Quote:
Originally Posted by CecilOne
Because the teams, players, coaches won't always agree; let alone know the rules.
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Exactly. The officials are arbiters of a contest. In the case of some sports, some of the rules can affect the safety of participants as well as deciding the contest.
Nowhere in that job description do I see anything about enforcing decorum except insofar as it facilitates the contest. You need a certain degree of decorum to move the proceedings along, inasmuch as certain types of bad sportsmanship could be a distraction, so -- an unfortunate necessity -- officials sometimes need to enforce decorum.
That excuse goes away completely once the contest is finished. The MIAA has apparently tacked on something to the job description of game officials at interscholastic contests by having them oversee a post-game ceremony. Why not leave that job to any number of other personnel whose presence might otherwise be required at extracurricular activities at a school?
The MIAA apparently said at the time that either the mandate of handshakes or their being supervised by the people who officiated at the game just concluded "improved sportsmanship". I don't know if that's supposed to be euphemism for "resulted in fewer trips to the emergency room" or just "looks so pretty". 1st of all,
mandated handshaking is a charade, giving only the
appearance of comity. 2nd, having the officials there is supposed to...what? If you expect there to be trouble, you want to embroil the game officials in it too?
The basketball situation is the worst because it's among those that take place in a gym, &, because of the way the rules are written, introduces doubt into the outcome of the game, i.e. when exactly it ends, which was discussed at that time in the basketball section here. One could even envision scenarios in a game that ended close where a team might try to "game" the handshakes by provoking "fouls" by their erstwhile opponents. But even in sports where the officials have an easy getaway & the final score isn't on the line, this looks like a way to squeeze something extra out of game officials at their expense, like drafting them to class up the act. Feh.