Five times already this year, a fan has been asked to leave a sporting event at Owensboro High School due to behavior. And that’s only one school.
Owensboro Athletic Director Todd Harper said even at five, that’s significantly more people leaving than in years past, and there’s no telling how many there have been in the the 3rd Region and across the state.
Unruly behavior is a growing trend across Kentucky, and it’s gotten so out of hand the Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA), in a joint letter with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), issued a plea on Friday for fans to “cool it” for the sake of the athletes.
That same day, news came from New Jersey about a brawl in the bleachers at an 8th-grade boys’ basketball game. Six people were charged, including five adult women and one player.
The NFHS has worked with several states over recent weeks releasing similar messages asking fans to tone down the rhetoric, as it’s creating a sharp decline in officials — to the point games are being canceled.
In the joint letter, the KHSAA and NFHS encourage passion and note that not all fans are responsible, but there are enough overly negative situations that it’s cause for concern.
Harper said he understands people get emotionally invested in games, but that doesn’t mean they can berate officials or the opposing team.
“A lot of times it’s their kids, and it seems like when your own kids are involved, rational thinking tends to take a back seat,” Harper said. “That’s understood. I get it. But at the same time, this is a high school. These aren’t professional athletes and definitely aren’t professional officials.
“We’re here for one reason, and that’s to promote student-athletes, good sportsmanship and teamwork. The constant badgering of officials is a problem from fans, coaches and players.”
Fan behavior is the primary reason for the shortage of high school officials and while that may seem like a problem for the KHSAA, the net result is that athletic events in many communities in Kentucky are being rescheduled, postponed or even canceled because there aren’t enough men and women to officiate them. Fewer games mean fewer opportunities for the next generation.
Tommy Vallandingham, a veteran baseball and soccer official for the area, said the the topic has been at the forefront in the officials’ circles for years, and admits shortages are happening and only getting worse.
“There are schools that I won’t go to again simply because of the mentality of the administration or the fans there,” he said. “That doesn’t hurt anyone but those schools and the students at those schools, especially in regions where the numbers are so depleted.”
The long-term effects could spiral quickly out of control. According to the KHSAA, there are more officials over 60 years old than under 30 in many areas. And as older, experienced officials retire, there aren’t enough younger ones to replace them. If there are no officials, there are no games.
“What’s happening is they don’t feel that it’s worth their time anymore to deal with those off field issues that are not related to the game,” Vallandingham said. “The worst part about youth sports has always been the parents. Officials can deal with kids on the field, but it’s harder to deal with adults in the stands.”
For Harper, asking a fan to leave is not something he looks forward to, but he knows it’s part of the job. He said he’s perfectly fine with doing it, though, because it’s not acceptable behavior. It’s especially bad when fans know the officials and can directly criticize them.
“It’s not OK for someone to stand up and yell at an official, call them by the name and say ‘you’re terrible,’” Harper said. “At no other place in the world would anybody do that. They think when they pay $5 for a ticket they have that right, and that’s not the case. These are high school kids. We’re trying to teach them how to be productive adults, and nothing productive can come from that.”
While it’s primarily fans that berate officials, coaches and school administrators can also be to blame. In their open letter, the KHSAA detailed a few recent cases:
• A school superintendent, who has a son participating and a relative coaching, sent a threatening text to the local independent contractor who assigns games. “That crew better not be on one of our games ever again” read the text. And that same school removed a team from the floor in a non-varsity game in dissatisfaction over the officiating.
• A veteran athletic director cursed an official during a non-varsity game and refused to allow the official into a dressing room to retrieve his belongings after disagreeing over the handling of a fan situation.
• A veteran school athletic director not only refused to handle a situation with a fan when asked to do so, but after the contest, barged into a dressing room and threatened the game officials following the ejection of a head coach after a third technical foul.
Vallandingham said there’s no one sport that is necessarily worse than others, but indoor sports such as basketball typically provide more of a safe haven with dedicated locker rooms, while officials for sports like baseball or soccer have to weave through the crowd to get to their car.
If they can’t trust the safety inside a dressing room, it’s not going to be easy to find anyone willing to officiate games in any sport.
“You would think if you’re an official that you’re secure and wouldn’t be accosted by a fan (in the dressing room) and I wouldn’t even suspect a school administrator to come in,” Vallandingham said. “We’re not protected by the KHSAA. We’re not protected by the schools. We’re independent contractors.”
Vallandingham has had negative interactions after a baseball game, but he generally tries to shake off anything yelled his way. Only once has he asked someone to leave, and that was for safety concerns for his assistant referee during a soccer match.
With officials not getting into the profession for the money — Vallandingham said their pay is basically compensation for training, dues, equipment and travel expenses — it’s not easy to recruit new people when there is so much negativity.
Athletic directors like Harper are concerned with the future. While Owensboro hasn’t had any games canceled due to lack of officials, Harper said there have been some last-minute phone calls to make it work.
“Nobody really has an answer for why it’s happening, but we all agree it’s getting worse,” he said. “We feel bad for our officials. They are there doing the best they can, just like these kids are doing the best they can. It’s not fair to those officials. We’re losing officials in all of our sports, particularly the lesser known ones.”
With the major sports like basketball and football, the behavior gets lost in the crowd. But at other events, and especially at the freshmen or junior varsity level, there’s no hiding it. The incident in New Jersey is proof enough.
Many officials do the job part-time — Vallandingham is also a local attorney — and their full-time jobs typically have a much bigger impact in daily life. He said fans can get too invested and forget that at the end of the day, it’s only high school sports.
“We deal with much more important issues on a day-to-day basis than whether or not the guy was out or safe, or whether the ball hit the line or not, or if it was a strike or a ball,” he said. “There’s a general lack of keeping things in perspective.”
Harper knows if things don’t start trending in a different direction, there could be fewer and fewer games going forward.
“If people don’t start acting nicer to these officials, we’re going to lose them all and we’re not going to have any games,” he said. “You can’t do it without the refs.”
