Who’ll Make the Call?

Longtime referee Tom King knows first-hand just how difficult it has become to find people to make the calls at high school athletic events.

“My oldest son tried to [referee] soccer and after a while he came to me and said, ‘Dad, I don’t want to get yelled at,’ ” said King, president of the Southern California Soccer Officials Assn. “You need to have a thick skin out there and I think we are losing talented people who may not have thick skin.”

For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is unwelcome criticism, people are shying away from officiating, and section officials say that has created a shortage that has the potential to affect how games are called.

“It’s a problem in all sports--soccer, baseball, football and basketball,” said longtime referee Speed Castillo, the Southern Section’s liaison for officiating. “Once we used to attract lots of people, but my concern now is there just aren’t enough of them coming out to be referees, particularly the young ones.”

Referee shortages aren’t confined to prep sports. Youth leagues have had mixed results in recruiting game officials for years. Some regions of the American Youth Soccer Organization and Little League Baseball require parents to volunteer as referees or umpires. The Southern California Volleyball Assn. makes club teams supply players and coaches to keep score or call the lines at tournaments.

In February, Castillo, a football, basketball and baseball official, shocked a meeting of the Orange County Athletic Directors’ Assn. when he characterized this school season as the worst he can remember for getting officials for all sports in his nearly 40 years as an official. Among other things, he said, the quality of officiating has deteriorated because many veteran officials have retired, while recruitment of new officials qualified to handle varsity games has lagged.

More and more events, such as last Wednesday’s Santiago-Garden Grove baseball game for example, have had to be postponed or canceled because there are no officials available to work them.

Castillo’s complaints are the tip of the iceberg. Interviews with section and school administrators, athletic directors and game officials paint a bleak picture.

Among the concerns:

* The 12 associations responsible for supplying officials to the county have not done a good job attracting young people.

* Turnover is as high as 50% a year and new applicants aren’t always familiar with the sports they call. “We get people who don’t have a clue about volleyball and we don’t have time to train them on how the game is played,” said Eunetta Pickett, referee assigner for the Orange County Volleyball Officials Assn.

* School budgets are tight, and relatively low pay has driven some high school officials elsewhere. “A guy can work two church league games and make more money. It’s easier, with less pressure, and he’s in and out in the same amount of time,” said Rich Kollen, an administrator for the Orange County Basketball Officials Assn.

* Unruly spectators, lack of sportsmanship and harsh criticism by coaches and players cause some to throw in the towel. “You are constantly taking crap from coaches on the sideline,” said Marina boys’ soccer Coach Tom Freker, a long-time referee and former assigner for the Orange County Chapter of the Southern California Soccer Officials Assn. “Sooner or later any guy is going to say, ‘Hey, this is not worth it.’ ”

* Many game officials do it as a second job to earn extra money. They don’t always approach the game with the “high school mind-set” the participating schools want. “At one time the referees were all coming out of the education ranks,” Castillo said. “That’s no longer the case now because the people running the schools aren’t former jocks. They’re strictly business administrators.”

* Upfront costs for equipment, uniforms, association dues, assigner fees and personal liability insurance can reach as high as $500 or more a season, per sport. Officials are also required to take nine to 18 hours of unpaid recertification each year for each sport they work and must also pay for transportation to and from events. “That’s a lot of [time] and money to spend, and then what if you find out you don’t like doing it?” 19-year-old baseball umpire Scott Nelson said.

Bob Still, an umpire and spokesman for the 19,000-member National Assn. of Sports Officials, said those complaints are heard throughout the nation.

“We know from talking to all of our officials associations that there is a downward trend nationally in the number of officials coming into the profession,” said Still, who doubles as public relations manager for Wisconsin-based Referee Magazine, said. “It’s a major concern of ours.”

Nelson, of Huntington Beach, created a stir last month at a freshman baseball game when, working alone, he refused to allow a Westminster High assistant to coach third base because he was in a wheelchair.

Nelson soon found himself in the middle of a controversy that was the subject of television news shows and front-page headlines. He said that he was only enforcing the rules, but he wound up in the middle of a dispute between the umpire association’s interpretation of the rulebook and the Southern Section, which, according to section Commissioner Dean Crowley, has since sided with the coach.

Nonetheless, section officials say they are looking for more guys like Nelson. He’s young, willing to make long commutes, accept average pay and loud criticism and still have the courage to make the calls.

“We have to come up with a system to get young, just-out-of-high school players involved,” said Crowley. “To me that’s the answer.”

But veteran referees such as Crowley, Freker and King, acknowledge that putting on a chest protector or blowing the whistle is a hard sell, particularly to young people. Crowley and Freker also had sons go into officiating, only to quit.

King, who began as a Little League umpire a dozen years ago, said that Orange County, which usually draws from a pool of about 200 soccer officials, had about 40 quit last year.

Brian Brennan, president of the Orange County Football Officials Assn., said that of 30 or so rookie referees in 1998, half of them quit before the season ended.

They weren’t alone.

“We got about 20 new ones last year and we lost about 20,” said Pickett, the volleyball assigner. “We have 78 schools and about 70 referees and with more schools coming, we’re pretty tight.”

Some believe pay increases would attract more referees. Pay ranges between $35 and $45 a game, depending on the sport. But according to Sunny Hills’ Ralph Trigsted, president of the Orange County Athletic Directors Assn., the section has authorized only a $1 raise per game in all sports in 2000, no raise in 2001 and $1 more in 2002.

Such pay causes the best officials to work elsewhere.

Castillo pointed out many referees would rather work community college events, which generally draw smaller crowds. They earn $75 or more in about the same time it takes to call a high school game played in packed, sometimes hostile gymnasiums. At the highest level a college official can make $550 a game, plus expenses, in the Big West or Pacific 10 conferences.

“As an official gets more experience, of course, he wants to move up the ladder and do the tougher assignments, like colleges, which leaves him less time to commit to the lower levels,” said Kollen of the basketball officials’ association.

Another factor is that some high school leagues and college conferences have gone to three-man basketball referee teams, which means that less-experienced officials have to be moved up quicker to the varsity level.

“That depletes your talent pool,” Castillo said.

Frank Lerner, a basketball and baseball assigner in Orange County, faces daily shortages. Last Thursday at noon, he was scrambling to find an umpire willing to go to San Clemente for a 3:15 game.

“I may have to call the school and tell them I don’t have anybody,” he said.

Lerner found someone who worked eight innings in San Clemente’s 5-4 South Coast League victory over Capistano Valley. With all the shortages, it’s not uncommon for officials to work more than one game in a day, perhaps at different locations.

Volleyball associations go one further.

“We send two officials that have to do all three matches,” Pickett said.

Critics say that is affecting the way events are called. How do those officials stay fresh?

“It’s a bit of a strain,” said Pickett, 60, who is also a softball umpire. “The competition is getting so much closer, even on the freshman and JV levels, that the time we are out there is so long. Last night, it took six hours to get through all three levels. It’s not uncommon to be out there seven hours or more.”

Kollen said many of his basketball officials double up, working a game in the afternoon and maybe one or two in the evening.

“I have guys who can do a 3:15 game and know exactly what time they have to leave to be at another game,” Kollen said. “It’s tough on their legs, doing that many games, but at least you got a body there. That’s what you want.”

Sonora Athletic Director John Link, the girls’ softball coach, said shortages are felt most at lower levels, where it’s not uncommon for a single referee or umpire to show for a junior varsity or freshman-sophomore event.

Kollen believes that recruiting younger people is all well and good. But he said another solution to Link’s concern is to recruit more mature men and women, like 51-year-old Paul Schulman, who has no big-time aspirations. They often have more flexibility in their schedules and don’t mind where or at what level they work.

“I don’t expect to do too many varsity games, particularly boys’ games,” Schulman said. “That’s not my intent. But I like doing it.”

Others say age isn’t a factor in how a referee calls a game as much as it his or her experience with the game.

“There is such a need for them, but these younger officials haven’t learned the skills to do a good job,” said Fullerton football Coach Julian Smilowitz, a board member of the Southern California Football Coaches Assn. “It has become a learn-as-you-go situation and they end up making mistakes.”

As for not understanding the high school mind-set?

“Referees are not as patient as they used to be,” said Esperanza Athletic Director Jim Patterson, who is also a high school and college football, basketball and baseball official. “It may be the fact that a lot of them can’t get away too early from work and they have to drive a long way to a game. There’s a lot of pressure today in getting around in our Orange County traffic.”

Nelson, a sophomore at Long Beach State, heard about becoming a soccer referee from a former Marina High teammate. Later, he became an umpire, and in addition to earning some money, he learned a few life skills.

“You have to be tolerant,” he said. “You have to learn to take the abuse. In soccer, at least you can run down the sideline to get away from it. In baseball, you’re kind of stuck there behind the plate.”

But Nelson says he has no intention of letting the Westminster controversy chase him off.

“It’s a lot of fun, particularly soccer,” he said. “It takes about an hour and a half of your time, you’re running around getting great exercise and it’s really a good job that you can work around your school schedule.”

Nevertheless, officials say, as the ranks shrink and new schools such as Northwood High in Irvine open, things figure to get worse before they get better.

“It’s not anything we’re going to solve overnight,” said Fullerton’s Smilowitz. “We won’t get 200 21-year-olds next season. Most associations have pretty good assigners, but I know they are feeling the strain of not having the people they need to fill all the requests they have.”

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HOW MUCH REFEREES EARN

Average regular-season per-game pay ranges per game official

Club/Private (youth): $10-$25

Club/Private (adult): $20-$40

Recreation/church leagues (youth/adult) $10-$30

High School (single contest): $30-$45

High School (multiple contests): $60-$75

Community College: $60-$90

Four-Year College (NAIA, NCAA Division II&III;): $90-$150

Four-Year College (NCAA Division I)* : up to $550

* Plus per diem (up to $125) and travel expenses, where applicable.

NOTE: Salaries often depend on level or age of participants, number of game officials assigned and the specific assignment, caliber of event, experience level of game official, number of consecutive events per game official at same site on any given day). Fee ranges often vary from sport to sport

Source: CIF Southern Section; Game assignors/sports assns.