BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio — Summer youth sports are now in full swing, but many of those games are going on without enough refs. Some say, while the pandemic played a part, a big culprit in the referee shortage is abuse by parents and coaches.
According to the National Federation of State High School Association, there has been a loss of about 50,000 referees and umpires nationwide since the 2018-2019 season. There have been efforts in Ohio the last few years to better protect referees. Last year, a state representative from Richfield introduced a bill that would make it a crime for anyone to assault a referee before, during or after a sporting event. The problem is the bill never made it to the governor’s desk. As a result, local communities say recruiting and retaining refs is more difficult than ever.
In Broadview Heights, Gary Diehl, the parks and athletic manager, says his team is making do with the nationwide shortage as baseball and soccer are feeling the impact most. However, he says, “we're not struggling as much as some other communities.”
Though, Diehl admits there are challenges they are currently battling.
“We're losing some experienced people, particularly baseball umpires,” he said. “Some of the older umpires that have the experience are just kind of...getting tired of it and they're getting tired of getting yelled at by people.”
Diehl says they’ve had to cancel games as a result, but it hasn’t happened often. As he explained they “shift the younger referees up to the older kids games and then [with] the younger kids games, sometimes the coaches will have to referee the game or parents will have to referee the game.”
Yet, the biggest issue happened on game day. Diehl says games are sometimes plagued with harsh fan behavior.
“It's one thing when you're yelling at your TV or if you had a Guardians or Browns game and you're yelling at the umpire, but it's another thing when it's a 9-year-old girls soccer game and you're yelling at a 15-year-old kid. That's just not acceptable," he said.
The hostile moments are now making it hard to attract and retain younger help.
“The younger people, it's harder to recruit and they need to get the experience and have a positive experience to make sure that they want to continue to do it,” Diehl said.
Broadview Heights is currently looking for soccer referees for the fall. Applicants do not have to be residents. However, a basic knowledge of the sport is required despite in-house training being provided. Applicants be as young as 14-years-old to start training. Diehl says pay is up to $40 a game.
