Solutions Brought Forward In Youth Sport Officiating Crisis
Specific solutions are key in turning this crisis around.
Welcome to edition 197 of The Physical Movement (TPM).
The Physical Movement documented the officiating crisis in edition 179 from November of 2022. The stats and situations are appalling. TPM will continue to bring forth solutions.
Without officials we have no youth sport.
Awareness of the problem and solutions are key in addressing them.
Recently, I found an article put out by Sport Information Resource Center (SIRC) further documenting the problem.
The article not only documents the issue but proposes some strong initiatives brought forward by one provincial sport organization that is worth exploring.
The Canadian sport system is experiencing a steep decline in number of match officials due to a combination of factors including abuse, lack of support from organizations, and lack of compensation
In this article, officials from various sports across the country share their perspectives on the officiating crisis, including potential solutions such as education programs for parents and spectators, signage, and mentorship programs for officials
Parents in particular play a key role in modelling appropriate sideline behavior, but are often part of the problem
Solutions proposed by Sport Manitoba
There are existing programs that seek to address officiating abuse, but there’s still a long way to improve the number and experiences of sport officials in Canada.
For example, you may have seen first-year officials or referees under the age of 18 wearing a colored armband or shirt to identify them as “in-training.” While it’s a good idea to try and protect vulnerable officials, initiatives like these can have unintended consequences.
“Europe’s been doing that for a couple of years now, and what they seem to be finding is that it lessens the abuse a little bit toward minors, but it’s increasing abuse for other people,” Professor David Hancock explains (Hancock is a professor in the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation at Memorial University who studies sport officials). “If you’re 18 plus a day, you don’t get to wear the green armband anymore. And now your abuse is a little higher than it would have been before the program was in place.”
Here in Canada, Sport Manitoba initiated a “No Ref, No Game” campaign in 2020 to draw attention to maltreatment of officials. The campaign gained traction, with many media outlets reaching out, interested in spreading the word about the need to respect match officials. In 2021, Sport Manitoba pivoted the #NoRefNoGame campaign to focus on recruitment of officials.
Signage around fields, courts, and rinks, reminding patrons to be respectful of match officials is also helpful. In engagement sessions for the Canadian Sport Policy renewal, officials also suggested the creation of a National Officials Association, like the Coaching Association of Canada, to provide a singular hub for support, training, and information.
Many officials point to coaches, alongside parents, as key players in combatting abuse of officials.
“Back when I played high school hockey, decades ago, I had a coach who told us, ‘You say nothing to the referee other than, ‘hey, how’s it going?’” Hancock says. “If you were rude to the ref, you sat the rest of the game. None of us ever complained. We need coaches to take leadership on this to change the culture.”
Hancock often does workshops with athletes as well: “I ask them, ‘How many mistakes does your team make per game?’ And they say, ‘I don’t know, maybe 50?’ And then I ask them, ‘How many does the referee make?’ If the ref is having a really bad game, it’s maybe 10. So don’t hyperfocus on that one person’s set of mistakes more than your own team’s.”
Many organizations have codes of conduct already, but the problem is usually with enforcement, or lack of clarity regarding exactly what crosses the line into the range of the unacceptable. Having representatives from sport organizations attend events and reprimand abusive spectators could be helpful, but again, volunteer-run organizations are already stretched thin on human resources.
“Look at the Safe Sport push that we’re in and all the training that people have to undergo to be a coach or official that works with youth,” Rhonda Pauls, Executive Director of Baseball PEI notes. “The need for a safe sport environment for officials, including but not limited to youth officials, hasn’t been emphasized.”
The bottom line is that sport organizations, parents, coaches, and athletes need to work together with officials to address abuse.
As basketball official and former Manager of Officials for Basketball BC, Brooke Briscoe described it:
“The decline in officiating numbers isn’t an officials problem. It’s a sport culture problem.”
And unfortunately, the problem is only going to get worse. According to a survey of officials by Officially Human (2022), a U.S.-based organization dedicated to ensuring respect and positive treatment of sport officials, 50% of officials are 55 years or older, and only 12% are under 34 years old. In addition, 45% report that they have less than 6 years of officiating remaining.
While these numbers are American, Hancock cautions that Canada is in a similar situation: “We’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg here.”
As Sport Manitoba’s “No Ref No Game” campaign encapsulates, match officials are crucial for the Canadian sport system to operate. Sport organizations, parents, athletes and spectators will put their own sporting experiences at risk if they fail to address the issues that match officials face with regard to abuse, support, and compensation.