Minnesota varsity basketball game postponed due to 'lack of refs'

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BleedGopher

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per Joe:

A shortage of high school sports officials in Minnesota caused a postponement of a boys' basketball game that was scheduled to take place Tuesday night between Mora and Zimmerman.

"Tonight’s Boys’ Basketball game vs. Mora has been postponed because there aren’t enough refs to cover the game," a tweet from Zimmerman High School Activities reads. "Parents and Fans, please remember to be kind to refs. No refs, no game."

"We have had to move games due to not having officials," said Jaime Hilyar, activities director at Zimmerman H.S., in an email to Bring Me The News.

"In my experience it's been more common in soccer, softball, and baseball. This is the first time in my time being at Zimmerman that we've had to move a basketball game due to not having officials."

bringmethenews.com

Minnesota varsity basketball game postponed due to 'lack of refs'

A key factor in the referee shortage is believed to be due to disruptive parents and fans.
bringmethenews.com bringmethenews.com

Go Gophers!!
 


And coaches. So many good refs in the stands!
 

I ref soccer, so a different sport, but we have lost over 1000 refs in the past few years. This is only going to become more of a problem over time due to behavior of players, coaches and fans.
 

I have coached youth sports at the traveling/club level for the past 12 years. Three trends are apparent (2 good, 1 bad):

1. Parents actually treat coaches much better compared to when I started. I think they have seen/heard about enough parents embarrassing themselves yelling at coaches that none of them want to go down that road.

2. Participation trophies aren't really a thing these days. When I cleaned out my parents house I found a whole box full of them from when I was a kid. I think maybe one tournament I've coached in the past three years has given out participation trophies, even at the younger age groups. Maybe in-house/recreational leagues are different, but they are basically non-existent at the competitive level.

3. Officials are being treated worse and worse. Largely by parents, but occasionally coaches are a problem too. It's really hard to police it as a coach, because I can never tell from the opposite side of the field which parents are the problem ones. None of the kids on my team want to be referees, even though most of them have a great understanding of the rules. and I can't blame them after seeing how officials are treated.
 


I ref junior high and 9th grade basketball. the players and parents are always way worse than the coaches are...….im still surprised at how many junior high kids will question calls....and its usually those kids parents that are also in your ear.
 

Northeastgopher said:
I ref soccer, so a different sport, but we have lost over 1000 refs in the past few years. This is only going to become more of a problem over time due to behavior of players, coaches and fans.
Click to expand...
Is that a real number, or just a guess on your part? That's a lot of refs. I always wanted to get into reffing soccer, but just don't have the time.
 

Livingat45north said:
Is that a real number, or just a guess on your part? That's a lot of refs. I always wanted to get into reffing soccer, but just don't have the time.
Click to expand...

Soccer is so in need of officials that they will allow kids just two years older than the teams they are officiating to serve as sideline officials. Thus, an 11 year old can be a sideline official for a U9 game.

Due to proximity of the game, the number of quick decision calls, etc. I think the intensity on basketball officials is much more significant than most other sports. Soccer officials are so far away from the fans and coaches and there aren't that many truly critical plays in a given game. Same with football, the officials have quite a bit of space from parents and coaches, but in basketball the officials are so close to the coaches and parents, and there are many more opportunities to blow a whistle.

Baseball may be the worst though as umpires have so many balls/strikes calls and parents hanging behind the fence and coaches right there too, well it's a bad recipe for a poor 14 year old trying to earn $20 a game.

Go Youth Sports Officials!!
 

It's been a while since I last ejected a parent from a game! That was quite fun.
 




stating the obvious - older refs are retiring and there are not enough younger people becoming refs to make up the difference.

My brother is a registered official, but these days he only works lower-level games - Freshmen, Junior-High and so forth, because he can make some decent money and he doesn't have to deal with all the grief you get working HS varsity games.

I attend over 100 HS sporting events a year, and I see so many fans/parents who flat out don't know the rules, but they still sit there and scream on every call. It is more evident in hoops because of the proximity to the court. My dream is that all fans entering the gym have to take a rules test, and if you flunk the test, you can't enter the gym.
 

Livingat45north said:
Is that a real number, or just a guess on your part? That's a lot of refs. I always wanted to get into reffing soccer, but just don't have the time.
Click to expand...
This information was given to me as part of a required annual training to be a USSF soccer referee. This is different than high school soccer which is unaffiliated. However, as stated above, they have had to realign age limits on who can work games and do other things just to make the numbers work.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
stating the obvious - older refs are retiring and there are not enough younger people becoming refs to make up the difference.

My brother is a registered official, but these days he only works lower-level games - Freshmen, Junior-High and so forth, because he can make some decent money and he doesn't have to deal with all the grief you get working HS varsity games.

I attend over 100 HS sporting events a year, and I see so many fans/parents who flat out don't know the rules, but they still sit there and scream on every call. It is more evident in hoops because of the proximity to the court. My dream is that all fans entering the gym have to take a rules test, and if you flunk the test, you can't enter the gym.
Click to expand...

Or at least, if you don't know the rules, don't yell at the refs. I can think of some gyms where nobody would be in the stands then.
 



Northeastgopher said:
This information was given to me as part of a required annual training to be a USSF soccer referee. This is different than high school soccer which is unaffiliated. However, as stated above, they have had to realign age limits on who can work games and do other things just to make the numbers work.
Click to expand...
Didn't realize it was that much of an issue. Thanks for sharing. I did a quick Google search and it appears to be very true across the U.S., all linked back to parents.
 

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