Massive referee exodus hits youth sports

[applegrove]

Massive referee exodus hits youth sports

Jeff Tracy at Axios

https://www.axios.com/youth-sports-referee-exodus-47c2e097-a3b4-4752-b3fd-09c6fb6d6bab.html

"SNIP......

Referees often get an earful from fans and players, but the behavior has gotten so bad in youth sports that they're now quitting en masse.

State of play: 50,000 high school referees (roughly 20% of the nationwide total) quit between 2018 and 2021, per the National Federation of State High School Associations, NYT reports.

* 60% of officials surveyed in 2020 said their top reason for quitting would be verbal abuse from parents and fans.

* Sadly, verbal abuse isn't even the worst of it: Last year, a high school football player tackled a ref; three weeks ago, kids and parents attacked a basketball ref. The list goes on.

.......SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. Now uncivil society is killing kids' sports.

[Sympthsical]

3. I wouldn't say "now". It's been ongoing.

At least as long as I've been alive. I spent the 90s in Little League, some swimming, football, track, etc. Then high school.

Some parents are just fucking crazy. They see their children as pure extensions of themselves. When their child doesn't win or is penalized, it's a personal ego hit for them. It's not even vicarious - it's visceral.

Also, in my experience, the children of those parents are always, always miserable. Anyone who is that big of an asshole in public is doing worse in the home.

I was fortunate. My parents both worked and only showed up to games and meets sometimes. Their attitude towards us kids was basically, "As long as they're doing something." How it all went was left to us.

[Caliman73]

9. I agree. It has been a longstanding issue.

Sports can be a wonderful experience for youth. Teamwork, skill development, physical fitness and activity, comradery, etc... Often times, parents mess it up with their own baggage and bullshit.

I played sports from since I was 7 years old. My children are playing now. I want them to have fun, to play hard, and to give the best of themselves. If they don't enjoy the game, then they should hang it up. If I am there causing a scene about the game, they aren't going to enjoy themselves. Referees can make mistakes, blow a call, or otherwise do something that can even affect who wins or loses. When parents over react and teach their kids to over react, we have a problem that affects everyone on the court or field.

Leaver your stupid "glory days" fantasies at home.

[bottomofthehill]

2. Would not Ref a game for anything now.

I umped and refed a lot of games for my kids. My son was a youth umpire at 14 and quit at 16. Parents are fucking nuts.

[dalton99a]

4. Another victim of the Trumpification of America

And there are no consequences for asshole parents and their asshole kids

[SWBTATTReg]

5. This surprises me a little bit, back when I was involved w/ youth sports, I rarely saw any parents

at the events we sponsored for the kids at Church, I know that most of the parents were inside the church (we didn't have a inside gym) during their various meetings and such, but they rarely participated in any sports events (which we had quite a few of, tag football, etc.). I guess it's the new wave of parental involvement, which I think perhaps is a good thing vs. what it was before (almost zero involvement, everyone was working then, it seemed) to today, almost too much involvement (obviously)).

This is a shame. Kids do need to interact, be involved with others, learn and enhance their social skills, etc.

[obamanut2012]

8. It's been happening for decades

This parental behavior happened when I was a kid in the 70s.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. I Saw Little Of It Then

I was a HS basketball player, and if we got 800-900 at a home game, there might have been 25 parents. So, most weren't even there. For track meets, hardly any fans ever came until sectionals.
But, I have no doubt it goes back well before 1990 on a grand scale when "traveling" all-star teams started to form at every level.
The higher the financial investment got, the more directly invested parents got, and it brought the crazy out in many of them.
I knew a couple that had a son (I'm guessing 20 years ago) that was traveling to Cooperstown, Atlanta, Houston, Wichita, etc. when he was 10-11 years old.
Kid didn't even make the HS team when he was 15.

[JanMichael]

11. Yep. Little League in Northern California 1975-79 - parents were awful.

South of San Francisco and full of crackpot dads who threatened coaches and screamed at kids.

I felt bad for their kids but still struck them out.

Baseball may have fewer actual physical attacks due to the bats.

[Irish_Dem]

6. So many quoting work: Teachers, nurses, public health, librarians, airline, etc.

The American public has become impossible.

[obamanut2012]

7. Good

[applegrove]

12. ? It is the good refs who are quitting.

[vercetti2021]

13. Parents are assholes

My dad was that type of parent sadly. He wanted me to do sports when I had no interest playing. He was always just berating me for not wanting to have ambition to play. He was the same at plays and such at school. He was always critical of me. Parents ruin sports like they are ruining schools