Bad Officials

[WestSideFootball]

Can anyone just become an official now? I've seen a ton of bad calls this year from peewee up to high school. Can you become a ref right out of ref school or is there a training they have to take? its been rough this year. It seems like these guys get their online license and go right to work. No wonder the coaches fans get mad.

[Bluroon]

Sign up, there is plenty of room for more officials for all sports.

[Kurgan74]

Go to www.ohsaa.org and choose become an official.

You will get an opportunity to work fairly fast.

[LoyalOak]

Awful parents and coaches have ran off so many good ones

[Super trooper]

Some officials are bad. Some are good. Rarely have I ever seen an official actually cost a team a game

[alabama mike]

In the state of Ohio, we have officials of all sports leaving the game in large numbers due to the constant abuse and harassment from fans. How do I know this? I get the reports from the OHSAA, attend almost every single sporting event at my local school and listen to the fans. $5 DOES NOT give a person the right to call the officials the horrible names that I hear them called. It DOES NOT give them a right to say, "so and so hates our team."

I agree, some officials are better than others. The bottom line is officials DO NOT care who wins the game, they ARE NOT trying to cheat any team and they DO NOT get paid enough to have to deal with the crap they have to deal with at games. This is not only true in football but any sport. The whole concept of common courtesy toward our fellow human beings has been lost.

A person can become an official by going to ohssa.org and taking the class for the sport they would like to officiate. By all means, please encourage people to sign up, its not as easy as a job as sitting in the stands and berating officials.

[vcgrad]

so true!!

[KnockKnock]

Short answer to your question is YES.

There was a varsity game I heard about earlier this year in the Southeast where out of 6 officials, 5 were first year and 1 was a second year official. You can imagine the results. If that is true is that really helping anyone?

Why is this happening? Multiple reasons:

1) Online training classes which are average at best and poor at worst, and no on field training except in games.

2) Due to the shortage of officials and number of games to cover the State and assigners allow any registered official to work varsity and most of the time it does not matter their experience or skill level.

3) Schools choosing not to move games to other nights instead of Friday, AD's request officials and don't care what they get as long as they can play.

Why did this shortage occur? Multiple reasons:

1) It was exacerbated due to covid and the number of officials aging out, the state panicked and went to online training to make it easier to sign up more officials, at the cost of having less trained officials.

2) The pay, which was also exacerbated by covid. Officials came to to realization that spending time in other endeavors, family, etc. was worth more than schools payed for a Friday night, which was around $60-$70 /game. Just in the last year it has risen to $80 to $100 or so, but is it worth it?
A) Officials, have to buy equipment, uniforms, etc which the state changes far to often due to OHSAA logos etc.
B) Attend training meetings, some online and some in person but taking at least 1-2hrs of your time every week or two.
C) Time spent keeping up with new rules and especially the Ohio Mechanics Bible "The Gold Book" which is fine but it is surpassing rules
knowledge and judgement of officials in importance.
D) On a Friday officials spend gas money and wear and tear on their autos traveling sometimes as much as 2 hours or more one way, being
there 1.5-2hrs before the game, working a 2.5-3hr game, getting dressed, and travel back home. For some the money and time spent
is not worth the effort.

3) Coaches, players, fan behavior and hospitality.
A) On any given game, coaches and players make more mistakes during the game than even the most inexperienced official makes, That's part
of the game and part of being human, but a part time official making less than minimum wage (factoring in all the above costs) is expected
to be beyond human. Most coaches and players are pretty well behaved but then there is the fans....
B) Being called subhuman names from the bleaches or fence walkers, Telling officials how terrible they are, threatening and following them
from the field, etc, is not being dealt with by game administration. Not all venues are like this, some are actually very good but there
are enough of the lower levels through varsity fans acting like grown children to make officials walk away.
C) Hospitality, in some venues officials are shown to a dressing room that is dirty and maybe just large enough for one or two officials to get
dressed at one time. The rooms my not have AC, heat, or showers. The schools might not provide security or even provide cold water or
drinks at half and end of the game. Again, not all schools are like this but there is enough to make officials say "this isn't worth it"

4) OHSAA, assigner and association politics. Unless you are an official you would probably not understand, that discussion is for another time.

So why all changing now? Societal changes, and officials deciding the pay and their treatment is no longer worth the time, effort and abuse. Are any of you seeing worse officiating? If so think of your team and fans. Remember officials are independent contractors, they can chose what games, when and venues to work. The good crews will be at the games where they are respected and treated well, the crews that may be working your game may be the younger/inexperienced , or those just filling their schedules.

[CharlieHustle]

Can anyone just become an official now? I've seen a ton of bad calls this year from peewee up to high school. Can you become a ref right out of ref school or is there a training they have to take? its been rough this year. It seems like these guys get their online license and go right to work. No wonder the coaches fans get mad.

What an absolute clown. Clowns like you are probably the reason West was kicked out of the Peewee football league.
I know this is falling on deaf ears since I assuming you have the IQ of a house-fly, but you and 99% of the general population would not have the testicular fortitude to step on a field, court, etc and referee a 7th grade girls badminton game. Here is the link to sign up for a class to help out "aLl tHeSe BaD CAllS": https://www.ohsaa.org/Officiating/permits/category1

[hoot]

Bad post. Whining about officials ? Either skip the games or take the class . It’s a thankless job these days.

[wvabuckeye]

In the state of Ohio, we have officials of all sports leaving the game in large numbers due to the constant abuse and harassment from fans. How do I know this? I get the reports from the OHSAA, attend almost every single sporting event at my local school and listen to the fans. $5 DOES NOT give a person the right to call the officials the horrible names that I hear them called. It DOES NOT give them a right to say, "so and so hates our team."

I agree, some officials are better than others. The bottom line is officials DO NOT care who wins the game, they ARE NOT trying to cheat any team and they DO NOT get paid enough to have to deal with the crap they have to deal with at games. This is not only true in football but any sport. The whole concept of common courtesy toward our fellow human beings has been lost.

A person can become an official by going to ohssa.org and taking the class for the sport they would like to officiate. By all means, please encourage people to sign up, its not as easy as a job as sitting in the stands and berating officials.

This is the post of the year, thank you from an official in two sports

[WestSideFootball]

Just saying some bad officials are ruining the game for kids.. West is out of a league because of them. I hope they sleep at night.

[WestSideFootball]

The officials at Notre Dame are pretty rough tonight.

[WestSideFootball]

missing some late hits

[Basketball:30]

Bad officials ruin the game? Or maybe it’s low-IQ, classless, peaked-in-high-school adults like yourself who ruin the game for kids. Quit living vicariously through 5th graders, grow and pair, and take the class.

[West Side Pride]

The officials at Notre Dame are pretty rough tonight.

If your WestStdeFootball then why you at Notre Dame and not at Northwest? Its not true West fans folks that are doing all the
complaing!!!! The coach that threatened the offical at minford is from Valley........ its not us !!!!!