Bad fan behavior is not acceptable

Without officials, there is no contest. Without officials, there is no season. Without officials, there is no program.

There is a shortage of people who want to don the stripes. From
discussions with basketball officials and athletic directors over the last week, numbers certainly aren’t dwindling because of a lack of love for the game.

We’ve all seen opinion pieces or articles on social media or elsewhere regarding poor parent/fan behavior at sporting events, ranging from peewee to high school.

People read these opinion pieces, they often agree with them, they may share them, but then they move on and the piece fades away and the problem continues.

We can go back to early 2019 when an open letter to parents was posted on the Wyoming High School Activities Association website that I had hoped would have a little more impact on fan behavior.

The letter was written by Karissa Niehoff, the executive director of the National Federation of State High School Associations in conjunction with Ron Laird, our commissioner of WHSAA, and it was addressed to parents and fans of high school athletes regarding their behavior
toward officials.

The gist of the letter was that fan behavior that is abusive toward officials is not acceptable, and that such behavior needs to stop.

While cheering for and supporting your child and his or her team is encouraged by the authors, the two admonish parents for poor behavior in the stands.

“Your passion is admired, and your support of the hometown team is needed. But so is your self-control. Yelling, screaming and berating the officials humiliates your child, annoys those sitting around you, embarrasses your child’s school, and is the primary reason Wyoming has an alarming shortage of high school officials.”

We’ve all seen, and maybe have been, that parent. I understand that emotions run high when you’re watching your child play. I’ve been there and done that.

I’ve been guilty of riding officials, both as a coach and as a parent. I’ve shared with them my opinion of where they went wrong with a call and how they should fix it going forward.

I’ve also reiterated many times that there is not enough money to get me to put on those stripes and officiate a basketball game, because I know it is a thankless job.

Not only that, but there’s not a lot of jobs that people would sign up for where people loudly, and without restraint, call you horrible names, insult your intelligence and your character, and even threaten you with physical violence.

And it’s all over a game.

Niehoff and Laird stated that 75% of all high school officials identify adult behavior as the primary reason for hanging up their whistle. Unfortunately, if we can’t hang on to and continue to recruit officials, the future of high school sports is precarious.

Without officials, there will be no games.

I’ve heard tales of an adult yelling at a 12-year-old volunteer official at a soccer game. Even after he was admonished by the parents around him, he continued to harass the child.

That adult is the “poster child” for what parents should not do at any sporting event if we want to be able to continue to enjoy youth sports in the future.

Though some schools have begun to develop mentorship programs for high school youth to start officiating middle school games, Newcastle has opted not to go down that road because they do not want to subject the kids to the behavior of coaches and fans. Even varsity officials seem reluctant to put kids into that situation at such a young age.

That is very telling of how bad it has gotten, and is also very sad that adults can’t control themselves even at middle school games.

Parents and fans need to seriously consider their behavior, because it’s 2024 and the official shortage still continues.