Verbal abuse, COVID, low pay: Why local sports are having a hard time finding referees

It used to be the exception: a high school athletics event operating with just one umpire or referee.

Now it’s become a norm, at least on the sub-varsity level. There simply are not enough umpires and referees to go around. This has left athletics directors scrambling to just schedule and reschedule games and many junior varsity and freshman teams playing their games with the one official.

The cause of the dearth of game officials? Fall River’s Joe Argo, a longtime softball, basketball (both genders) and softball referee and an officials event assignor in field hockey and softball, mentioned several factors: The time/money. The verbal abuse from fans and coaches. COVID concerns. And a general lack of people wanting to work, or work a little extra. “People don’t seem to have the fire in their bellies,” he said. “I’m not sure what the future is.”

“It’s crazy. There’s just not enough people, every sport,” said Mark Ottavianelli, director of athletics at Taunton High School and a former baseball basketball and field hockey game official. “In baseball, we’re seeing a lot of one-person games. In softball, we’re seeing a lot of one-person games. In basketball, we saw refs doubling up on freshman and jayvee games.”

Hey, ref, &$#%!@?!!!: Verbal abuse contributes to alarming shortage of high school officials.

Rescheduling games a challenge

It used to be, New Bedford High athletics director Tom Tarpey noted, that when a game had to be rescheduled (usually due to weather), the date and time was agreed upon by the two schools, and then the game officials assignor and bus companies — who are also staffing challenged — were notified. “Now we call the officials first, and the bus companies,” he said. “It kind of works in reverse than it used to be.”

Tarpey said that for this spring, New Bedford High has rescheduled all of its girls’ lacrosse games for 7 p.m. This allows them to use officials who are working a 4 p.m. at another school locally the same day.

“It’s definitely tough,” said Brad Bustin, athletics director at B.M.C. Durfee High School in Fall River. “If we ever had to reschedule games due to weather or whatever, we just did it. Now we have to check and see if we can get official first before we make any changes.”

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Higher pay, relaxed standards

The varsity event pay set by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association ranges from a high of $100 for football varsity to $83 for cross country, the sub-varsity fees from $68 for volleyball to $75 for football. That pay can look good for an assignment that does not require much traveling and, perhaps, includes two comparatively short games, such as a field hockey jayvee-varsity double-header. But the travel is not always ultra-local and non-clock games, Argo said, can easily create a work day of four to five hours.

(A complete list of fees is listed on pages 104-106 of the downloadable Handbook on miaa.net.)

Argo, who assigns game officials for 55 schools from Wrentham to Nantucket, has always expected his umpires-referees to be at the game site, properly dressed, at least a half-hour before the scheduled start time. He admittedly and sadly says he has to reluctantly relax his standards of dress and punctuality and ability just to provide today’s short-staffing. It’s a situation that saddens the 74-year-old retired Fall River Public Schools teacher who has been officiating for 50 years.

Concerning the pay, Argo asked how many people would be excited about working a varsity softball game on Nantucket, where the travel can make a 10-hour work day. There is also the travel expense to and from the ferry. He has somehow been able to find people loyal enough to him to accept such non-plum assignments.

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What needs to change?

He also said that as long as the officials shortage exists, schools need to be more flexible with their scheduling. Many leagues, he said, like to adhere to Monday-Wednesday-Friday scheduling. They need to be willing to deviate from that policy, he said

Ideally, boards of officials would be regularly undergoing transfusions, with men and women in their 20s and 30s joining the ranks. But that’s not what boards are seeing. Argo said his board meetings are more and more dominated by male gray-hairs. And he doesn’t see that improving, not unless fees are increased and folks involved in high school athletics “start to knock on doors” to recruit new officials.

For softball, Argo said, he has about 80 umpires, and more than a few of those have limited to availability. Fall and spring sports include many afternoon games, which conflicts with professional and family obligations. His ideal number of working officials is 110, two for each school. With the officiating roster so overloaded with older males, injuries can easily sideline eight to 10 refs/umps per season, he said. Some of his game officials who stopped working due to COVID have chosen not to return to the field.

Argo said he would like to see more females join the umpiring and refereeing ranks, especially for girls’ sports like field hockey and softball. While girls’ sports have grown in popularity, the number female officials remains low. He said the eyes of field hockey and softball coaches “light up” when they see a female official working their games. They just don’t light up that often. Argo has only five females currently umping softball.

“It’s disappointing,” he said, “because that’s their sport.”

Argo suspects verbal abuse and even physical intimidation (intentional and unintentional) game/event officials have had to endure has helped limit the number of officials overall and, possibly, especially limited the number of females.

High school softball umpires often work summer girls’ games, both leagues and travel. Argo recalled a summer recreational league game when a female umpire had to deal with an irate coach who disagreed with a call. “The coach started yelling at her,” Argo said. “She felt threatened. Some guy 6-foot-4 comes running at her.”

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How coaches and fans can help

Local athletics directors agree that the times have changed, and fans and coaches need to change with them.

“Now the responsibility is on us as adults,” Ottavianelli said. “We’ve got to act the right way, too. We need to do a better job with the game management piece.”

Tarpey concurs. He said treating game officials with respect is a must at New Bedford High athletics events, with responsibility on coaches, players and fans. The message being sent out is simple: If you disagree with an official’s call, deal with it maturely. Translation: Keep your mouth shut. Or at least keep the volume way down.

“My coaches now know, don’t complain about the officials,” Tarpey said. “We’re lucky to have them there. We’re right on it with the coaches (and) with the parents, me and my staff.”

“I think all ADs are highly aware of the situation,” Bustin said. “We try to be proactive and incorporate game management strategies to help limit the issues.”

Ottavianelli said he tips his cap to all the assignors for their extraordinary efforts. He gives a double cap tip to the group that most impacted by the inconveniences, the schedule changes, the one-official events.

“The most important group is the kids,” he said, “how they’ve adjusted to everything.”

Anyone interested becoming a high school game/event official should visit Game Official Board Presidents & Secretaries – MIAA by clicking the officials tab on miaa.net.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Taunton, New Bedford, Fall River athletic directors on referee shortage