The issues are much beyond missing a call. Who and how are they made in the future, and how do you afford it? (Press Pros Feature Photos)
The finish of the Marion Local vs. Versailles football game once again brought a crisis to the surface over officiating in high school sports…along with a record number of reader responses. It will come as no surprise…that no one knows how to fix it.
It will come as no surprise to many of you that last Friday’s Marion Local/Versailles football game drew more than 300,000 page views across Ohio…given that it marked Marion’s latest addition to its state record 70 game win streak in football. And that record now occupies a place in the minds of a lot of people who question what heights it might yet reach.
Mark Knupp’s Muffler and Tire, in Piqua, proudly sponsor area sports on Press Pros Magazine.com.
The game also finished with some consequence over a controversial, and questionable, official’s call…one that ultimately led to Marion scoring the winning touchdown. And it may not surprise that we received dozens of responses…over our reporting of that call….of how there should be a crackdown on officiating…and even if high school officials should be allowed to eat afterwards in the community where they just worked?
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Social media was abuzz with activity:
The game was fixed…..
Versailles deserved to win…..
There should be an asterisk beside the number 70 in the record book…..
This was proof that some sort of replay review is needed for high school football…..
One suggested that the players, themselves, do the honorable thing and invoke the ‘honor system to reverse the call…..
One wrote that something like this should not be allowed to happen in such an important game. “The OHSAA should be notified.”
And in one moment of cultural irony…someone wrote to the site suggesting that given the sensitivity of the moment perhaps we shouldn’t have written about it in as much detail. “It’s no wonder that no one wants to officiate, anymore. Shame on you for throwing the officials under the bus.”
All of the above…I’ve seen, and heard before. And so have you if you’re older than eighteen.
So I write this, in part, in defense of administration of the game at every level…reminding everyone that 1) there’s always a flawed component with any kind of competition, and 2) that high school sports, by definition of the OHSAA, is an extension of the overall educational experience. Nothing else is guaranteed.
Two things strike me about the above mentioned. 1) The suggestion that the OHSAA should become involved. I’m sure someone was tempted. And how do you think that conversation would go?
“Hey now, I’m trying to write this all down. Can you please talk slower? Who do you say caught the ball…and where was the official standing? And let me understand…you say you were three hundred feet away from the play, but you saw it clear as day. Right?”
2) The suggestion that media report what happened with sensitivity, which is akin to Jack Nicholson’s line about the truth, from A Few Good Men.
As painful as that moment was, 2:58 seconds from the end of the game, the painful reality is not just the fact that six underpaid amateur officials made a mistake, but that had there not been other mistakes earlier in the game it might never have happened in the first place.
There are countless moments throughout a football game where one, or both teams have the ultimate outcome in their hands and flummox it away – fumbles, interceptions, and in this case Versailles missed two extra point attempts that might ultimately have won the game, outright. That was mentioned in the game story. I remember an officials evaluater from central Ohio once telling me that if there were no officials the game, itself, would eventually work itself out. The team that makes the most plays will win.
And then, what if, regarding how to fix this in the future…there are no officials, at all? And therein lies the coming crisis, like it or not.
As it is, the men and women working presently are not professionals. They’re ex-athletes in most cases that went into insurance, or finance, or education, or some other line of work and officiate on the weekend to get out of the house…for barely enough money to pay for transportation to and from the games. It’s always been that way.
And perish the thought, as some suggested in emails and on Facebook, that replay review become mandatory for high school sports…on the school district’s dime. No one’s going to step up to pay for it for the sake of five home games, and 2) who’s going to operate it? As it is, some places have trouble running the scoreboard.
The OHSAA knows there’s a coming crisis with finding officials, or they wouldn’t be playing those repeated public service announcements:
“It’s a great way to stay close to the action.”
“It’s a great way to stay in shape.”
“It’s a great way to give back to the athletes.”
And, “It’s a great way to earn extra money.”
None of which is likely to attract the kind of candidates you want to officiate sports in a day where the athletes in better shape than the officials. Look out on the field next Friday night a bit more critically, and you’ll see that few, if any, can keep up with an eighteen-year-old. Few ever could!
And it’s likely that if you do find someone to take up the whistle – who checks the above boxes – they might not have ever played the sport they’re trying to officiate. And from personal experience…it helps! It’s not something you learn from a manual. Many struggle with implementing the rules of the game if they haven’t played. You have to have instinct, and anticipation for what’s coming next, and no amount of playing experience can prepare you for confrontation. Yes…you need a thick skin.
Because regardless of how much you know, and how much you’ve played, there are times when you cannot be in the right place at the right time to make the right call…which essentially is what happened in the Marion/Versailles game.
What happened Friday night is unfortunate because even some of the Marion kids admitted that Versailles played well enough to win.
It’s unfortunate because of the bad taste it left in a lot of mouths. A year from now no one will remember the game, just the call.
It’s unfortunate, too, because it won’t make it any easier for that officiating crew when they come out to work this Friday night. They’re human, and they feel regret for having made a mistake, the same as the rest of us.
But despite the frustration and hard feelings, the bigger issue is this. If not those six, who works the games in what I promise you is the very near future?
It’s coming. For sure.
And if you think replay is the answer, how much are you willing to pay?
EB Real Estate, Darke County’s sales leader, proudly sponsors the best area sports on Press Pros Magazine.