It makes it a properly officiated game. To the players, it's their game. To the coaches, it's probably their game. To me, it's my game.

Exactly. I go into a game with the attitude that "It's my game and I'm not going to let anybody screw it up." I don't think you can do your job properly if you concede the game to anybody else.

Of course the game is for the kids, and they're the focus, not the officials. But we can't let one kid screw it up for the others. We can't let a coach screw it up for everybody. Notice the "we" in all of that. That's our responsibility, 'cuz it's our game.

There's no way I could disagree with that. It just seemed to me that the standalone affirmation "it's the officials' game" seemed a little selfish, with the speaker's priorities at the wrong place. An explanation like the ones BITS and Rich provided though, makes it much clearer.