PEORIA, Ill. 鈥� Another academic year of high school sports will get into full swing later this month. But the Illinois High School Association is grappling with a shrinking number of game officials, largely due to the increasingly poor treatment they鈥檝e endured from fans, athletes and coaches.
The IHSA has entered a new partnership with a Lombard-based organization called Officially Human that focuses on reducing negative behavior and elevating respect for officials statewide. But some skepticism remains about how effective these efforts will be.
Game incident reports from 2022-23 showed a significant rise in coach and player ejections from the year before. Additionally, an IHSA survey of all licensed officials conducted early this year showed 62% identifying poor sportsmanship and fan behavior as the biggest challenge they face.
鈥淭hat really opened our eyes and made us acknowledge that as an association, we鈥檝e got to do more to support officials 鈥� not only when they鈥檙e working at any kind of contests, but also away from that,鈥� said IHSA Associate Executive Director Kurt Gibson, who oversees the association鈥檚 Officials Department.
鈥淲e鈥檝e probably not done enough to support officials over the past five to 10 years, and so we鈥檙e really trying to put in play some initiatives that, I say, is really trying to play the long game," he said. "We鈥檙e not going to get out of this situation that鈥檚 been created overnight. We got into this over a period of time and it鈥檚 going to take us a while to turn the tide.鈥�
So why hasn鈥檛 the IHSA done more in recent years to address this problem?
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know why we weren鈥檛 a little more aggressive in the space when we probably needed to be,鈥� Gibson said. 鈥淚 do think the pandemic accelerated some of what we鈥檙e seeing now, and it accelerated it in the sense of I believe that the pandemic played a big part in driving some officials out of the space, and with fewer officials that just put more pressure on sort of this ecosystem for high school sports.鈥�
Brenda Hilton has spent more than two decades working with officials in college sports across multiple levels and founded Officially Human in 2019. She said better communication is the essential factor behind official human and its 鈥淓levate Respect鈥� program.
鈥淲e have to start communication; we have to have more of it. We have to make sure that parents, coaches administrators know that this really is a problem,鈥� Hilton said. 鈥淥fficially Human was founded to restore respect to sports officials, and I鈥檒l be honest and say that when we first founded it, we didn鈥檛 know how we were going to do it. (We) spent a couple of years talking to people all over the country and all over the world on: 鈥榓ll right, what is it going to take for us to raise this awareness, have more conversations?鈥� and really piggyback on what state associations are doing, what the NCAA is doing, what everybody in the country is doing in trying to retain and recruit new officials.鈥�
Officially Human鈥檚 Elevate Respect platform involves implementing a comprehensive package of digital education, organizational support and communication strategies to address poor fan behavior.
An official鈥檚 perspective
Don King of East Peoria has been calling football, basketball and baseball games around the area for more than 50 years. He鈥檚 the president of the Central Illinois Umpires Association and the Central Illinois Football Alliance, and he handles scheduling of high school officials in all three sports for the Big 12 and the Mid-Illini conferences.
King said he鈥檚 skeptical the IHSA鈥檚 as efforts with Officially Human human will produce the desired outcomes.
鈥淚 like to think it will, but nothing has helped. Everybody鈥檚 tried everything to get people to behave 鈥� and I mean everything 鈥� and nothing seems to be working,鈥� King said. 鈥淩ight now, it鈥檚 just officiating is a very tough business; it鈥檚 hard to recruit and very hard to retain. This is great they鈥檙e making this effort; hopefully it works. But I think it鈥檚 a long shot.鈥�
Gibson said the IHSA has seen a sharp decline in registered officials over the past decade, estimating the organization is about 4,000 licenses below an ideal amount. The IHSA reports it distributed about 18,000 licenses to more than 11,000 individuals for the 2022-23 school year.
鈥淥ur association was fortunate last year: we had a nice rebound in people coming back into officiating in Illinois,鈥� Gibson said. 鈥淏ut that one-year positive spike still has not offset the last seven to eight years in the number of decreasing licenses that we鈥檝e offered.鈥�
King said he understands why.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a popular thing to get people involved in,鈥� King said. 鈥淚 got new guys to work this summer in baseball, and after three weekends, two of them go, 鈥楢h, I don鈥檛 want to do this anymore; this is 鈥� these people are idiots.鈥� And I go, 鈥榊eah you know, well, I told you that this probably is going to happen. You just have to learn to deal with it.鈥� But the choice is they don鈥檛 want to deal with it [because] it鈥檚 just easier to go do something else.鈥�
King said attitudes toward officials have grown more volatile and threatening. He said a recent youth travel baseball tournament he oversaw resulted in 14 fan ejections, six coach ejections and four player ejections 鈥� and the misbehavior is reaching a crisis point.
鈥淥fficials are very discouraged right now, as a whole,鈥� King said. 鈥淭he average football official is over 60 years old, OK? Right now in our local associations for football, I have 414 officials available to me. I probably have less than 10% that is under 40 years old. So, when the older guys which will now eventually start weeding out, we鈥檙e just not getting them replaced. There鈥檚 an official shortage everywhere and that鈥檚 because people just aren鈥檛 getting in.鈥�
Finding solutions
Hilton said an Officially Human survey of 15 state high school associations in 2019 received 19,000 responses, with only 12% coming from individuals under age 34.
鈥淪o that pipeline is gone, and of those 19,000 responses, a pretty good percentage of them said that they would be quitting officiating in the next six years. So, we really are in a crisis mode here,鈥� she said, adding that the biggest takeaways from the survey were that officials just want a voice and that they want more education for parents.
鈥淲e all know that 95% of the fans in the stands are good, they鈥檙e positive. They may chirp a little bit at a call here and there,鈥� Hilton said. 鈥淲hat we want to do is empower that 95% to become 95.5%. There鈥檚 so many great stories out there on officials, if we can start to highlight those and minimize the glamorization of some of these bad stories 鈥� if people understood the brotherhood and sisterhood of officiating, I think more people would sign up to do it because it鈥檚 a very unique group.鈥�
King said he鈥檚 not sure what possible approaches will reduce the negative treatment directed at officials.
鈥淢aking fans accountable for their actions, making coaches accountable for their actions, making players more accountable for their actions, I think that would be a big plus,鈥� King said. 鈥淏ut fans that are bad, they just continue to keep showing up and there鈥檚 nothing the officials can do. We can鈥檛 tell who can come in the gym or who can鈥檛 come in the gym.鈥�
Gibson said recruitment and retention of sports officials is critical to the long-range success of the IHSA, and its ability to continue the competitions.
鈥淯ntil we can have that honest conversation, I really don鈥檛 see how we can start to turn the corner in terms of retaining officials for that longer stretch,鈥� Gibson said. 鈥淪o that鈥檚 going to be a key part of this, and the Officially Human platform is going to allow us to do that because we鈥檙e going to be able to have a conversation with our schools. We鈥檙e going to be able to use the platform and some other initiatives to recognize officials."
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to be able to then highlight things that officials are doing away from the officiating space, to try to humanize them - get people to understand that officials are people too," he said. "Without people like sport officials who give their time, we鈥檙e not going to be able to play the number of contests that are that our membership wants to play. So, that鈥檚 going to be the first piece. But we鈥檝e also got to use this opportunity to consider whether or not we need to create stricter penalties for folks, including fans, when they鈥檙e removed from games for their behavior.鈥�
Hilton said her conversations with numerous people associated with high school sports suggests the pandemic has exacerbated the negative behavior toward officials, just as Gibson mentioned.
鈥淚t came up a lot that as we come out of COVID, this is going to be even worse 鈥� and when I talk to officials across the country, they concur with that. This is worse. Parents feel like they have lost 1-2 years of competition, their child has lost that,鈥� she said, noting that in most sports, less than 10% of high school athletes move on to NCAA programs.
鈥淭he pressure on these officials is going to be even greater," Hilton said. "So, we have to start to really be in front of this to communicate that, 鈥榟ey, this really is just a game.鈥� Again, Officially Human鈥檚 not going to fix this, the NCAA is not going to fix it, any other officiating organization is not going to fix this alone. It鈥檚 all of us working together.鈥�
But King maintains his pessimism that the negative behavior and poor treatment can be eradicated because it鈥檚 extended beyond just high school sports.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just it鈥檚 been growing, growing, growing, growing, growing, and I just honestly 鈥� I hate to say this 鈥� but I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 ever going to get any better,鈥� King said. 鈥淟ook at the fan behavior in professional sports, by God. You go to a pro football game, the F-word is out of everybody鈥檚 mouth. Even in college sports, it鈥檚 the same thing.
鈥淭he fan behavior is just so bad, and all you鈥檝e got to do is just go sit in the stands at a game, and you can say, 鈥楳y God, what is wrong with these people?鈥�" he said. "But they just keep letting them back in. I guess they just hope that maybe they鈥檒l just clean it up themselves, but that鈥檚 not going to happen. It just hasn鈥檛 happened.鈥�
