[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

This is the first school year that our freshmen is not playing competitive basketball, because he is concetrating on swimming and baseball in high school.

Both our sons have played Toledo Park and Rec. basketball (10U and 12U and baseball (10U, 12U, and 14U). The officiating in these leagues left a lot to be desired and I could easily write a couple of articles about the competency of the officials and umpires; but I also know that with one exception the officiating or umpiring never cost my sons' teams a win and the exception only kept the game from going to extra innings.

As a parent I understood that as much as I want my sons' teams to win, but I knew that I am a sports official first and can honestly say that I never critized the officials and umpires. If I thought that an official or umpire's conduct was unprofessional I made it a point to see the Toledo P&R assignor and explain to him what I thought was unprofessional conduct. My main concern was officials that were lazy and did not care if they were there except to collect the game fee or umpires that thought it was okay to smoke on the diamond between games or before the game. Lack of rules knowledge did not bother me as much as unprofessional conduct, because the reality is that no matter how bad the officiating really is the better team will still win.

Fortunately for me the parents of our sons teammates, with the exception of a few, are believe or not are the type of parents that we would all like to see in the stands. They concetrate on cheering for the team and ingnore the officiating.

MTD, Sr.