I have been refereeing over 7 years and it seems that the parents of elementary and biddy ball games are getting worse and worse. Im in Louisiana and this season it seems like the parents have just gotten crazy screaming and hollering about calls, and on 2 seperate occasions have had to have fans escorted out because of their beligerance to me or my partner. Just wondering if we are worse than some of the other states.

No, LD, it's a national problem.

It seems like parents and fans have gotten crazy lately, what is so bad is I have a 7yo son who likes to go to the games with me, and sometimes i worry about his safety, because of the game his daddy called.

I worked some youth rec game with a guy I know and at about 4 min before the game started he looked at me and said: "watch this". He called for a Capt/Coaches Mtg. In that meeting he told the boys to hustle after the ball if it went in the corner and to have fun. He told the Coaches that they are responsible for the sportsmanship of themselves, their players and their fans. Any questions. Both Coaches said nope and we started the game. We worked 3 games and in 2 of them, there was out of control parents. We went to the Coach and reminded him of our meeting. Coach went and took care of it and now alot of us have that same meeting. Seems to be moving thru the ranks and games are alot more fun for everyone.

The younger the players, the worse the parents. Every kid out there is the next Lisa Leslie or Michael Jordan, and if you don't call it their way, the parents are getting cheated. Never mind what it does to the officials, how are these kids being affected?

Did some 7th and 8th grade girls yesterday. Girls were great..1 parent was the poster child for bad press at youth games. 2 minutes into the game, not knowing the teams at all, I knew who was her kid. I also got the obligatory "She passed to herself..that's a travel" on an attempted shot, and help with at least 125 travelling, "over the back," and "reaching" calls. With all that help, who said being a referee was hard???

Well said.

I got no problems in my area, I don't put up with it and I don't think any of the other officials do either. Two methods: (1) ask parent if he/she wants to leave (2) while holding the ball before throwin stare at him/her for several seconds.

Did a 7th grade girls travel yesterday and got to eject my first coach in 5 years. He apparantly did not agree with a no call from my partner and came running on to the floor screaming and hollaring with a couple of f-bombs in there for effect. I ran from the other end of the court to get between them and had him escorted out. Thank goodness the site director was about 6'-8" and 300 pounds.

Something has to be done. Maybe it's time we get some public service announcements out there during games on T.V. or form an organization like truth.com (the group that puts on all those anti tobacco ads) to get the word out that this sh1t's gotta stop.

Especially if you've got Snake-Eyes!

Another thing that works, especially if they are sitting in the first row, is to make sure you have a throw-in right where they are sitting. Put your mouth close to their ear and blow your whistle really loud. Take my word for it, it's as much fun as a barrel of monkeys.

The only down side is that if they go deaf, they'll think everything from that point on is a no call.

Sorry - I'm in kind of a "sick humor" mode today.

Hi Dave, where at in Louisiana are you at? Im in Centerville.

Hey brandon im in baton rouge

I added you to my yahoo. We can chat on there.