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Sports >> ...............................................................Last updated: 3/22/2010 |
Referees cope with threats from parents
Steph Roan ~ Staff Writer
When Mike Byre, a veteran referee, showed up to officiate the West Frankfort High School football game in Murphysboro, Illinois, he didn’t realize that not only the players wouldn’t be the only one’s getting tackled.
In the middle of the contest, Byre was mauled by a player’s father, James Camden. When Camden disagreed with a call, he charged Byre then attempted to choke him. Camden was later charged with two counts of aggravated battery.
Across the nation, referees and umpires are being tormented and even attacked by fans on the sidelines. Jerry Krieg, the athletic director at East, said that “I think all fans should support their teams to the maximum and not worry about the officials or the other team.”
Many programs have stepped up and written their own statements regarding how they believe fans and players should conduct themselves during sporting events.
For example, Coquitlam Minor Lacrosse Association (CMLA) states, “We need to provide a safe, fair and fun environment for players as well as referees. Only positive, instructive and encouraging comments are allowed to be directed at players and referees, youth or adult.” This makes it clear that fans must only be encouraging their players and should not focus on the referee or umpire.
As for dealing with a call from an official, Krieg believes coaches should be the ones making the comments. He states, “Fans have the right to express their feelings about the contest but comments about the officials should be left up to the coaches on the sidelines.”
When officials are put in an environment in which they feel threatened, they are trained to get the home team’s supervisor to confront the fan and warn them.
IHSA official Matt Schatt’s words of advice are to “never respond to parents or fans directly!” When asked why the official should not approach the fan, Schatt said, “This would create more attention to the individual.”
Schatt has dealt with his own situations in the past, once occurring when he was officiating a high school softball game last year. Schatt describes his story about a parent going crazy about a call his partner made during a game last spring.
“I was umping behind the plate and my partner was the base umpire. In the seventh inning of a tie game, with a runner on third base, he called an illegal pitch. The runner on third was awarded home for the winning run, game over.
The parents and especially the pitcher’s dad went nuts. As we were leaving the field, the parent of the player approached my partner in a very threatening manner. I protected him by getting between both. It got so intense that I called 911 to have the police remove the parent.”
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