What would you have done?

[refnrev]

Last Fall I was watching a HS V game between my son's team and another school. There is no girl's team at the high school here, so some girls do play on the boys team. Opposing team player #15 kept yelling quite loudly "Take her out! Take her out!" when the female stopper or female midfielder would get the ball. Not a one time thing, but it happened repeatedly. The year before, during warm-ups, one of the opposing players told the female midfielder that "girls didn't belong on a soccer field but on their knees." During the game, others players on that team were making racial slurs about the black referee behind his back when he was out of ear shot. I've been officaiting long enough that I kept finding myself instinctively wanting to reach into my pocket and pull out a red card! It was a 2 whistle crew, relatively new guys, and I'm sure neither official heard the remarks. At the time, I almost reported this lack of sportsmanship to the state high school association, but didn't want to sound like a disgruntled parent who was unhappy with the outcome of the game. Since that game, I've often thought that as a licensed official I should have done so. I've officated the opposing school in soccer (when my son wasn't on the team, B'ball, and V'ball. One week, the soccer V coach got tossed for a double yellow, sat the next game, and got tossed for a double yellow in the first half the next game back. The sportsmanship in every sport is very low. I can remember T-ing up 6th grade basketball players years ago for yelling and arguing calls. What would you have done as an official if you had sat on the sidelines and watched the game and seen what I did? Report it to the HS association or not?

[CecilOne]

I would pass on your information the principal of your son's school and let him/her handle it. If nothing happens, the state HS association should hear about it, but someone else would have to observe or confirm to remove the appearance of bias you mentioned.