Official Shortage
Crisis Exists In Quantity And Quality
By Scott Robertson

Ask just about any sports fan about the quality of officiating in his or her favorite sport and the answers will likely range from 'It's lousy' to 'Kill the ump!'

The ill will of the fans toward officials, and the lack of sportsmanship on the field or on the ice, has led over time to a crisis in officiating. There is a shortage of qualified officials nationwide that is being felt acutely in western Pennsylvania, to the point that, in some cases at the high school and college levels, officials with very limited experience are not only getting a regular schedule of games, but every once in a while, finding themselves officiating championship contests. It is a problem that runs throughout officiating at all levels, and has been noticed by no less than the National Football League and other local and national athletic and officiating associations.

'We are trying to develop a means of keeping officials once we get them involved at the grass roots level,' said Mike Pereira, director of officiating for the NFL. 'We can recruit them. but the statistics show that 70 percent of them quit (at the lower levels) after only two years. That is alarming to us.'

The NFL is addressing the issue with a series of hometown clinics designed to attract those interested in officiating, and those already involved. The league held one such clinic in Pittsburgh in July that was attended by about 185 people, and clinics in other cities drew similar attendance figures. It is Pereira's belief that the trend away from officiating by many threatens the overall quality of officiating at all levels, with a smaller pool to choose from and desperation among high school and youth leagues to staff games, the strain on the number of quality officials available is great.

Causes Of Shortage

'When you look at the reasons why there is a shortage, I think the first thing you have to consider is that sportsmanship has deteriorated,' Pereira said. 'Officials get a lot more flak from fans and coaches and figure, after a short time, they don't need to put up with it.'

That is why, Pereira said, the NFL has cracked down on showboating and taunting by players. 'Officials don't want to be breaking up fights,' he said. 'They want to officiate games.'

Jim Leonard, who retired recently after 20 years as a WPIAL football official, said an additional root cause of abuse is coaches, players and fans who don't know the rules.

Leonard cited as an example a situation where a high school defensive player might jump offside, then get back before contact is made. In pro football, that's allowed. In high school, merely jumping offside is a penalty, whether contact is made or not.

'And yet you still have coaches yelling that their player got back,' Leonard said. 'It doesn't matter. In high school, that's offside and it's a penalty. A lot of coaches watch too much (pro) football on Sunday, and they think the same rules apply.'

Leonard said the shortage of officials is largely the result of abuse. He pointed to the controversial play that ended last season's NCAA football championship game as the kind of play that makes potential officials leery because they don't want to subject themselves to abuse.

Orin Bache, president of the Eastern Association of Interscholastic Football Officials, an organization representing many officials in all sports in this area, also agrees on the abuse issue. 'I don't know if the abuse from the coaches and the fans is a deterrent to people getting into officiating,' Bache said. 'I know it is a problem with keeping officials once we get them.'

Bache also believes the younger generation is shying away from officiating as a profession or sidelight because their leisure time is less than it used to be. 'They are more pressured into their livelihoods and trying to make money,' he said. 'They don't have the leisure time'

Larry Hanley, executive director of the WPIAL, says the age demographic of Western PA is playing a role. 'I think the biggest problem we have is that a large percentage of the officials we use have been with us for a long time. People are retiring or getting out of the game, and that's created a gap. We need to get younger people involved.'

Hanley adds that the growth of sports has further strained the officiating shortage. With the advent of Title IX gender equality legislation, schools are offering more sports to females and are opening up more opportunities for males as well. More sports underscores the need for more officials.

Lack Of Experience

One of the greatest factors in the decline of quality officiating is the lack of experience of the officials. Leonard believes the problem, at least at the local level, is that it is too easy for some to become officials.

'When I started, you had to work your way up the ladder, working the grade school games and the youth leagues, and that was good training, because if anything is going to happen in a game, it will happen at that level,' Leonard said. 'But now, with the shortage, you've got rookies starting at the high school level. That's not a good situation.'

Dale Hamer, a Murrysville resident and veteran NFL official, agrees. 'It's difficult for officials to gain experience,' Hamer said. 'Like everyone else in society, the people who want to officiate want to start at the top. They want to start at the Division I level and then go pro. They don't want to think about starting in Pop Warner, which is where most of us get started, and then working their way to the pros.'

Leonard sees at least two problems resulting from lack of experience, common sense and positioning.

'The big thing that I was taught is that you have to use common sense when you are officiating,' he said. 'A good percentage of the game is common sense. You have to call what you see, but balance it against its impact on the game. It's literally true that a penalty could be called on every play, but unless it has an impact on the game, you don't call it.

'Positioning for an official is very important. If I'm on one side, and the play is going the other way, even if I see something differently, it might be someone else's call who is closer. You have to fish in your own pond, so to speak. Each official is responsible for a certain area, you don't make a call that's 50 yards away from you.'

Fixing The Problems

Since joining the NFL in 1978, Hamer has seen considerable change for the better, including the clinics that are headed by Pereira and former NFL official Jerry Markbreit.

Hamer said one of the things changing this year is the NFL will be grading officials by crew instead of grading them individually. The thinking is this will improve communication between officials, because if one official misses a call, the grade for the whole crew goes down. Hamer is not sure how that change will work out.

'It will be interesting to see how the league pulls the crews together,' Hamer said. 'I think it might work out. But you might have a situation where you have a younger official who could be intimidated if he feels he has to correct a veteran official. He may be hesitant, and you certainly don't want officials to be hesitant.'

'It's not as big a problem as a lot of people think,' Hamer said. 'They (the officials) know they can't see it all. The secret is positioning, and that is something that is taught at the clinics. Getting in position to make the call and applying your best judgment are the two keys. If you are not in the right position, you are not going to make the right call.'

Locally, Hanley says the WPIAL and its parent organization the PIAA, are aware of the problems and are trying to fix them. He pointed out that while the PIAA is responsible for assigning referees, the WPIAL takes an active role in developing, rating and monitoring officials.

One of the things the WPIAL is trying to do is step up its process of evaluating officials in all sports. Evaluations of football and basketball officials have been reasonably consistent, but the league wants to improve monitoring of such sports as soccer, softball and baseball, among others.

The league also has regular rules meetings for all sports that officials in those sports are required to attend. For the most part, those meetings cover mechanics and positioning, among other topics.

Bill Christy of Washington, PA, a longtime college official and now the assigner of officials for the Washington-Greene County Chapter of the PIAA, agrees with one solution put forth by Washington High School boys basketball Coach Ron Faust. Faust wants to see only two officials, rather than three, at high school basketball games.

'I think he's right about that,' Christy said. 'The pool is so thin that if you put three guys out there, you're just giving money away to the third. Believe me, there is plenty of work out there for guys. If anyone wants to work, there is no reason to sit at home.'

But Christy also knows that solving the bigger problems won't be easy. 'There are not enough people, and the new people know that,' he said. 'What that means is that after three years, you've got guys doing a full varsity schedule. That's not much experience for those guys, and it has an affect all the way up the ladder.

'We run camps all the time. You get guys come in who are 18 or so and reasonably intelligent. They come in, they pass the written test, and that means they can get a license to officiate. Does that mean they can officiate? Hell no.'