How to Get and Keep Officials

By Tim Christensen

The talented young quarterback scrambles to his right, delays a split-second and then throws a perfect spiral that is headed for his wide-open tight end at the goal line. An instant or two before the catch, the tight end is leveled by a defensive back.

Both teams start to argue. Tempers flare and unkind comments are made back and forth.

As things get out of control, the young center picks up the ball and heads for home. Says the young snapper: "Hey, it's my ball and I'm going home -- you guys can do whatever you want."

One thing is obvious: "A game without officials is just recess."

All across America, there is growing concern about the ability to recruit, train and retain officials for all sports. Even basketball -- the safest of all sports -- is feeling a strain to fill slots for all games played.

Principals, athletic directors and coaches are seeing a growing problem in not only securing officials for all levels of contests, but also a change in the quality of the game officiating.

Why are there too few officials?

This is a simple but very important question. The answer has many levels:

1)    There are more games being played by not only high schools, but also competing non-traditional leagues. Where once it was a rarity to have "in-season" AAU-type teams, it is becoming common.

2)    The increase in officials' expenses is another critical factor. This is especially true when dealing with a new official. Sports such as baseball, hockey and football have very high start-up costs. It is also obvious that we have never had other expenses such as gasoline reach the prices they are today.

3)    The final issue is "Sportsmanship," or the lack of it. Coaches, players and fans all expect perfection from officials. Understandably, this philosophy is born in the land of televised sports. Every night, we tune into games that are officiated by the greatest arbiters in the world. Every call is replayed and the announcers point out the "error" of the calling official. The fans watch these games and transfer the same observations to a local high school game, never considering that the calling official has already put in a full shift at a job. The abuse is given equally to a seasoned professional official.

So, a battle begins -- how does an area recruit, train and retain officials so that all games are played on a level playing field?

Recruitment

The days of expecting new people to show at the first officials association meeting of the year have passed. Recruiting, just like at the college athletic level, is a yearlong commitment.

The best local groups name and train a recruiting team that retains members over the years. The system should include new members to help bring new ideas in the group.

The best local groups use a number of different ways to get their word out to potential new members. Some ideas are:

- Contact all local colleges to see if one of your groups can speak to potential candidates. Best practice is to get to a college before a new season begins, see if there are professional physical education classes, offer to speak for a day about officiating and use that time to sell your group.

- Place professionally produced banners at schools during the off-season of your sport. Make sure the banner is memorable. The best banner ever was searching for umpires. There was a giant eye chart with only the letter "E" being repeated -- over and over -- at the end the banner which said: "If you can read this, you too can be an umpire" Call 800-555-1212!"

- Find a way to have a newspaper article written about your local association or a veteran official. Make sure in the article that it is made clear that you need new officials every year and that you have an in-depth training program.

Training

The worst possible thing a local group can do is send an untrained or poorly trained official to any game. Any official who is sent to a game untrained will soon be an "ex-official."

The best local officiating groups have a well-thought out, defined training system. These same groups train their instructors to be consistent. The best trainers will eventually be the individuals you train each season. The message will be passed from official to official faster than any clinic or class.

The best practices of the top local officials associations include most of these items:

- Extensive periods of time discussing not only the "letter" of rules, but also the concept of common sense and fair play.  
- REAL testing of officials on the rules. Research has found associations that hold their members responsible for taking rules tests and passing them are far ahead of groups that "short-cut" this process.
- Nothing trains faster than on-court (or on-field) experience. Value cannot be measured in the advantages of working with a court, a ball and players. The ability to start/stop activities at a split-second leaves a lasting memory on new officials.
- No training should ever be started without a complete training plan. The best practice groups all spend a great amount of effort in establishing that good officials' skills are built much like a house. By starting with a strong foundation, the remainder of the house is built quickly yet securely.  
- Finally -- training is for everyone. No official -- no matter the number of years officiating -- should be exempt from training.  

Retention

All groups will lose members under normal conditions. People move, people change interests, people change their lifestyles, people die ... but there needs to a constant effort to keep members. It is much more expensive to find, train and teach new people than to work with your basic core group.

Some officials will be transitional no matter what. If you recruit and land a college student, there is a strong possibility that official will most likely move. Remember an important factor: train officials ... train them the best you can, so if they do move away, they stay with officiating in their next location. If we all train well, a new member may join your group from another well-trained group.

Data shows that the retention of officials can be increased by doing a few simple things:

- Evaluate all officials. "Nothing is worth doing unless it is measured" is an age-old saying. To improve, officials need to know what they do right and what they need to improve.
- Rate all officials. Again, the very best groups have no fear of rating numerically each official. By nature, this allows people to self-evaluate themselves against peers and work toward improvement.  
- Plan FUN functions. Again, the best-run groups have activities away from sport to build camaraderie among members. Golf tournaments, year-ending dinners and poker parties are just a few examples of things the best practice groups have in common.
- GIVE AWARDS! Every successful group also shares the common trait of rewarding officials for their work during the season. Some awards are for fun, and other awards are for performance both on and off the court (field) and in working for the association.  

There are many growing concerns with high school sports. While administrators doggedly pursue funding, gender equity issues and more pressing issues, the real breaking point for organized high school sports may lie with the inability to find officials for all games.

It takes a true relationship based on teamwork to make sure we just don't "roll out the balls" and have recess.

Tim Christensen, who is vice president of rules of the Portland (Oregon) Baseball Umpires Association, also is secretary of the Oregon School Activities Association/Oregon Athletic Officials Association State Baseball Umpires Committee. Christensen resides in Portland, is a cost control manager in the construction industry, and has been an NFHS baseball umpire for 39 years.