Why officials quit?

[l3will]

Our state association is trying to retain more officials. So anyone want to share
some experiences of fellow officials who are no longer officiating.

I think the state is more interested in getting younger officials to stay in the officiating ranks.

thanks in advance

[HLin NC]

material tells us its "sportsmanship" issues primarily but there are other reasons IMO.

Time- the time spent in meetings, study, travel, spending the bulk of Saturdays in youth ball, all weigh in. People are busy and have many activities- social, church, school, etc. It can be nervewracking to meet all the obligations.
If you are a young official with a family, particularly with small children, you may feel more pressing needs.

In our area, middle school games start between 4:30 and 5:00. A young official, just making his way into the working world, may have difficulty getting off work but these are the assignments he's going to draw.



Rules - I started umpiring Little League baseball and officiating football the same year. I caught on to the rules of baseball much quicker than I did the details of football. I still dispise the casebook.

Cost - it can be a little pricey for a first year official even with a bare bones equipment list. Between registration fees and gear, you are probably looking at about $300. That's about what a new official working MS ball is about going to make for the season in game fees.

Retention:

I can remember being a new official, showing up at meetings and hearing all the old war stories that never did a thing to teach me about officiating. Group your younger officials and put them off to themselves with qualified instructors.

Encourage smaller study groups outside of group meetings.

Try a "second hand" gear closet for new guys to pick up shirts and pants.
Help them find cheaper alternatives for equipment - rubber bands instead of down indicators, shoe outlet stores, Walmart brand compression gear instead of Nike or UnderArmor.

Encourage younger officials to ride to a varsity game with a crew, sit in on pre-game, and stay on the sideline, once or twice a season. Put them on clock duty if schools use officials for that and they can be around a varsity crew also.

[Texas Aggie]

I think it boils down to one or more of a few things, including:

1. Abuse. People are not conditioned to being yelled at constantly by so many people. Especially when the people doing the yelling don't have a clue about what they are talking about. Officials often start because they think they can do a better job than what they've seen done, either in person or on TV. Whether that's true or not, they often think if they do a better job, people will appreciate it. But they don't understand that when you are keeping score, at least one side isn't going to like you.

2. Advancement. I've found officials in all sports I've worked particularly competitive individuals, at least for the most part. We all believe we should be working higher level games than we actually work. Some people are right about that, but many aren't. However, just like the fans and coaches yelling at us, its extremely hard to make a truly objective evaluation of where you should be as an official. Whether right or wrong about where they are as an official, if they aren't working level X, many feel its time to move on and do something else.

3. Politics. Similar to 3, individually, most officials I've run across don't like the group political structure of the organization they are in. Many don't like the fact that the assigner gives out the best games to his drinking buddies. Like in 2, sometimes there are valid complaints here, other times, its a failure to be objective or accept the truth. Either way, I've known many to get out over this.

4. Time. Mentioned above, its getting harder and harder to work these days. During the season, I'm required to attend meetings for no pay and gas expenses. I've got to do scrimmages for the same. Then in the off season, I pretty much have to go to camps at my own expense. A conservative estimate for me is about 250 hours for football and probably 350 or more for basketball. That's about 10 percent or more of my awake time during the year.

[bisonlj]

We've lost 4 members over the past 5 years for the following reasons:

Legs were starting to give out and son was starting to play higher level CYO games
Wife had first baby after 15 years of marriage and wanted to spend more time at home
Relocated to another state
Son was starting to get varsity playing time and would rather watch him Friday nights than work other games

All 4 are legitimate reasons for leaving and all were good officials. They also have priorities and this is not something you can do well for a long period of time without passion and commitment.

[JRutledge]

Officiating is not for everyone. I think those that start out much younger usually stay in it much longer. The problem I have seen (if you really see it as a problem) many of the newer officials we see are over 40. You get guys that waited until their kids got out of HS and they have more time on their hands, so they take up officiating. Many of these people are already successful people and they do not want to wait around 5-10 years to get to the varsity level or college ranks. I think once people do not get to where they thought they should, they find other reasons for quitting. This is where "politics" and "time" become a factor. If someone really wants to officiate, they will find a way to officiate if you ask me.

Peace

[MJT]

Time factor.
Kids start getting into HS sports.
BS from coaches.
BS from fans.
Politics.

[Soonerump]

I agree with Texas Aggies on all 4 points. The biggest one that I have to deal with is politics. Our organization is one of those buddy systems. If you are on a competent crew who continually gets high marks for evaluations from staff and coaches and still do not get playoff games due to the buddy system it can get frustrating. We continue to officiate every year though because there is no other feeling in the world than standing on the field on a Friday night with the band playing and the fans screaming for their team when the teams run onto the field. Their are some things worth overlooking if you enjoy what you are doing.

[Kirby]

We continue to officiate every year though because there is no other feeling in the world than standing on the field on a Friday night with the band playing and the fans screaming for their team when the teams run onto the field. Their are some things worth overlooking if you enjoy what you are doing.

And I think if more people could experience this feeling, then all associations would have better numbers. I've been officiating for 5 years now and moving forward I want to make it part our crew's future seasons to try to work with more new officials.

[FredFan7]

I think sportsmanship and schedule are key factors. I have a young family and the wife and I have an agreement on how many games I'll do in a week. While I wish I could referee every opportunity, I must admit it's hard to come home for 30 minutes, change into my gear and leave for a JV game with my daughter bawling for her daddy. So for me, it's two games per week--one JV and one varsity.

I don't work pee-wee anymore because around here they play Sunday and Sunday is church and family day. Pee-wee is where you get your first taste of officiating football, but around here the worst sportsmanship is at the pee-wee level. So you have officials learning by trial and error and then you have coaches and parents exhibiting unsportsmanlike conduct that a HS coach wouldn't try because the state association would severely punish him. I've seen state final officials eject coaches from a pee-wee game, so it's not just the newbies that suffer. After a couple of bouts with a wild coach or parent I would think many new officials would say, "I'm giving up a precious day off for THIS?"

If an official wants instant gratification or money out of this avocation, they're in it for the wrong reasons. However, if an official quits because of the poor sportsmanship, I am sympathetic. I'd try to encourage him or her to keep it up, but if they ultimately decide to quit....well, what can you do?

[Jim D]

I started very young and worked for over 20 years before I quit. I quit because of the usual factors - my son was playing HS football, I was tired of the politics, the coaches and everything and I just felt it was a good time for me to walk away.

Luckily, I had some friends who kept asking me every year of two if I were ready to come back. After being out for a long time, I finally said yes and returned. I've enjoyed the second time around as much or more than the first time. It suprised me how easily and quickly it all came back.

[parepat]

I think that we also need to look at ourselves as a reason why people quit. I don't think we do enough to help young officials. Just the opposite. This year I heard from several guys fresh out of the class that they were reemed by older officials for mistakes they made during games. Of course they are going to make mistakes in their first year or two. I played football all my life up thru college and I can tell you that my first year in officiating I was completely clueless. We need to do more to help them. I was part of a class of thirteen officials 11 years ago. There are only 2 still doing it today. That is a terrible attrition rate and I believe that fault lies in part with us as mentors.

[SWFLguy]

I'm kind of surprised no one mentioned $$.
I know the trite response is-- "I'm not in it for the money".
But let's face it--if you want to get people to do something
on their off work time--you have to pay them well enough
for them to make the investment in their time.
If the pay was sufficient, we would not be having
discussions like this.
Plain and simple.

[parepat]

Originally Posted by SWFLguy

I'm kind of surprised no one mentioned $$.
I know the trite response is-- "I'm not in it for the money".
But let's face it--if you want to get people to do something
on their off work time--you have to pay them well enough
for them to make the investment in their time.
If the pay was sufficient, we would not be having
discussions like this.
Plain and simple.

Great point. It would probably improve quality as well. More money = more officials = more competiton for games = better officiating.

As it stands now, there is such a shortage of guys that even the worst officials work a ful schedule in our area.

I'm gonna go rent "Norma Rae" and "Hoffa" and start to organize.