by mocopdx (2024-04-15 13:17:58)
In reply to: oh man, you'd be surprised posted by jt
Doing soccer and baseball refereeing on the weekends for youth leagues. I thought it would be fun more than anything, don't really need the cash per se. Then I read some stuff from people who had done it, and it sounds like a potential nightmare. A lot of psycho parents treat the refs/umps like they're calling game 7 of the World Series. What is wrong with these people?
I've seen umpires getting in fist fights during youth tournaments, sometimes on the field, sometimes out by the cars between games, and sometimes at the officials table for the tournament. Just a few weeks ago in Phoenix at a high school event the field umpire screamed at the home plate umpire for daring to make a call on a foul ball down the line ("THAT'S MY CALL, PUT YOUR DAMN HANDS DOWN!"). And basketball is simply ridiculous; I've seen refs start brawls with coaches and players; just some totally out of control shit. The overall quality of officiating is a real problem.
Now, at the younger levels these guys do take a lot of unnecessary shit from people who don't know what they're talking about. And they certainly don't get paid enough for that sort of crap, that's for certain.
few years. Not sure where it's all coming from, especially from 4th grade refs. I've seen refs vs refs, refs vs coaches, and one ref who had to be restrained from fighting a player (would have been a 7th grader). It's out of control, and I'm not really sure where it's coming from.
I used to teach a free parents' class so they could be better fans and better fencing parents.
It's always so funny when a parent argues a call in an 8yo fencing bout when it's obvious they don't know diddley about the sport.
Except for the most critical matches at the highest levels, there are no officials. The kids make the calls themselves. So all of the assholery that idiot parents would normally be directing at an official is instead directed at the opposing child him or herself. And given the nature of the sport, the potential for close calls is constant.
In an environment full of little twerps, the rules are relatively black and white. You'd get the occasional kid that tried to cheat, get a bad drop, etc., but forty-nine times out of fifty the kid either A) wasn't very good or B) had a "ball don't lie" situation and screwed up the next shot anyway. That the sport is basically you against the course rather than you against another player directly helps a lot in this, I think.
I actually mostly had pretty good experiences with parents in basketball (my other main sport as a kid and high schooler). I think it was some combination of 1) the background of most of the kids playing and 2) that the elite truly and totally start to separate themselves by about age 12 or 13 that maybe lead to better behaving parents. A future NBA Hall of Famer didn't need much help with the whistle with little 5'0", 90 lbs 12 year old Wilford and his team mates trying to guard him.
Baseball was truly horrific. Nothing better than a bunch of rednecks arguing with a high school-aged ump on balls and strikes.
I only played competitively at the HS level (also coached for like 6-7 years) and it's brutal the amount of calls that kids hook each other on. My team was guilty of it as well and then I had to stand on the court and verify calls instead of trolling the fans for hot single moms.
I was amazed at not only my lack of success with the moms but how many kids would still try to cheat when a coach was out there watching lines.