[w_sohl]

Survey

Abuse Towards Officials

Circle the answer that applies to you.

1. Age: 30

2. Sex: Male

3. Location: Southern Indiana (Evansville)

4. How long have you been officiating basketball? 10 + yrs


5. Which level(s) have you officiated? (write all that apply)

Jr. High (B&G), High School (B&G underclass & Varsity), Junior College Summer Ball

6. Have you ever officiated a sport, other than basketball?

Yes

7. If you answered YES to #6, which sport(s)?

Football and Baseball

8. Do you enjoy officiating sports? Y/N

Yes

9. In your opinion, do you believe that there is a problem regarding disrespect or abuse towards officials? Y/N

Yes

10. How do you define 'abuse' as a sport official?

Threats of physical harm or threatening pulling games from your schedule becuase of a disagreement in a call.

11. Have you ever felt threatened, as an official, before, during or after officiating a game? Y/N

Yes

12. Have you ever been verbally abused before, during, or after officiating? Y/N

Yes

13. Have you ever been physically abused before, during or after officiating? Y/N

No, but I did have people waiting outside the gym for me after an intramural game once, had to leave through the back.

14. Do you feel that there are adequate safety measures in place protecting you as an official? Y/N

No

15. Do you believe that the rules & regulations stated in the NFHS rulebook offer appropriate measure to deal with abuse towards you, as an official? Y/N

Maybe, but it really isn't the NFHS that has the appropriate measures, it is local law enforcement.

16. Have you ever considered quitting sports officiating?
Y/N

Yes

17. If you answered YES to question # 13, Why?

Baseball - The parents at baseball games are the worst, the younger the kids the worse it gets.

Football - I have stopped doing little kid football because the parents do not care about teaching their kids how to play the game, all they care about is winning. I even had a league president argue with about a call because he had something to do with that particular team, he threw (figuratively) the league president card at me.

Comments:
If parents continue to badger officials the way they do the officiating is going to keep getting worse and worse. 15, 16, 17 and 18 year old kids do not want to, and shouldn't have to, put up with the crap that parents and coaches, at the levels that some of these kids call, give these kids that are LEARNING how to properly officiate their game. We had a guy in our football association quit after one game because of the coaches in the game, said it wasn't worth the money to hear the crap that came out of coaches and parents mouths during games, it was a freshman (9th grade) football game. As these potential candidates for officiating continue to quit and the veterans retire we will not have enough officials calling games and we will need to bring in inexperienced officials to call varsity contests and they will not be ready to deal with that atmosphere, they will get rattled and their judgement and concentration will be affected.