PROTECTING THE GAME: MAXPREPS ARTICLE DISCUSSES FAN BEHAVIOR

Posted March 3, 2019

“Governing bodies across the country for high school sports have tried to emphasize the message of pursuing victory with honor.” Participation numbers for officials is down and fan behavior is a major contributing factor. That’s the message Joe Davidson of Maxpreps.com would like parents and fans to know. The New Mexico Activities Association is not immune to the nationwide shortage of officials and recently released their own video to address the situation.

Maxpreps has recently published an article describing the issues high schools all around the country are dealing with. The article cites several statistics and studies:

“According to the National Association of Sports Officials, 80 percent of referees/officials walk away from their craft. And in surveys with nearly 17,500 officials, 75 percent cite “adult behavior” as the reason for their exit. These studies also reveal there are more officials over the age of 60 than 30 and under, which means the gap in age makes it difficult to cycle in new bodies.”

Joe Davidson of Maxpreps.com also wrote:

“In that effort, National Federation of State High School Association’s Karissa Niehoff has teamed with state commissioners across the land to share this message to parents: Cool it.

“The time has come for everyone involved in the game to ‘pump the brakes’ as it relates to conduct at games,” Niehoff wrote in part in statements posted on federation sites from Kentucky to California. “Make no mistake about it. Your passion is admired, and your support of the hometown team is needed. But so is your self-control.”Yelling, screaming and berating the officials humiliates your child, annoys those sitting around you, embarrasses your child’s school and is the primary reason (there is) an alarming shortage of high school officials.”

Added Kentucky High School Athletic Association Commissioner Julian Tackett, “This is a game played by imperfect humans, coached by imperfect humans and officiated by imperfect humans. I don’t know if it’s the higher levels’ insatiable desire for perfection through replays and announcers who think they know everything or the tone and tenor of general conversation in our country, but this cannot be allowed to continue in this level of sport and this level be maintained.”

Here is a link to the complete article

protecting-the-game–fan-behavior-leads-to-shortage-of-referees-in-high-school-sports.htm

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JP Murrieta