National Leaders Address Bad Behavior Against Officials at High School Events

On January 17, NFHS CEO Dr. Karissa Niehoff joined NFHS Director of Officiating Dana Pappas, National Association of Sports Officials President Barry Mano and active high school and collegiate sports official Erin Trujillo for a media availability session to address how negative behavior at high school sporting events is drastically undermining the recruitment and retainment of officials. Highlights from that session are below.

Question: Many of the behavior issues (at high school events) occur in youth sports. How can we work with youth to prevent those same issues from carrying over to the high school level?

Mano: “It’s really important, I think, for administrators – “the people that own the game” – (to) come to the realization that they’re going to have to put some lines in the sand that certain types of behaviors are just not going to be tolerated. And that’s going to have a bad effect on not only those parents, but in some cases, when it gets egregious that it’s going to have an effect on the child that’s playing. You hate to make that link, but the things that have been tried don’t seem to really be working as good as they should be working. And so, the parents really need to, you know, get a life.

“But we, ourselves, in officiating have to be better as we approach these games, whether they’re high school or youth or whatever. We’re living in a different age. Back in the day, we went out and whatever we called, that was it, and that was the end of the story. Today, it’s not quite that way. People are looking for second opinions, they like (instant) replay at the upper levels. And then you have this whole issue of the use of language. You heard me referenced this before, sort of the (age of) permissiveness that we find ourselves in. I’m not casting any blame on anybody – all I’m saying is the environment in which we work as officials has changed. And so, we have to be better at understanding that environment. And sometimes, maybe we overdo it as officials, we need to be a little more understanding of these things. Somebody might, you know, utter a profane word, and we don’t like it. In the context of the world in which we live, does that mean an ejection? We’ve got to work through those things in officiating – it’s not quite the way it was back then. So, we have a responsibility, as those that are on the mission to help officials do better: we’ve got to do better ourselves in helping them do better.”

Niehoff: “And to Barry’s point about ‘how it used to be’ versus ‘where we are now,’ the institution of sport – and I will say this over and over – has gone from, especially at the scholastic level, being a formative institution to performative. And this is where we need your help as the media. And we know you have a job to do to highlight the performance of sport and the performance aspects of sport teams and athletes and the excitement around performance. But for us, sports are still formative. And I think if we can bring that focus back, especially for youth sports and scholastic sports, this is about growth and development. This is not about performance development. I think that would be a help too.”

Question: A new rule in California states that if a fan assaults an official, the fan will be banned from attending future high school events in the state. Do we see this as the norm going forward in other states?

Trujillo: “In more recent years, there is more of a presence of a school security guard being at a game or local police officers being at a game; and I think that’s inherently the backside of people feeling like there is more potential for face-to-face harassment from fans, whether that be after the game or seeking you out in a hallway, or even the secure place where you’re supposed to be able to dress and those kind of things, as well as just face-to-face on the court. I mean, we’ve seen videos across the nation of people being attacked in broad daylight on the court by folks who don’t think that the game was properly called or didn’t feel like a call went their way or whatever it was. So, I think that’s probably the nature of the beast; there’s going to continue to be more (fans banned) nationwide as more aggressive behavior is shown in each game.”

Pappas: “I know there are many states that have contacted me about (whether) is it okay to have a bylaw about banning a spectator for 365 days. And really, that’s up to the state association, so I do think there will be more of that just because I know it’s become such a hot-button issue for state associations.”

Question: What are the most common examples of bad behavior that officials have experienced?

Trujillo: “People feel like that their $5 entry fee allows them to come into the facility and say or behave however they would like – that’s cussing, that’s leaning over (and) pointing fingers in the face of the officials…I know we work in very small environments here – a lot of times rural environments – and the facility is not large, as far as space around the floor. So, there’s a lot of spectators and people very close by, and they will say things, whether it be under their breath, or big and verbose with their hands in the air to you about everything from your mother, to your heritage, to your color, skin color – all of those things seem to be felt to be a free-for-all for their $5 fee to get into the game. Whereas in our perspective, we’re trying to call (the game) equally on both sides the best you can. What you see what happens in front of you, and (we) have been grilled to leave out everything else. So, I think that continues to develop into more of a fear of being physically harmed, whether that be during or after the game for officials. And that comes from coaches, fans, even kids themselves.”

Mano: “Sports are simply life with the volume turned up. So, in some measure, why are we surprised? We’re living in a louder world, more exhibitionism going on, the whole support by social media; all that is going on, it plays out in the sports. (The) other thing that’s important for us to keep in mind, back in the old days – I hate to keep referring to those – but the thought of a physical assault against an official was way out there on the moon somewhere. Today, we are getting reports every single week in this office having to do with physical assaults against sports officials. I hate to even sit here on this program and say that. I mean, when I started the association, who would have thought, here we are four decades later, and we’re talking about this and spending all this time. So, we’ve got to get a grip on this as a society, as a culture. I’d like to have us move towards how we conduct ourselves toward judges. I mean, if we were in a courtroom, and somebody jumped across and slugged the judge, we would be outraged as a culture. We would say, ‘wait a minute, we’re not going down this road.’ I think we have to have more of that vibe when it comes to sports. I’m not saying ‘equate us with judges,’ but get us into the same ‘courtroom’ with them, and I think that’s going to help this matter.”

Question: What influence has social media had on people leaving the officiating ranks? What impact has this scrutiny had on a national scale?

Mano: “What you have is (people on) social media identifying officials by name and beating the crap out of them. So that’s a big reason why people say, ‘why am I gonna keep doing this?’ ‘Why am I going to go out there and take my time for a few bucks, and then I’m getting trashed in my own community and neighborhood and nationwide, by name, because they think I did something wrong?’ People don’t want to do this; they don’t want to put up with it. So, I don’t know how we get that in hand because I’m not sure we’re exercising the restraint necessary as a culture yet.”

Pappas: “And I think the byproduct of that is a huge issue for retention, but it’s a recruitment issue. If you’re considering it, and all you’re seeing is officials getting blasted on social media, why would you go into it? It’s such a complex issue. The other thing that we see a lot of is with officials at any level, when they’re getting their calls consistently questioned and they’re being criticized, everybody thinks they’re an expert. So, just because a TV commentator disagreed with a rule and now they’ve put it on Twitter, people think that that’s the rules expert, but they may not be. Social media is great for a lot, but it also instills a false sense of courage. It’s that ‘keyboard warrior’ mentality that really causes some issues with the ability to recruit and retain officials.”

Trujillo: “And oftentimes on social media, you get a two-second snapshot of what happened. You do not get the full story of what happened through that game. That official may have taken a beating up to that point, and then a bad call was made or a missed call was made and that’s the part that gets shown, not what led to that situation.”

Mano: “I probably get interviewed 50 or 60 times a year by the media, and at some point during those interviews I always make this point: this discussion cannot turn on the rightness or the wrongness of a call. That’s not what this is about. Because let’s face it, the numbers are clear: between 80 and 92 percent of the time, (officials are) correct. Now, we can talk about the 8 percent or the 12 percent, but that can’t be the discussion for the levels we’re talking about. You can have that discussion for the game last night in Tampa with the NFL; major college, you can do that. But these other levels where we’re talking about with social media, they can’t turn on the rightness or the wrongness of the call. That’s the wrong approach to this subject.”

Question: What are some of the things that have been impacted by this officiating shortage in high school sports?

Niehoff: “We’re starting to see state associations and schools that actually have to reschedule games just so they can, perhaps, get a complete officiating crew. Let’s take the sport of football, which has always been highlighted for a Friday night, varsity night, (Friday Night Lights), all of that; we’re starting to see states that move football to Thursdays. We’re starting to see where games are actually canceled. Varsity level, games across sports, track meets, you name it – they’re getting cancelled because they can’t find people to work the games. So, you’ve got private schools competing with public schools, you have a lot of our high school officials that might do (NCAA Division III athletics) as well, in their areas. So, there’s this demand for the human capacity, and we just don’t have enough (officials) to work as complete crews. So, we’re seeing programs disappear, we’re seeing games disappear or rescheduled when possible, or they’re (shorthanded), where you want to have three (officials) on the floor for basketball, and we’re seeing two, if we can (get them). All sorts of shortage issues, and it IS leading to games being canceled.”

Question: How should schools be working with coaches to promote better behavior on the sidelines that could then affect parents and fans?

Pappas: “The coaches have so much influence over their kids, over their community. How they act is how their community is going to act, how their program is going to act. So, if you see a coach who’s highly demonstrative and possibly very confrontational, that’s how the fans are going to act. They feed off of everything that that head coach does. And we see a lot of issues, especially at the sub-varsity level, where you have a newer coach with a newer official – they’re both trying to learn; they don’t know yet how to communicate with one another and manage the game and coach their kids and do all of that. So, we run into issues at that level in particular, but really, it is critical to pair and partner with coaches in this endeavor because if we don’t address it with them, it’ll never be fixed. I just feel like it might be a missing part of what we’re trying to do, and I know we’re trying to stress that a little bit more. But it’s something where the effort needs to really be focused on coaches and talking to them about the effect that their behavior has not just on their kids, but everybody in attendance at that game.”

Niehoff: “And if I may add to that, school administrators. We have many schools now that have school resource officers or some sort of civic officials, police, or someone, at games. We’ve got to work with everybody. School administrators, if you are in attendance at that game, you’ve got to work, WORK that game. If you are a school resource officer or a police officer hired to supervise the event, be in the gym, be on the field, work the event. The fans need to see the school’s message from the administration on down, the community message from the police and support staff, and certainly from the coach – it’s got to be a collective approach. Too often we have seen folks leaning against the wall of the gym, watching things happen, and stuff is going on in the stands and the athletic director needs support. As Barry said, the officials are not responsible for fixing the (issues in the) stands or fixing the crowd. They’re responsible for the event, and if the crowd is misbehaving and the official is distracted, they can’t watch the event. So, we’ve got to have the support of school administrators, of (athletic directors), coaches, obviously, and police on site, working together.”

Question: In terms of recruiting and retaining officials, are we seeing younger adults signing up? What does the population of officials look like right now, and how do we maintain a good working group?

Mano: “We are a very graying industry, and the numbers show that. We’re not attracting and hanging on to younger people. I mean, the average age of people coming into officiating is something like 40, today. It used to be 19 and 20. So we’re not bringing that younger group in, and then you would logically ask the question – well, why? Well, you look around and say, ‘do you want to go into that environment as a young person?’ This has held true for all the decades – if you bring 100 new people into officiating in year one, at the end of year three, 70 of them have left. And that happens because they come in and they get shell-shocked. They get shell-shocked because of behavior, but they also get shell-shocked because we, in our own industry, officiating, are not taking good care of them the way we need to. We need to help them along better than we are – that’s on us. But the rest of the world needs to help us with that regarding their behavior toward these people who are new officials.”

Pappas: “I agree, we definitely are a graying population, but there are a number of states that are very aggressively approaching this issue and offering junior officials programs. Pennsylvania, Kansas, there’s probably over 20 states that are doing something with regard to instructing officiating in high schools across the country. And more and more states are actually getting approval from their departments of education to allow this to be a (physical education) credit or something within that curriculum so students are getting credit for it. Our hope is, as these students are coming in and they’re receiving training and mentoring – which we know is it absolutely imperative for officials to have mentorship – we’re hoping that they don’t face one of those bad fan experiences because then they will be in that 70 group that have left. We’re really hopeful that with these new officiating curricula, with classes being offered within high schools and so much of that outreach to current students and former student-athletes, that we’re able to kind of replenish that pool.”

Trujillo: “Well, as Barry said earlier, where they hear the biggest complaints – youth football, AAU, young kids soccer, whatever – that’s generally where a new official starts. You don’t just get to go be the superstar NBA official, the (NCAA Division I) number one men’s official, those kinds of things. You have to start somewhere, and that’s where they put them to start is with the younger kids.

That’s where the odd situations happen. That’s where you learn more about the rules and what can happen. That’s where you get to make a mistake and hopefully not be completely bashed for it. But unfortunately, in starting them there, you also are running into the worst behavior – the parents that feel like that kid is going to be in the NBA, and if their team didn’t win that game that day, they’re not going to get a scholarship to go to college, those kinds of things. So as Dana said, you have to give grace to those new officials coming in because they have to have a learning situation outside of a classroom or outside of watching video or outside of learning the rules on paper. They have to be able to physically put those in play. And they are going to make mistakes, and you can’t chase them off before they’re able to learn and grow from those mistakes and become that good official that you want to see down the road.”

Question: How can schools advocate and support officials when they come to their building?

Trujillo: “I think one of the most important things is have (to) somebody there who you know you can rely on. That (could be) an administrator, a security person, whoever that may be, or multiple people. Make sure when they walk in the door that they have that point of contact, they know where they’re supposed to be. Get them a facility that’s secure, that they can dress away from the crowd, not feeling like somebody’s going to be knocking on the door to come in – I can tell you from experience – a janitor coming in to clean that room because they think nobody’s in there. You need to have those areas secure. Most officials, in my experience, and I can only speak from my experience, but they’re not in it for the money. Yes, the money matters, but that’s not why they’re doing it. They love the kids. They love the camaraderie of the officiating environment and their fellow officials and being able to participate in that. They love having the ability to move up in those ranks, that ability to achieve something as well as watching the kids achieve that. And whether they’re participating in it to support their own children as well – they may be trying to make environments better for their own. But the thing that really will drive an official away is not necessarily whether they got a candy bar at that game, but whether they left and felt like they had been appreciated for the time and effort they spent away from their own family, giving to someone else’s kids. In most situations, you’re providing that service, not for your own children, and not for your own grandkids or your nieces and nephews, but for someone else’s kids, so they can play the game. There’s a gentleman who I’m acquainted with who has been an official for several years, and he loves to say, ‘at the end of the day, a game without officials is just practice.’ And that’s what you’re going to get if you eventually chase all the officials away. You’re just going to get to have practice.”