And let me make sure I'm clear on one point. Saying a sport is "hyper-officiated" is not a reflection on the officials themselves. They're simply doing what's expected of them (and as best as I can tell, quite well most of the time).
My criticism of football and basketball is that those who play and follow the sport have unreasonable expectations of officials and officiating. In the quest for "fairness," they demand every conceivable wrong be righted by rule, and that an impartial judge hand out "justice" every few seconds.
And you're absolutely right that NFHS is the most egregious violator in this respect.
The result is players and fans can't enjoy the forest because they expect somebody in a striped shirt to point out, name and judge every single tree.
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