I am writing this post to generate some feedback from other associations across the country. Our association has had several incidents involving officials and spectators and officials and players. Most of these situations could have been avoided if the official would have conducted themselves in a more professional manner; however, the fact remains that they still occurred and will have to be dealt with. What are some guidelines, if any, do some associations have for holding officials accountable for their actions(ie, suspensions, etc.)? Our association has never set forth guidelines for specific behavior and, in this day and age, we need to protect ourselves from the "sue happy" society that we live in. Any comments or suggestions would be welcome.

It would depend on the actions that occured. Examples?

One official "flipped off" the crowd; one official wanted to meet a fan "outside after the game"; one official got into a verbal shouting match with a principal; one official cursed some fans; etc. etc. It might just be the accumulation of the past few weeks and this being the last week of the season, everyone is getting "on edge."

Yikes, that's a lot of unprofessional behavior. I think I can remember maybe two incidents like that in the ten years that I have been officiating in my association. In our assoc, there is a formal process for dealing with unprofessional behavior. The board of directors deals out the punishment. The process for handling it is spelled out in our association's constitution.

Z

Sounds like you have some loose cannons out there.

In my area, cursing fans, players, or coaches, and making obscene gestures would probably result in the official being gone for the rest of the season. Asking someone to me you outside would probably result in a suspension. A shouting match with a principal? Probably marked off at the school but it would depend on the circumstances whether any other action would be taken.

We have a "Special Report Form" that can be filled out by any one (associated with the IHSA) for off court (or field) issues when an official does something unprofessional or does not follow a procedure. Now that is the extreme way to report someone. Usually that does not happen very often. This happens to be the same form that is used to file for ejections of players, coaches or fans. Now things can be reported to assignors (if they apply) who can really affect who gets their games.

Peace

During the past girls basketball season, I made a bad decision in responding to a player from the visiting, and then proceeded to compound the problem, by denying what I said to other officials and to the crew it involved.

Make a long story short, I ended up being dropped from that particular crew, and also had schools ask other crews not to bring me to their schools once they heard about the situation and problems that I caused.

I personally feel that each situation needs to be handled differently based on the circumstances of each situation and the people involved in each situation. For me, I had to write an apology letter to both schools, both basketball teams involved, the officiating crew involved, and also had to accept any and all association penalties as well.

My particular association did not take any further action, because of the way I handled rectifying the situation I found myself in. They felt that the crew involved, schools, teams, and individual players involved were pleased enough with what I did, that the association felt no further action was needed.

Since, then I have been allowed to come to the schools and I am working again with the crew involved as well.

The main thing is for the association to have a writen policy - in the bylaws or wherever - that addresses these situations and the possible outcomes/consequences...that way, no one can claim "I never knew" when they are held accountable - which they should be! Does your association have anything currently in writing???

Exactly. And the by-laws need to include a committee that is authorized to decide on these cases and place fines on members as they see fit.

Boy....I'm surprised you folks have not taken any action on these situations! Don't you have a "reporting proceedure" in your state at the association and/or conference level?

These types of incidents need to be addressed! Matter of fact, these officials should be "dropped", "suspended" or "lose their license". (Easiest way to handle this would be not to assign these types games from this point on...you'd think they'd get the hint! DUH!)

wl

[Edited by imaref on Feb 10th, 2005 at 12:08 PM]

That is the problem. We do not an updated copy of our by-laws; however, it does not address disciplinary actions. Our association is actually "run" by the principals of the schools we officiate. This is an unusual situation, and the board that actually governs the association changes year to year. These guys know better than to act like this, but I feel we need to "cover our assets" by telling them what not to do!!

In our association, behavioral codes are loosely defined in our by-laws. Any complaints against a referee go to our executive board. We have some refs that "lost it" in times past and are barred from certain schools.

"One man's barbarianism is another man's professionalism." Atilla the Hun

No offense specifically intended for John, but don't we ALL know to walk away. When the schtick hits the fan, ultimately we are the ones who are expected to be in control. For me, this is hard to hear because just like if someone has a bad experience with a car salesman, it must mean that all car salesmen are bad news. I don't want to be lumped in with officials who lose their cool. Somebody on this forum has a tag line that says something like; officiating is the only job where you're expected to be perfect.

Where is the crew? We tell our captains to deal with hot heads and we should do the same.
Tue night I worked a JV/V with 2 different partners. My JV partner (first time I've ever met him), was in over his head and ended up arguing with the Head Coach at half time in the back hallway about something that both could have avoided. I ended up grabbing him by the collar and pushing him into our dressing room and then proceeded to rip him a new one. After the V game, the coach apologized to me and felt bad about what he did and also that I had to get involved but thanked me for doing something.

2 years ago, our association had this...

Girls' tournament game...the official who had just worked the first game and was supposed to sit on the bench to be the alternate for the night's second game came out of the locker room without shoes & socks. He had a plate of food, ice bags to ice down his achilles heels, and a towel around his neck. Both our association and the IHSAA got wind of this. They both deemed his actions so unprofessional that this official was suspended for the rest of his girls' tournament AND his boys' tournament! He lost his girls' semi-state & his boys' regional that year!

OUCH!

Of course, shortly after this, he broke off and formed his own association!

Interesting story Indy_Ref. We need to chat sometime about the officiating life in Indiana. Drop me a line at [email protected]

I'm not sure how our bylaws read for the association but other than tournament games, what could we do to an official in Indiana Indy_Ref? Since officials get thier own games...what could an association do other than kick the official out of the association?