Isle to Dover, N.H., his chapter is limited to 76 members. Many of the promising newcomers become part of the American Hockey League, Hockey East or Quebec Major Junior Hockey League rotation, giving Gallagher an even shallower pool.
“It’s been fairly steady over the last four or five years. We gain a few, and we lose a few,” Gallagher said. “Meanwhile, (communities) keep adding and adding and adding. Not long ago, you had less than half this number of schools playing varsity hockey. Now they all have varsity and JV. Then you factor in girls’ and middle school programs.”
Baseball, basketball and football seem least shackled by sheer numbers, but appearances deceive. It takes longer to move through the ranks to work tournament games in those sports than any other. Consequently, there is more turnover in the “lower” echelon, with apprentice referees giving up prematurely.
There are more than 550 approved basketball officials in Maine, but with virtually every public high school sponsoring both a boys’ and a girls’ team, membership is stretched thin. Now consider junior varsity, freshman, junior high and youth programs, and inevitable postponements during an icy Maine winter. Plus, all tournament games and many regular-season contests now utilize three officials.
Everyone embroiled in the crisis agrees that any changes in the oft-fanatical athletic culture will be incremental, unfolding one person at a time, one school at a time. The obstacles of time, family and career goals and the need for patience won’t go away, either. Nor will the reality that recruiting is done out-of-season, and most of us aren’t thinking about football in March.
Officials admit they need to do a better job promoting their craft. They’re hoping coaches and administrators will encourage current students to pursue officiating as a way to stay in the game throughout their adult lives, as an alternative to coaching.
“Whatever you write,” Gallagher pleaded, “make sure you tell them we need more officials.”
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