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Officiating’s High Calling

October 28, 2016

One of the sports world’s better wordsmiths is Referee Magazine publisher Barry Mano. He’s also a fine thinker, as these artful lines demonstrated at the 2016 Officiating Industry Luncheon in San Antonio:

“Let me provide, in all subjectivity, some observations about our environment, about our fellow citizens. We are:

  • “More generous but less forgiving.

  • More open but less discriminating with that openness.

  • More informed but less knowledgeable.

  • More litigious but less willing to abide by the rules.

  • Quick to seek an expert opinion, then just as quick to get a second opinion, one that agrees with ours.”

Barry is president of the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) which helps contest officials at all levels aspire to be discriminating and knowledgeable adjudicators of fair and healthy competitive athletics.

At a time when the number of registered officials with the Michigan High School Athletic Association has sunk to a 30-year low, Barry’s words are a clarion call to young men and women of character to consider sports officiating as an avocation, or even vocation, that will enrich their lives immensely.

Register as a contest official with the MHSAA | Join NASO

Counterpoint

February 13, 2018

There is a segment of those who are interested in public education who believe it is their privilege and responsibility to educate their children however and wherever they wish. Some parents believe they should be able to enroll their children anywhere, subsidized by taxpayers, and have immediate and full access to all the school’s programs and services.

This is a factor that helps to fuel transfers in school sports. But for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Watching on the sidelines and wringing their hands are the parents of those students who are displaced from positions and playing time on school sports teams by those who have dropped into their programs after moves from other schools ... moves necessitated not by changes in parents’ employment or other imperatives, but by parents’ changing attitudes about their local school sports team.

Transfer rules are designed in part to protect those who are not unhappy, who are not dissatisfied with a coach or playing time or the offensive system the team is using, or are willing to work through issues and learn from them. Transfer rules are designed for those who have put in their time within a program and are anticipating their opportunity to play.

Within every chorus singing “Let him or her play,” there are many others humming a different tune.