Whistling While They Work : Referees Face Criticism for Lack of Quality

They’re subject to boos, hisses and screams.

High school basketball referees, expected to make split-second decisions and judgment calls that have an effect on the game’s outcome, always seem to be in the spotlight in critical situations. And in many ways, they are in no-win situations.

But in Orange County, the plight of the basketball official has taken on new dimensions. Not only are they verbally attacked while working, referees are now being criticized by coaches for an overall lack of quality.

When seven high school basketball coaches were asked to rate the quality of Orange County officiating on a scale of 1-10, the responses ranged from a high of 7 to a low of 3.

Sunny Hills Coach Steve White said, “If anybody rates the officials a 10, let me know. I could use them anytime.”

Laguna Hills Coach John Moore quipped, “Good refs are like good cops . . . they’re far and few between.”

Sonora Coach Paul Bottiaux contends there is a group of 10 to 20 who control the Orange County Basketball Officials Assn. and discourage an influx of younger referees--who are perhaps equally qualified --from getting a chance to officiate games.

“The quality of officiating is getting worse all the time,” Foothill Coach Jim Reames said. “There are no fresh faces and no young officials coming up. The same people are at the same games they officiated 10 years ago and they’re the ones running the show.”

“Historically,” said Fountain Valley’s 18-year veteran Coach Dave Brown, “it’s been hard for younger officials to move and get established. A lot of the prominent refs are the same ones who were working the big games 10-15 years ago.”

Dean Crowley, president of the Southern California Basketball Officials Assn., agrees that younger officials must face a pecking order.

“Yes, it’s hard for young officials to get in,” he said. “We’re losing officials in their third or fourth year because they’re discouraged by not getting varsity games.”

Aspiring officials must serve a three-year probationary period on the freshman-sophomore level and then generally another two years of evaluation in junior varsity play for approval. After five years, a referee then becomes certified and is eligible for varsity games.

“I can remember going through my approval period and telling an evaluator I would give him my game fee if he would come out and evaluate me,” said John Keating a veteran official who once coached at Los Amigos High School. “He did and the next year I started getting varsity games. I know how some of the younger guys feel.

“Three years ago, I felt I wasn’t moving up in the men’s college game. There’s a lot of politics involved and I didn’t play the game. So, I pursued women’s college basketball and now 80% of the college games I do are women’s games.”

Larry Arason, who has officiated for nearly 35 years, also denies that a clique controls the scheduling of games.

“I go to all the meetings and I honestly don’t think there is one because there are so many games and only so many certified officials,” he said.

“As far as seeing the same faces in the big games, I think the principals feel comfortable seeing the familiar faces. In the last two years, I’ve heard two guys complain that they weren’t getting varsity games, and they weren’t worthy of varsity games.”

But because of this situation, Fountain Valley’s Brown is concerned about the future of officiating, pointing out that many of the best officials are in the 45-55 year-old age bracket.

“What’s going to happen in 10 years?” he asked. “So many younger refs are getting discouraged because they’re not moving up. I don’t see the depth. What happens when the older guys retire?

“The organization thinks it is addressing the problems, but they’re not. They keep coming up with the same answers. Perhaps the athletic directors and principals need to get more involved.”

Conflicting schedules with junior college and college games is another reason the ranks of quality officials have been depleated. An official earns $29 for a varsity prep game, but can earn much more at the junior college and college levels.

“I’d estimate we have 40-45 super officials in the county and we lost 22 of them because boys games are conflicting with women’s JC games this year,” said Jack Robinson, who schedules Orange County officials. “They pay $39. Then, there’s the colleges. I did a UC Riverside women’s game the other night for $85. Do you think I’m going to turn that down for a prep game?

Robinson says the low pay scale discourages many potential officials. Referees have received a $1 pay raise each season for the past four years.

The good officials supplement their incomes elsewhere and create more problems on the prep level. Robinson said cancellations and switching of officials’ assignments are common. Coaches insist the moves are creating no-shows and damaging the game’s integrity.

“We had a game with Corona del Mar this year and had only one ref show up for the JV game and then one ref show up for the varsity,” Laguna Hills Coach John Moore said. “There is no excuse for that. No one can debate that.”

Robinson said cancellations were a major problem three years ago with 50 reported incidents, but only three incidents have occurred this season.

“I assigned 4,200 boys and girls basketball games this year,” he said. “I’ll bet I get 40 cancellations a day. I get more cancellations and switches in basketball than all the other 17 sports combined.

“I’ll make 3,000 assignments in football, and I’ll hardly get any changes. Most of the problems with no-shows are rookie officials. The attrition rate of the rookie class is almost 50% by the end of the season.”

Reames never has had a problem with an official canceling, but said some of the good ones who are assigned his games act as if they are doing him a favor.

“You talk to some of the refs before a game and they’ll tell you how they did a WAC game the night before and are flying up to Stanford for a game on Saturday afternoon,” he said. “Some have tremendous egos. I don’t want to hear about their travels in the basketball world.”

Said Brown: “The image of the county refs is not very good outside of the county,” he said. “A lot of outside teams come to Orange County for tournaments. They’ve heard the innuendoes and rumors of the refs being homers. They’re very skeptical.”

But Crowley, who also serves as an administrative assistant in the CIF Southern Section office, disagrees.

“Orange County officials have a very good reputation,” he said. “The county has high quality officials and that’s proven by how many of them are in the Pac-10, PCAA and other major college conferences.

“They’re as good, if not better, than any other area’s officials with a dedicated group of individuals. That’s a myth that non-county coaches don’t like county refs.”

Perhaps the image problems stems from the fact Orange County coaches are difficult to please.

Savanna’s Tom Gregory rated the quality of officiating as average. “You either have good officials or poor ones, there never seems to be anyone in-between. I recognize it’s a tough job. If I was a ref and got a coach like myself on the sidelines, I’d throw him out of the gym.”

Sonora’s Bottiaux: “I’d estimate that 80% of the officials are good. They’re fair to both teams, know the rules and you know you’re going to get a decent shake. It’s the other 20% that give the profession a bad name.”