I never miss the opportunity to rib my good buddy, Bleeding Navy. So I'll give him a break on the knitting class this weekend!
But, as he stated, high school officials face an almost insurmountable task.
We have all seen coaches, spectators, and especially parents go nuts at officials. For sure, sometimes they miss a call. But what has happened to civility? Virtually every official will respond appropriately to a question asked properly. But, come at them in a verbal or threatening manner and you will at best get ignored, or at worst be dealt with by authorities.
We all complain sometimes about the quality of officiating. Well guess what, harrasment constantly shrinks the pool of available officials. Officials associations are at dangerously low numbers already. It's mighty hard for them to cull marginally good members. Driving people away from the profession with endless critisim is not going to fix the problem.
We all need to be part of the solution. Not only do we personally need to be a bit more restrained, we need not agree with fellow fans as they launch verbal abuse at officials. In fact, within reason, we need to actively act to suppress such abuse.
