Don't Approach The Ref At Halftime

I'm replying to the person who was wondering whether it was appropriate to approach the referee at halftime to point something out to her.  You should not approach the referee at halftime.  Spectators are a valuable part of the sports experience; however, they should not attempt to approach referees and coaches to provide their insights.  Nothing good can come of it.  Indeed, think what would happen if every spectator decided to share their halftime insights with the referees - at best we'd have chaos and at worst we'd have people at each other's or at the referee's throat.  This is not what we want in the athletic arena.

Restraint in the face of adversity is one of the vital lessons that we learn as spectators, coaches and participants.  Part of this restraint is to learn to respect other people's zone of authority.  The referee is charged with calling the game.  Spectators may disagree with her judgment; they may see things that the referee should see or didn't see.  However, part of the educational mission of sports mandates that the spectator not approach referees, players and coaches to add his or her two cents worth.

Now, this is not to say that referees, players and coaches are not accountable.  They all are.  Referees are generally observed and evaluated by someone (an assignor, their partners, paid evaluators, volunteer evaluators or coaches are the usual people who assist with this). 

A referee's ability to rise through the ranks should be linked to evaluations.  There may be individual cases where this does not hold true - it may be necessary to have a less experienced referee work that all important sixth grade game.  However, a well run referee's association ensures that this occurs.  The responsibility for enforcing this systemic protection does not belong to the spectator at a game.  Rather it belongs to league administrators and sports governing bodies.  The spectator can ask the people who run the league what steps they took to make sure that they have trained officials who use some sort of evaluation process.  This doesn't mean that your games will be perfectly officiated.  Spectators will never be 100% happy.  What it does mean is that we want a system that ensures that the high school game is not worked by  the guy who is rated as a sixth grade official. 

Finally, we should all note that there's a severe shortage of referees in this country.  Part of the reason for this is a severe lack of sportsmanship.  Sometimes this poor sportsmanship manifests itself in attacks on officials.  Always remember this when you think of approaching a referee.  They don't know if you're a threat or not - and spectators don't belong on the court or field.