Just to put it to rest....

[Hoosier_Dave]

The number of officials who are willing to do grade school level sports will continue to decline as long as
1. Parents are allowed to yell as officials.
2. Coaches are allowed to yell at officials.
3. Game fees remain at nominal levels.
4. Free time keeps declining.

1 & 2. It's our culture. We allow high profile, high $$ athletes to act like 2-year-olds on the playing field/court (pick your sport). Taunting, yelling, violence, etc. with little accountability. We allow high profile coaches to act like 2-year-olds yelling, stomping feet, throwing tantrums with little accountability.

3. More demand for officials. Soccer and softball are now well developed down to 5-year-olds. There's more demand for officials at these junior levels which takes away from the pool of officials at upper grade school and high school levels.

4. Gen X'ers and Y'ers are less tolerant of harrassment and abuse. They aren't willing to put up with all the hassles for a $10 game fee. They can get work elsewhere or don't need the money in the first place.

5. More demands on limited free time of officials. Most officials have children involved in soccer/football/BB/softball, add to that speech, band, etc. There just isn't the free time.

I don't do football anymore. Didn't have the free time and it wasn't worth the hassles.

We will need a cultural shift away from violence to mutual respect before this changes. I'm not really optimistic.

JMHO