Why they leave

A recent article published by the National Federation contained research about why officials quit. The largest group, 43 percent, cited poor sportsmanship on the part of players, coaches, and fans, with 36 percent citing job or career demands. Most of these "quitters" are in their first few years of officiating.

At that stage, we have coaches learning to coach, players learning to play, and referees learning to referee — the worst possible combination. We also have parents just getting started on unreasonable expectations for their children's athletic careers.

Those new coaches invariably gain experience and grow into their jobs. The parents generally continue to have unreasonable expectations. But many of the officials decide that it's not worth leaving work to get to a 4:30 game, just to have people abuse and insult them for two hours.

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