Torment of Officials Takes a Physical Turn

Several years ago, during a high school football game in Tennessee, the father of a player ran onto the field and attacked the referee, knocking him to the ground with one punch and then turning his face into a bloody mess with several more punches.

More recently in Tennessee, high school sports officials have been shot at during games and have suffered broken bones during attacks by players and fans.

Surely such things couldn’t happen in a place such as the San Fernando Valley.

Surely the same people who have learned to live with larynx-constricting, eye-burning, yellow and brown air by simply referring to it as haze aren’t going to lose their minds over children’s games.

Well, don’t tell that to Brad Woolley of Van Nuys. He might have believed that before Palmdale High’s Darius Wilson lifted him off of his feet during a football game this season, slammed him into the dirt and then pounced on him. But today, he knows better.

And don’t talk to softball umpire Bryan Rodgers about laid-back L. A., not after he was laid back a year ago by a bat-swinging player who attacked him and put him in the hospital because of a call he made against the man’s city league slow-pitch softball team.

And please don’t waste your breath on a 37-year-old football official from San Fernando who was attacked and beaten last year by the brother of a player during a Pop Warner game involving teams of 13-year-old kids. The 15-year veteran of sports officiating is so afraid of violent reprisals that he demanded his name not be used in this story.

A new age has dawned in sports, an age where Pete Rose can physically provoke an umpire and get only a mild suspension. An age where the goons of the NHL can send an official crashing down onto the ice during a brawl and get punished with a five-minute rest period, guilty of “roughing” or “unsportsmanlike conduct.” An age where Billy Martin spits in the face of an umpire and then buries the umpire’s shoes in dirt during an hysterical tantrum and is disciplined by being sent to his room for the remaining innings of that particular game.

“Kids notice these things in a big way,” said Thomas Tutko, a sports psychologist at San Jose State University who is completing a book on the breakdown of self-control among athletes and sports fans.

“Kids watch Pete Rose bumping an umpire, and Pete Rose is a sports idol to kids, and the kids immediately think, ‘If he can do it, it’s OK if I do it.’ Pete Rose and Billy Martin and some others have heavily affected our youth.”

The incident involving the Palmdale football team illustrated the problem. Woolley, a former soccer player at the University of New Mexico, has been officiating in that sport, football, basketball, baseball and volleyball for 14 years. During the game on the night of Oct. 20, witnesses said he became the target of harsh remarks from a disorderly Palmdale bench.

Woolley responded by calling consecutive 15-yard penalties on the Palmdale bench for unsportsmanlike conduct.

After the second one, Wilson, an 18-year-old defensive back who the team’s coach described as a “model student,” charged Woolley and hammered him to the ground. He then took at least one punch at Woolley before he could be pulled away.

The incident triggered a wild free-for-all with the players on Palmdale’s sideline and some people sitting in the Palmdale spectator section charging onto the field. Moments after Woolley was attacked, a second official, Mike Davis, was attacked by Palmdale player Mike Warren, officials alleged.

Wilson, Warren and 16-year-old Keith Bennett have been charged with misdemeanor battery. All three were suspended from school following the attacks and all could face up to six months in jail if convicted.

“I had my back turned and I heard him say, ‘I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you,’ ” Woolley said. “The next thing I knew, I had my head on the ground and he was punching me.”

Woolley said he is pursuing civil action against Wilson.

“I just believe that something should be done,” he said. “This can’t happen again.”

Unfortunately for Woolley, who said he plans to continue officiating, and all other sports officials, it could happen again, however.

“The problems, and the causes of the problems, are going to get much worse before they get better,” Tutko said. “As long as we tolerate that type of abuse of authority, kids will get a clear message that it is OK. This problem is going to get much more severe before there is any improvement.”

The attack of an official during the Pop Warner football game would suggest that Tutko’s assessment is an accurate one. Children who are exposed to such violence by the age of 13 are much more likely, Tutko said, to develop a strong belief that it is practiced by adults and therefore is acceptable.

The official from San Fernando who was involved in that attack and who wished to remain anonymous said the incident began when two 13-year-old teammates began punching each other after an argument in the team’s huddle.

“These two kids actually began punching each other,” the official said. “Teammates. Really pounding each other. I run over and break it up and start leading one of the players towards his sideline.

“All of a sudden, the older brother of the kid I was taking away charged out of the stands and attacked me. He went crazy and started punching me.”

The official said the attack left him with a back injury, as well as scrapes and bruises. He said he will continue officiating, but a bit more cautiously.

“Whatever life in general becomes, it crosses over into athletics,” he said. “Parents have less control over their kids today, and there is a gap there. The respect for authority has diminished, and it has carried over very directly onto the athletic field.”

Tutko said even a subtle thing, such as the National Football League’s use of instant replays to overrule their officials, illustrates the trend to question authority.

“We will not accept anymore that the sports official might make a mistake,” he said. “We now officially question his authority with TV cameras.

“But authority represents the core of all sports. If we attack that core, as we have done, then we are getting way beyond just playing a game and into an area of incredible narcissism.”

Rodgers, the official attacked during a softball game, is only 21. He has been officiating sports since the age of 17. But in just four years, he has seen the problems up close. In addition to being attacked with a bat, he was also in the middle of a wild brawl during a basketball game last year between Notre Dame High and Bellarmine-Jefferson that involved players, fans and parents.

“Sports have lost perspective,” he said. “There is so much emphasis on winning. And all too often the violence that develops is directed at the officials. Parents should not be running onto the court or the field to fight. Ever. Under any circumstances. For any reason.”

Rolfe Rahl, a sports official in the Valley for 32 years and also the longtime football coach at Taft High, has also seen the problem up close.

“Several years ago I was working a basketball game at North Hollywood and a fight breaks out,” he said. “I see an older guy down on the court, choking a player. Hands around his throat, choking him. So I dive in and pull this guy off, and it turns out he’s a cop. He lost control.

“Another time, in a football game, the players from one team are swearing wildly. Real severe swearing. So I call timeout and am preparing to tell their coach about the problem. As I get to the sideline, he’s got his offensive line in a huddle and he’s telling them, ‘Now go out there and kill those (expletives).’ I figured right away that talking to him about his kids swearing wasn’t going to solve anything.”

And Rahl says there is a simple way to eliminate part of the problem.

“I don’t know how you can control crazy parents or fans,” he said, “but a good coach can control his players. Every coach should, before the first game of the season, tell his players this: ‘If you walk across that sideline to enter a fight, or if you throw a punch at anyone, you will never play again.’ I don’t think coaches tell their players that today.”