A few weeks ago I wrote about fans behaving badly at high school games. As I noted, it seems to have gotten worse in recent years, which is a big reason there’s a shortage of officials. And due to that shortage, many believe the quality of officiating has suffered. And that only feeds into the vicious cycle.
I can understand how fans become frustrated at officials. There are plenty of competent people working the whistle in this state, but I have covered many games in which the officiating is objectively bad.
Just last week, at the state basketball championships in Jackson, there was a girls game that saw each team get called for 22 fouls. That led to 49 combined free throws, and it absolutely killed the game flow. Many of the fouls were ticky-tack stuff, and a few were straight-up phantom fouls. Several starters got in foul trouble for both teams, and had it been a closer game, the poor officiating’s impact would have been monumental.
On the other end of the spectrum, there was a Class 7A boys games that was very physical, and the officials let them play. Each team was called for 16 fouls, and there were just 17 combined free throws. Don’t know about you, but I’d rather see officials err in that direction than the other. Calling unnecessary fouls can take players out of their game and change the way they defend. Few things can ruin a perfectly good basketball game more than heavy-handed officiating.
What we all ultimately want, of course, is for the officiating to be fair. We know it’s a tough and often thankless job, and mistakes will be made, but the most respected officials are those who can fairly adjudicate games on a consistent basis. We need more of those, but that is going to require patience on the part of fans. Because there are a lot of young officials working right now, and the fact is, they’re not going to be as good as someone who’s been doing it for 20 or 30 years. So they need some grace. I understand that can be a tough thing to offer when your kid fouls out late in a crucial game, but just remember that you’re a grown-up and you know how to act like one.
It’s like they say: If you think you could do a better job, then by all means, grab a whistle and sign up. Or encourage a friend you believe would be good at it to sign up. Seriously. Let’s become part of the solution.
Brad Locke is a senior sports writer for the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.
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