'Officiate Michigan Day' Welcomes 1,200
July 27, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
GRAND RAPIDS – April Martin aspires to move up the college basketball officiating ladder. Receiving an NCAA Tournament assignment someday is a dream.
So she spent the first half of Saturday's "Officiate Michigan Day" at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids receiving tips and learning what it takes to get to the top from two of the most respected referees in her field -- NBA Finals veterans Joe Crawford and Bill Kennedy.
Crawford and Kennedy were two of more than 40 officials representing the professional, college and high school levels who passed on their expertise to Martin and a total of 1,248 officials who attended Saturday's event, believed to be one of the largest gatherings of sports officials in U.S. history.
Officiate Michigan Day was a cooperative effort by the National Association of Sports Officials and Michigan High School Athletic Association in advance of the NASO annual summit, which kicks off Sunday in Grand Rapids.
"It's just a great day to be a Michigan official," said Martin, a 1997 Detroit Renaissance grad who currently officiates at the high school, junior college, NAIA and NCAA Division III levels. "Seeing your family, which is referees, … it was great seeing everyone here just knowing that everyone is trying to get something out of this day."
Officials from all corners of both peninsulas received the opportunity to learn and interact on a variety of topics and with a variety of officials regarded at the top of their respective fields in Michigan and in some cases nationally.
Sport-specific sessions provided training for officials working in baseball, basketball, competitive cheer, football, gymnastics, lacrosse, ice hockey, soccer, softball, track & field, volleyball and wrestling. Joining Crawford and Kennedy among the best-known instructors and speakers were NCAA National Coordinator of Volleyball Officials Joan Powell, National Hockey League Senior Vice President and Director of Officiating Terry Gregson and official Dan O’Halloran, and National Football League officials Perry Paganelli, Carl Paganelli, Jr., and Dino Paganelli.
All three Paganellis have officiated Super Bowls, and O’Halloran is coming off working his fourth straight Stanley Cup Final. Crawford and Kennedy both officiated during the recent NBA Finals, and Powell also served as team leader of the U.S. women’s national volleyball team that won the silver medal at the 2008 Olympics.
MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts and Barry Mano, founder and president of NASO, gave the opening address to a packed DeVos Center ballroom. Four-time Super Bowl official Jerry Markbreit addressed the entire group to close the afternoon.
"I hope you appreciate what you got here today," said Bill Topp, a presenter Saturday and vice president of publishing and management services for NASO and Referee magazine. "It's not just about the volume of people. It's the types of people you have here and the interaction that's going on and the fact that you've got sports talking to each other where they normally don't talk."
Martin learned but also taught. She sat on the "Officiating 101" panel that discussed issues for new officials, one of 13 lunchtime workshops on topics ranging from life in the NBA to female officials recruitment to outside views on high school officiating.
Marquette's Mark Petrie was one of a small group of officials who made the trip from the Upper Peninsula, and he spent his lunch hour listening to a round table discussion on "Making Good Associations Great." An MHSAA official since 1993, he's the trainer for volleyball for the Upper Peninsula Officials Association.
"It's an opportunity to get together with fellow officials, but more importantly an opportunity to learn and grow as an official," Petrie said. "The day any of us thinks we know everything is the day we should retire."
Commonality was a theme throughout the inaugural Michigan day, with presenters sharing mechanics and strategies that apply at every level of athletics. Equally emphasized was the responsibility of officials to take what they learned back to their local colleagues while working to recruit new officials to the ranks.
"This is pretty unique in that we have this many officials, both men and women, coming together in one place. We have a common theme to improve officiating and to make it consistent at the high school level," said DeWitt's Mike Brya, a high school official since 1995.
"I want to first off be a better official, but also to help our association. To help our officials, help our younger officials, and try to give back as much as I can.
NASO reported on its website that only Georgia's officiating day in 2011, with 1,600 participants, has outdrawn Michigan for a similar event.
PHOTOS: (Top) Clockwise from top left, Joan Powell, Joe Crawford and Bill Kennedy were among speakers at Saturday’s “Officiate Michigan Day.” (Middle) Cheer officials Candy Cox (left) and Stacy Smith present during a breakout session. Click to see more photos from Saturday's event.
NFHS Voice: Punish Bad Fan Behavior
October 2, 2019
By Karissa Niehoff
NFHS Executive Director
About four weeks ago, we distributed an op-ed suggesting that inappropriate behavior by parents and other adult fans at high school sporting events was causing many officials to quit before they even reached two years on the job.
Although we received mostly positive support from this article, some people thought we went too far in telling parents to “act your age” and “stay in your own lane.” On the contrary, perhaps we should have been more direct.
Last week, one of our member state associations shared a resignation letter it had received from a 20-year veteran soccer official who had taken all the abuse he could handle. A portion of that letter follows:
“Soccer parents: you are absolutely 100% the reason we have a critical refereeing shortage and games are being cancelled left and right. And you are at least a part of the reason I’m done here. The most entitled among you are the ones that scream the loudest. And every time you do this, you tell your son or daughter the following:
‘I do not believe in you, I do not believe in your team, I do not believe in your collective ability to overcome your own adversity and you absolutely will not win and cannot do this without me tilting the table in your favor.’
“On behalf of myself and so many other referees – and I say this with every ounce of my heart and soul – shut up about the referees, and let your kids rise or fall as a team, as a FAMILY. Because the vast majority of you truly have no idea what you’re talking about, and even if you have a legitimate gripe about one play or one decision, you’re not fixing anything.”
And if that wasn’t enough, last week the Eastern Panhandle Youth Football League in West Virginia released the following statement:
“Unfortunately, it has come to the point that because of the abuse, negativity and utter disrespect shown to our officials from parents, coaches and most recently from our players, the Eastern Panhandle Officials Association president stated today that the association will no longer schedule officials for our league games at any field. This means effective immediately all remaining games are cancelled.”
This statement is from a youth league, which means the coaches are likely also parents of players, and the players are sons and daughters who are emulating their parents’ behavior.
So, no, our previous message was not too direct or emphatic. The kind of boorish parental behavior that compels a 20-year soccer official to quit cannot be allowed to continue. While we would hope that parents and other fans would embrace the concepts of education-based athletics by respecting the efforts of those men and women who officiate high school sports, that unfortunately is not occurring in some cases.
As a result, schools must adopt and enforce a strict, fan behavior policy. In soccer, a player receives a “yellow card” as a first warning for unsportsmanlike conduct. If the action occurs again, the player is hit with a “red card” and is ejected from the contest. Some schools have implemented a similar penalty structure for parents and other fans – not just at soccer games but all high school events. If the inappropriate behavior and verbal abuse of officials continues after one warning, the person is removed from the venue. There must be consequences for these offenders before we lose any more officials.
Most of the 7.9 million participants in high school sports are on the fields and courts every day to have fun and compete as a team with their classmates, and the 300,000-plus officials assist in that process. Now, if parents would let the players play and the officials officiate!
Dr. Karissa L. Niehoff is in her second year as executive director of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is the first female to head the national leadership organization for high school athletics and performing arts activities and the sixth full-time executive director of the NFHS, which celebrated its 100th year of service during the 2018-19 school year. She previously was executive director of the Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference for seven years.