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Referees trapped after game


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https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/football-referees-trapped-in-locker-room-door-blocked-with-vending-machine-file-charges/

It is already hard enough to get officials. Sounds like an assistant coach and a couple of students may be the guilty party. I have had my share of "conversations" with umps and referees over the years but always left it on the field. There is no place in sports for this behavior.

 

Edited by Offintheyard
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30 minutes ago, Offintheyard said:

https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/football-referees-trapped-in-locker-room-door-blocked-with-vending-machine-file-charges/

It is already hard enough to get officials. Sounds like an assistant coach and a couple of students may be the guilty party. I have had my share of "conversations" with umps and referees over the years but always left it on the field. There is no place in sports for this behavior.

 

I’m glad they’re pressing charges.  That is inexcusable.

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Pardon my French, but have people lost their f***ing minds?

What makes someone think that, over a game, they have the right to accost someone much less detain them?

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In another sport, my oldest ended up as an All-State player, HS All-American and later played in college.

He picked up his official’s license and officiated his first game his Senior year in HS - a 5/6th grade game.

After, the abuse hurled at him by parents and one particular coach (who was and is a HS coach to this day), he never officiated another game again.  
 

I hope they sue the pants off that school and anyone involved is separated permanently from the sport.  There is no excuse for that.

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13 minutes ago, Lysander said:

In another sport, my oldest ended up as an All-State player, HS All-American and later played in college.

He picked up his official’s license and officiated his first game his Senior year in HS - a 5/6th grade game.

After, the abuse hurled at him by parents and one particular coach (who was and is a HS coach to this day), he never officiated another game again.  
 

I hope they sue the pants off that school and anyone involved is separated permanently from the sport.  There is no excuse for that.

I always find it deplorable the way that people, and parents in particular, seem to go after younger refs, in youth sports.  When done right, youth sports are a great training ground for upcoming refs.  It's a great opportunity for education for players as well as refs.  When I coached in Little Gridiron, we often had more experienced refs ... the league paid the money to hire Friday-night refs and often those experienced refs would bring newer refs with them and would enhance their training during the games.  Things such as the communication signs, how to talk to the chain crew, and even simple things like halting the game for a minute to explain to a kid and/or the coaches why a particular call was made and how to avoid that in the future.

Baseball is perhaps the worst place that I've seen officials, especially young officials, berated.  The parents are really close and, apparently, believe that their tournament entry fee also makes them members of the officiating crew.  Having coached youth sports for over a couple of decades across two different sports, I very much understand and appreciate the role of officials in the games and experience and especially how touch it is for newer/younger refs.  As a parent at baseball games, I try to tell the umps thanks after/between games when I see them at the fields or concession stands or in the parking lots.  For the younger refs, I also try to toss in some encouragement, even if they struggled.  I also make it a point, if I see the tournament supervisors or officials supervisors walking around, to tell them about the good job that their younger officials are doing.  We are facing a crisis with the population of officials getting tighter and the last thing that we should be doing is running off the folks who are interested at an early age in being a big part of it.

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6 hours ago, PHJIrish said:

One game suspension is way too lenient for this kind of behavior!  A few days in the slammer would be more appropriate.

You know, this sort of thing comes at a tricky time. Don’t think officials are not closely monitoring what comes next in situations like these. And by a “tricky time,” I mean the continuing shortages has given officials huge power … that they have shown no inclination to use … yet. But officials have a scarce resource that is much in demand. If the local officiating association refused to work games at that school until certain measures relating to officials’ safety and security were implemented, it’s not like the school can just go out and hire replacements. Beware waking the sleeping giant.

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3 hours ago, Bobref said:

You know, this sort of thing comes at a tricky time. Don’t think officials are not closely monitoring what comes next in situations like these. And by a “tricky time,” I mean the continuing shortages has given officials huge power … that they have shown no inclination to use … yet. But officials have a scarce resource that is much in demand. If the local officiating association refused to work games at that school until certain measures relating to officials’ safety and security were implemented, it’s not like the school can just go out and hire replacements. Beware waking the sleeping giant.

And officials aren’t smart enough to realize all this. 

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10 hours ago, Impartial_Observer said:

And officials aren’t smart enough to realize all this. 

I think rather than not being smart, officials are still clinging to the idea that they have an obligation to the kids … and to the game. But the numbers of officials are so low that there is no safety margin. It would only take 15-20% of the football officials in the state to say that they were not going to work unless — fill in the blank: pay is increased, or certain security measures are implemented, or the manner in which officials are selected for the tournament is changed, or we get to use pink beanbags, or whatever — to bring the system to a crashing halt, and require lots of rescheduling.

Let me be clear. I’m not advocating that officials unionize, or engage in some sort of job action. But the powers that be ignore the possibility at their own peril.

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1 hour ago, Bobref said:

I think rather than not being smart, officials are still clinging to the idea that they have an obligation to the kids … and to the game. But the numbers of officials are so low that there is no safety margin. It would only take 15-20% of the football officials in the state to say that they were not going to work unless — fill in the blank: pay is increased, or certain security measures are implemented, or the manner in which officials are selected for the tournament is changed, or we get to use pink beanbags, or whatever — to bring the system to a crashing halt, and require lots of rescheduling.

Let me be clear. I’m not advocating that officials unionize, or engage in some sort of job action. But the powers that be ignore the possibility at their own peril.

I agree, but look at Lee County FL last year. To be honest I’m not sure how it turned out ultimately. 
I agree 100% if officials were to act, it’s the kids who ultimately suffer, and at the end of the day, that’s why we’re ALL here. 
I will also say I’m a lot more selective choosing assignments. 

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7 minutes ago, Impartial_Observer said:

I agree, but look at Lee County FL last year. To be honest I’m not sure how it turned out ultimately. 
I agree 100% if officials were to act, it’s the kids who ultimately suffer, and at the end of the day, that’s why we’re ALL here. 
I will also say I’m a lot more selective choosing assignments. 

Florida was a different situation. There schools/conferences contract with local associations and those associations are responsible for assigning games. The association involved refused to work so the schools/conference hired a different association. I assume the other association had enough officials to cover those games, but I do believe the original issue was resolved and they went back to their original arrangement. In Indiana schools contract directly with individual crews on a weekly basis. If there was any organized refusal to work games or just a natural loss of official availability the schools would be limited to the pool they are already pulling from.

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38 minutes ago, JustRules said:

In Indiana schools contract directly with individual crews on a weekly basis. If there was any organized refusal to work games or just a natural loss of official availability the schools would be limited to the pool they are already pulling from.

This is the key difference. In Fla., the schools were able to replace one group of officials with another. Neither the number of games, nor the number of officials available to work changed at all. But, if you suddenly removed 10% of the licensed officials from the available pool, there’s no one to replace them.

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I would hope that a patient investigation is processed and those responsible are held up for all to see.  As Bob said, high school officials do what they love for more than just money.  We aren't perfect.  Same goes for coaches and players.  When I step on a campus, I expect civil behavior and a modicum of respect.  I don't necessarily expect everyone to be happy with a call that goes against their side - but I expect civility (maybe even loud civility) LOL.

I also don't expect anyone to encroach on the private space of the referees' locker room either.

Echoing the sentiment of everyone else here ...  "what are people thinking?" 

 

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