By now, many of you know that the commissioner of an in-house basketball program in Burnsville, Minnesota was assaulted following a sixth-grade boys’ basketball game Saturday. Apparently some parents were upset following a close game that went into overtime and started to go after the officials. According to a story on StarTribune.com, Jeff Shand, the commissioner of the program, stepped in to diffuse the situation. During a melee, he was hit by a couple of people and sucker-punched. He suffered a concussion, dislocated jaw and damage to his teeth.
First of all, every youth basketball official should thank Jeff Shand and people like him. If you have officiated youth basketball, a parent, coach or tournament director has protected you from abusive parents or coaches after a game. If it hasn’t happened to you, you haven’t worked long enough. I have been in the same situation multiple times, and, fortunately, it never escalated to physical violence.
I want to comment on a few aspects of this story:
* Perspective — This was an in-house sixth grade game. I understand every game I officiate is the most important game that is played that day to the players, coaches and spectators. That being said, it’s sixth-grade in-house basketball for crying out loud.
* Timing irregularities — The story notes that the parents were upset about issues with the clock in overtime. At most youth games or tournaments, the clock and score book are run by volunteers, often reluctantly plucked from the crowd just prior to the game. Many aren’t trained, and even if they were, clock issues happen. Guess what? They happen in Division II as well, particularly with the shot clock. It’s part of the game. As officials, we try to “manage” it as best as possible based on the information that we know.
* I feel bad for Burnsville — All it takes is one idiot to brand a community in a negative light. It’s embarrassing for the community and for youth basketball in general. Apparently the father lived in Minneapolis, but I’m not sure that matters in this situation. It was still an in-house program, so Burnsville is going to take some heat for this, whether they deserve it or not. I spoke to the parents of the Burnsville girls’ basketball traveling program before the season started. I covered rules, sportsmanship and my book BasketCases. The parents at that meeting were very receptive and asked good questions.
* Sixth grade — I mention in BasketCases that sixth grade is the hardest to officiate. I truly believe this. The less-talented the players are, the more difficult it is to officiate. Couple that with an obvious transition between fifth and sixth grade in which players, coaches, and especially parents, become noticeably more competitive, and that particular age is the worst to officiate.
* Who is guilty? — Look around, look in the mirror. Why are there so many issues in youth sports? It’s because this country is absolutely obsessed with winning. We are all guilty of fostering an environment of winning. Remember 20 years ago when “professionals” from other countries defeated the Americans in the Olympics? What did we do? We abandoned our values of having amateurs compete in the Olympics and created the 1992 Dream Team that featured Jordan, Barkley, Bird, Malone, Magic, etc. Why was the Miracle on Ice the most compelling sports story of my lifetime? Because amateurs defeated professionals.
I play “baseball” in my basement with my four-year-old son almost every day. I make sure to “win” the game approximately once every four times. I want to teach him how to lose, which isn’t easy for him. He has an occasional meltdown, but I would rather have that in private with me in the basement than with neighbor kids in the yard. When I come home from reffing, he wants to know which team won. He’s only four and he’s already picked up from me my focus on having my “teams” win.
* Circle of Dysfunction — As I note in BasketCases, there are deep issues with the three primary groups involved with youth basketball: officials, coaches and parents.
Officials — There is way too high of a percentage of officials who don’t hustle, don’t care, don’t know the rules, try to maximize their revenue, aren’t properly trained, think they are big shots when they put on a uniform, have inflated egos and are abusive to coaches and parents who often ask them a simple question. I’ve worked with plenty of them. Remember, the majority of officials working youth basketball try their best to be accurate and consistent, but many officials are a big part of the problem.
Coaches — There are plenty of coaches who mortgage the future development of their players to win at all costs at a younger age. For example, they will press like crazy until they no longer can by rule. The coaches think they are geniuses until they run into a team that is bigger and stronger. And then they get destroyed by an opponent because they don’t know how to run a set offense since they score all their points of turnovers caused by pressing. Too many coaches scream at their kids or the referees and totally lose sight of their primary responsibility — to coach. A small percentage lack any sense of sportsmanship and don’t know when to “call of the dogs.”
Parents — Wow. Where should I begin?. Don Henderson, the athletic director at Triton High School in Dodge Center who has won two state football championships, perhaps said best a couple of weeks ago when he told me that basketball parents are by far the worst when it comes to over inflating their knowledge of the rules. “Anybody who has thrown a ball at a peach basket thinks he or she is an expert on all the rules,” he told me. “It’s by far the worst in basketball. I’m glad I coach football. The parents are far back and I can’t hear them most of the time anyway because I have a head set on.” Not knowing and understanding the rules (and more importantly how game officials apply them) when they think they do is just one problem with parents. Other issues: overvaluing the talent of their own children, becoming too emotionally invested in the outcome of a junior high game, yelling at players, coaches and officials despite the fact that they are annoying every parent on their own team and completely oblivious to it, coaching from the sidline, putting too much pressure on their kids, cutting down their children’s teammates in front of them, doing everything ethical or not to try and give their own kid an advantage, etc.
Here is where the Circle of Dysfunction comes into play. Many parents and coaches don’t like the officiating at the youth basketball level, even though many parents and coaches don’t know the rules (but think they do). Those parents are often verbally abusive and, in rare cases, physically abusive to officials. Those officials decide “Why in the world would I do this?” (Including many high school and college officials, by the way), so they quit officiating youth basketball. Which brings on new officials who don’t know the rules because they aren’t properly trained. Those officials generally start at the youngest ages where they can’t do too much harm. The officials make incorrect calls, which the parents assume are correct, which leads to the bigger rules issue. This Circle of Dysfunction does not end.
I can’t ref every game. I can’t speak to every parent group. I can’t take back a bad call that I make or one of my partners make. The only think I can do is to teach parents and coaches how to enjoy the youth basketball experience by educating them about rules, sportsmanship and how game officials apply black and white rules to gray situations. So, if you know a youth basketball parent, coach or an official who hasn’t read BasketCases yet, please get them a copy and help lower their blood pressure. The Jeff Shands of the world and all the officials will thank you.
