LETTER: How do you deal with bad sports officials?

To the editor:

Part of the lore of the city of North Bay is the questionable officiating in youth and high school sports, it has been that way for the nearly half-century I have lived here.

Some other Northern Ontario towns walk a similar path, hometown officials, as the saying goes, “the refs are closer to home.”

Having children who have played rep sports, and mostly in southern Ontario, has been a good experience, as the officiating on average is better than what we’ve observed locally. I often hear coaches and parents tell young athletes “keep your mouth shut and don’t argue with them, if you point out their mistakes, it will only make it worse” – truer words for the Bay City have never been spoken.

North Bay has a very serious officiating problem, if sports organizations and associations are going to keep sport clean from interference, as most major professional sports work to address, then this issue cannot be ignored. While some coaches might play politics with team selections and playing time for athletes, officiating needs to be above these sorts of things.

Those teams who win, seemingly year after year, after year, (only to lose at Northern Ontario play) when the season ends, should ask themselves how many game-swinging calls have been in their favour?

Officials have to make hundreds of decisions in-the-moment during a game, some of these are right, unfortunately, too often locally they are wrong.

Many of these issues are in the grey area, for example, refs allowing coaches and players to yell at them from one team, while penalizing another, double-standards are not in the spirit of sport. Likewise, assigning officials who have demonstrated a clear bias towards some players/coaches to officiate the playoffs. These officials might not want to miss the opportunity to be in the team photo.

Knowing some officials in North Bay as human beings, some are good, decent people and some are not. I’ve known a number with oversized egos, often who wear horse blinders for teams/athletes, while smirking and penalizing others. Some have openly joked “A good official never lets a game go into overtime” – how sad is that. Still others who don’t call violent infractions and claim ALL the officials just simply “missed it.”

If associations and organizations want to keep youth and high school sports clean from tampering, this ought to be part of conversations that convenors and committees start the dialogue on. Players, coaches, athletes, and parents need to follow rules laid out for them around conduct, unfortunately, the officials need to at least be above board in their conduct.

I’ve witnessed a few officials power trip and “chirp” at coaches, players, and parents during games, you can’t have it both ways. Call the rulebook or hang-up the whistle.

John Smith
North Bay