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Urbandale2013

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Jan 28, 2018
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Urbandale
@Urbandale2013 Care to share your thoughts on why there's a referee shortage in America, since you disagree with me?
The bigger issue is the poor management of referees by the organizations. I’ve discussed it in depth before but the single biggest issue with the referee shortage is that they aren’t making it easy to get started. I’ve talked about exploring being an official but haven’t wanted to jump through the hoops of becoming one. I still might as my life settles some more ( I just took on a new commitment this past year and also bought a house). If there is such a shortage organizations like the IHSAA should be actively recruiting people and they aren’t.

I also think the lack of opportunity to advance to the upper levels provides barriers. We’ve all talked about it at the college level that officials should be assigned by their talent not how long they’ve done it.

I actually think fans are a small part of the issue. I think it is more of an issue in youth sports as those are the parents who go to far. An official needs to have the ability to brush off a lot of criticism as they can’t allow it to impact their calls. That goes to fans coaches and players.
 

jcisuclones

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Nov 23, 2011
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Ames, IA
The bigger issue is the poor management of referees by the organizations. I’ve discussed it in depth before but the single biggest issue with the referee shortage is that they aren’t making it easy to get started. I’ve talked about exploring being an official but haven’t wanted to jump through the hoops of becoming one. I still might as my life settles some more ( I just took on a new commitment this past year and also bought a house). If there is such a shortage organizations like the IHSAA should be actively recruiting people and they aren’t.

I also think the lack of opportunity to advance to the upper levels provides barriers. We’ve all talked about it at the college level that officials should be assigned by their talent not how long they’ve done it.

I actually think fans are a small part of the issue. I think it is more of an issue in youth sports as those are the parents who go to far. An official needs to have the ability to brush off a lot of criticism as they can’t allow it to impact their calls. That goes to fans coaches and players.
I agree with all those points, and completely understand where you are coming from. The harassment of officials I feel is a major part of the reason why people choose not to even consider going into officiating, or even leaving. Nobody want's to be yelled at for just doing their job. There will be a shortage at the college and professional levels, high school associations need to do better at training and recruiting officials, and parents need to do better at realizing that Matt Cambpell isn't there recruiting their 6 year old and yelling at the ref won't get their kid a free education.
 
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Walden4Prez

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Jul 8, 2014
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I agree with all those points, and completely understand where you are coming from. The harassment of officials I feel is a major part of the reason why people choose not to even consider going into officiating, or even leaving. Nobody want's to be yelled at for just doing their job. There will be a shortage at the college and professional levels, high school associations need to do better at training and recruiting officials, and parents need to do better at realizing that Matt Cambpell isn't there recruiting their 6 year old and yelling at the ref won't get their kid a free education.

Besides officials, it is harder and harder to find people to volunteer to coach youth sports. I have been doing it for years and my kids are now moving on to school sports. The younger age groups in all sports are having a hell of a time finding people to step up and coach. Harassment of coaches by parents is one factor I see constantly. I have never really had an issue, but I know several that have. "Little Bobby needs to be playing shortstop". "Why didn't Sally get to be point guard?" "We have to buy socks for the kids?!?!?!"

It can be exhausting. Besides that crap, all the head coach does is logistics for the most part, very little coaching.
 

jcisuclones

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Nov 23, 2011
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Ames, IA
Besides officials, it is harder and harder to find people to volunteer to coach youth sports. I have been doing it for years and my kids are now moving on to school sports. The younger age groups in all sports are having a hell of a time finding people to step up and coach. Harassment of coaches by parents is one factor I see constantly. I have never really had an issue, but I know several that have. "Little Bobby needs to be playing shortstop". "Why didn't Sally get to be point guard?" "We have to buy socks for the kids?!?!?!"

It can be exhausting. Besides that crap, all the head coach does is logistics for the most part, very little coaching.
Oh just you wait, it gets even better with the school sports level with the "I give $____ to the booster club, so Timmy deserves to start" parents.
 

VeloClone

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Jan 19, 2010
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Brooklyn Park, MN
The bigger issue is the poor management of referees by the organizations. I’ve discussed it in depth before but the single biggest issue with the referee shortage is that they aren’t making it easy to get started. I’ve talked about exploring being an official but haven’t wanted to jump through the hoops of becoming one. I still might as my life settles some more ( I just took on a new commitment this past year and also bought a house). If there is such a shortage organizations like the IHSAA should be actively recruiting people and they aren’t.

I also think the lack of opportunity to advance to the upper levels provides barriers. We’ve all talked about it at the college level that officials should be assigned by their talent not how long they’ve done it.

I actually think fans are a small part of the issue. I think it is more of an issue in youth sports as those are the parents who go to far. An official needs to have the ability to brush off a lot of criticism as they can’t allow it to impact their calls. That goes to fans coaches and players.
I'm confused by this since my daughter was able to become a ref at 13. Maybe there are more hoops to jump through at a starting level in Iowa, but I didn't find huge barriers in our experience. If you are wanting to start and jump right into reffing high school varsity games then I could see why there might be barriers.
 

VeloClone

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Jan 19, 2010
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Brooklyn Park, MN
Besides officials, it is harder and harder to find people to volunteer to coach youth sports. I have been doing it for years and my kids are now moving on to school sports. The younger age groups in all sports are having a hell of a time finding people to step up and coach. Harassment of coaches by parents is one factor I see constantly. I have never really had an issue, but I know several that have. "Little Bobby needs to be playing shortstop". "Why didn't Sally get to be point guard?" "We have to buy socks for the kids?!?!?!"

It can be exhausting. Besides that crap, all the head coach does is logistics for the most part, very little coaching.
I am grateful for our traveling league where it is the norm for each team to have a manager in addition to a head coach (and possibly an assistant or two). The team manager takes care of the logistics and administrative stuff so the coaches can concentrate on coaching.
 

cyclonespiker33

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Jan 19, 2011
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I'm confused by this since my daughter was able to become a ref at 13. Maybe there are more hoops to jump through at a starting level in Iowa, but I didn't find huge barriers in our experience. If you are wanting to start and jump right into reffing high school varsity games then I could see why there might be barriers.
I reffed high school volleyball and it was easy to get started. I started doing varsity games right away, albeit at smaller schools, which definitely speaks to the lack of available refs. I can speak from experience that there are some people reffing that definitely shouldn't be, but there aren't enough refs to go around.

I was also able to start doing games at high profile schools within a couple of years. I'm not going to do it anymore, not because of annoying fans or coaches, but because I am more interested in coaching than reffing.
 

cyclonespiker33

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Jan 19, 2011
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I am grateful for our traveling league where it is the norm for each team to have a manager in addition to a head coach (and possibly an assistant or two). The team manager takes care of the logistics and administrative stuff so the coaches can concentrate on coaching.
I love coaching, but I wouldn't do it as a volunteer.
 

Urbandale2013

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Jan 28, 2018
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Urbandale
I'm confused by this since my daughter was able to become a ref at 13. Maybe there are more hoops to jump through at a starting level in Iowa, but I didn't find huge barriers in our experience. If you are wanting to start and jump right into reffing high school varsity games then I could see why there might be barriers.
To an extent it is being lazy but if you go look at their website it isn’t really clear how to become an official. Do I just show up at one of their events or what exactly do I need to do. When I do go to do it I will probably just email someone there to state my interest. I’ve said if the shortage is that bad it should be as simple as applying to any job on LinkedIn or Indeed. Sure you will have to go through the process of getting certified and stuff but if they are so worried about the shortage they should be making it as easy as possible to express your interest.
 

VeloClone

Well-Known Member
Jan 19, 2010
45,603
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Brooklyn Park, MN
To an extent it is being lazy but if you go look at their website it isn’t really clear how to become an official. Do I just show up at one of their events or what exactly do I need to do. When I do go to do it I will probably just email someone there to state my interest. I’ve said if the shortage is that bad it should be as simple as applying to any job on LinkedIn or Indeed. Sure you will have to go through the process of getting certified and stuff but if they are so worried about the shortage they should be making it as easy as possible to express your interest.
What I got from the Google machine...

http://www.becomeareferee.com/iowa/
 

isukendall

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Nov 30, 2006
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Used to business in Canada. It was not uncommon up there for parents to be restricted from attending their kids' (youth) hockey games because the parents were so disruptive.

I've been in multiple coaching situations where parents were out of control, and frankly I wouldn't have had any issue if the officials would have removed people - in fact I would have preferred it - and I'm talking about my own kids' parents.
 

isukendall

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Nov 30, 2006
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Fort Collins, CO
Besides officials, it is harder and harder to find people to volunteer to coach youth sports. I have been doing it for years and my kids are now moving on to school sports. The younger age groups in all sports are having a hell of a time finding people to step up and coach. Harassment of coaches by parents is one factor I see constantly. I have never really had an issue, but I know several that have. "Little Bobby needs to be playing shortstop". "Why didn't Sally get to be point guard?" "We have to buy socks for the kids?!?!?!"

It can be exhausting. Besides that crap, all the head coach does is logistics for the most part, very little coaching.

It doesn't stop at youth sports.

I was a head coach of a college club wrestling program, and was run off by parents who, among other things, threatened me and other coaches, threatened students in leadership roles, committed a Title XI violation by calling a female athlete a sexually derogatory term, threatened my wife's job, falsely said I refused donations, accused me of abandoning their children, threatened to sue me for every dime I owned (told to university administrators but never passed to me until months later), said I couldn't possibly be a good coach because I wasn't a parent, said I couldn't understand why they were overbearing parents because I wasn't of the same culture (i.e. racism), drove divisions between students, tried a coup to have their own coach named, once an investigation was spurred coached multiple kids on what to say to get me removed, etc. Despite multiple pleas for help to the university club sports department, they did nothing. Parents pushed the university and dug until they could find a reason to fire us, which indeed was a rules violation but IMO small beans compared to what parents were doing to us. A few parents drove this entire wreck, and the university was negligent in their reaction.

BTW, none of the kids of these parents were members of the team following this ordeal. Kid of the parent ringleader was kicked off the team, and others just chose not to participate.

In five years we brought the team from not having any national qualifiers, to conference champs and pushing for a national title. While I'm very proud of what we accomplished and love the relationships I created with many of the athletes, other coaches, and community, I'll probably never coach again after going through all that crap. F*** parents.
 

ClonesFTW

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The world would be a different place if everyone had to experience being a waiter or referee for a month.
 
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ArgentCy

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Jan 13, 2010
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The world would be a different place if everyone had to experience being a waiter or referee for a month.

I was umpire for one game, not by choice, and I was awful and very much disliked the job. I moved to base umpire for a month and that was more than enough. It's a tough job.
 

ClonesFTW

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I was umpire for one game, not by choice, and I was awful and very much disliked the job. I moved to base umpire for a month and that was more than enough. It's a tough job.

I reffed soccer from 2004-2009, it was decent money doing weekend tournaments. I never had the courage to attempt reffing basketball, that would be much worse/harder.
 

brett108

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May 1, 2010
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In soccer it probably does. Advantage is regularly played. Don’t know the rules well enough to have an opinion here though.

Not sure what happened but seems like an overreaction to eject everyone. It wouldn’t surprise me if some people did something to be ejected. It would surprise me if everyone did.
Once that is gone, the penalty is assessed. If it happens quickly they will stop play to allow a free kick, etc. Been a lot of whining about textbook soccer calls from casual fans on this board today. Weird.