Chokeholds, death threats and bodyslams: The crisis facing AAU referees and travel umpires

Muda69 · August 9, 2022

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2022/08/09/travel-ball-officials-the-crisis-facing-aau-referees-umpires/65386081007/

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No one likes you. You know it from the minute you get out of your car and walk onto the field or into the fieldhouse.

Sure, there are the obligatory pregame handshakes and smiles, but you know what you’re in for. Both coaches feel like you’re against them. The players think you’re just getting in their way. The fans? Don’t think about them too much. At best, you’ll shudder. At worst, you might just go back to your car and drive home.

It’s all a bit ironic. The goal is to not be noticed. In a perfect world, you show up, call your game, leave and collect your paycheck.

The reality for travel baseball umpires and AAU basketball referees is vastly different. The arbiters, who are supposed to be invisible, keep finding the spotlight. And it’s creating a crisis.

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But lose enough umpires and referees, and you start losing games. The Charlie Hughes Shootout, an annual summer tournament in Indianapolis that featured more than 100 high school teams in 2021, had some games during this year’s event covered by just one official — despite numerous pleas for referees to participate. If that trend continues, the number of teams allowed to participate could dwindle.

“That's some of the best basketball in the state,” Arnold said. “When I was growing up with events like that, we would beg to get assigned to those. Now, assigners are having to do the begging just to get guys to work.”

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So much happens that you don’t see. So much is said that fans don’t think is heard.

They’re wrong.

“A majority of them are cowards,” said Antoine Ross, who’s been an umpire for 12 years with Bullpen. “They're not gonna say it to your face too many times. They think you don't hear it, but we hear everything.”

Ross hears things like this: A spectator in his 60s who made a comment within Ross’ earshot, saying, “What does he know about baseball? He's black.’”

After a game, a parent walked up to Ross and threatened him.

“He was saying, ‘I’ll do this to you. I'll do that. I’ll meet you in the parking lot,’” Ross recalled. “He had some choice words that he was using — a couple N words, a couple B words.

“They’ve got to understand I'm a grown man. You don't threaten me. You're not gonna walk all over me. Your kids are right there. Anytime a kid has apologized for his parents actions, it’s gone too far.”

Maudlin is unique, at least among umpires — he’s young. He’s been umpiring for six years, and he’s only 22. A concussion meant his playing days were over, but his love for the game still burned inside. He took up umpiring.

Was he prepared for what he’d experience?

“I had no idea going in,” he said.

Three years ago during a game, he ejected both coaches. After the game, a parent approached Maudlin.

“He thought he’d take it in his own hands to tell me how bad I was,” Maudlin said. “I walked away. He chased me and started to put his hands around my throat.”

Other umpires intervened, picking the parent up and pulling him away. The police were called.

Another time, he and another umpire were followed to their cars by fans. Maudlin was going to a hotel. His partner was going home.

“It's so frightening,” he said. “For me it wasn't as bad because I wasn't going to my permanent residence. But for him, he's like, ‘These people could follow me and come back another night and do something to my house or wife or kid.”

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Money talks, and it’s wreaking havoc.

The travel sports scene is a booming industry. It can cost thousands of dollars for a parent to have their son or daughter play on a travel sports team. It can cost thousands for a team to enter a tournament. Some say that expense means coaches and fans think they have a free pass.

“These people pay a lot of money (to play in tournaments) and they feel that that gives them the right to yell and scream at officials,” Bates said. “There's no accountability for these parents at these events. The people running the tournaments don't want to kick them out, because that's their cash cow. These tournament directors are making money at these tournaments. If they have officials throwing fans out, then these people are not going to pay and your tournament gets a bad reputation.”

If coaches get thrown out of games, or if their fans get thrown out, they might not come back next year.

“In order to keep teams playing you’ve got to appease these teams,” said Tony Saviano, who’s been umpiring for 25 years. “There's sort of a fine line we've got to walk.”

Heath Hayes, president of the Wabash Valley Officials Administration, said coaches consistently threaten tournament directors after they’ve been ejected.

“‘If you don’t let me back in, I’m not bringing my team back,’” they say.

On the flip side, officials say they are chronically underpaid — and it’s causing some to walk away.

The IHSAA told IndyStar that its officials are paid between $60-$120 for regular-season games, and up to $110 for a state championship game. Most AAU basketball referees and travel baseball referees make less than $40 per game. When you add in the cost of gas money and food, the profit is minimal unless an official is covering numerous games in a day or weekend.

Whether you’ve been an official for 50 years or five minutes, everyone makes the same at each event (the magnitude and prestige of the event can dictate how much officials make, but most officials IndyStar spoke with said they generally top out at $40 per game).

“If you're a guy that's been working for 20 years and you're looking across the way at the guy that's worked for 20 minutes, some of these guys are going, ‘I don't know if I like this,’” Arnold said.

Hibler said Bullpen pays its umpires $60 per game to umpire at the youth level and $70 per game to umpire at the high school level. The rates used to be $45 and $55, respectively. He said, “I think that number will continue to increase.”

Shields, who handled assigning officials for the Charlie Hughes Shootout this year, said the referee shortage will cause the tournament to pay more per game moving forward.

More money for officials means less profit for directors, venues and organizations.

“Last weekend, I assigned close to 500 games,” Arnold said. “If everybody gets a $5 raise, you're talking $6,000-$7,000 right out of the gate. It’s not as easy as it sounds. That adds up really fast.”

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Plenty have given up. Hayes doesn’t do travel games anymore, because “that’s where the stupid happens.”

“I don’t do youth stuff,” he said. “It’s not worth it.”

Some just officiate IHSAA games. Data from the organization shows that while the number of football, basketball and baseball officials has decreased by 25% between the 2015-2016 and 2021-2022 seasons, numbers are not in a rapid decline.

Others have been scared off. Saviano was training a young umpire who he said was “very good.” He didn’t last long.

“It took one coach to go off on him for him to say, ‘I don't want to do this anymore,’” he said.

Mike Albert, who lives in Westville, is 64 and still going strong. His son was a catcher in high school. He occasionally brought up the idea of umpiring to his son.

“I said, ‘Little league games are good money for the summertime,’” Albert said. “He was adamant that he didn't want anything to do with it. A lot of kids feel that way.”

Some of the impact might be generational.

“These kids say, ‘Nah, I don’t get paid enough for this’ or ‘I saw how my dad treated referees. There’s no way I’m doing that,’” Hayes said.

Yet there are those who remain. Plenty have thought about walking away, because the abuse is so constant and the monetary reward so little. But something keeps them coming back.

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