Why High School Officiating is so Hard

But the NFL is unreachable. To fans, all they can do is watch as the refs make bad call after bad call over and over again, never seeing any change. So let's talk about something that's a little closer to home, high school sports. Specifically high school sports in Philadelphia. In Philly high school sports, good, quality refs are hard to come by. 

"I mean, right now in the current climate, it is hard to find officials" said Daniel Rivera, a soccer coach at Carver High School, "we work with what we can get". 

According to Rivera, good referees are hard to come by, and this may have to do with how fans treat the refs during a game. It's very common for parents to get mad at a call, and to yell at the ref, call them names, even follow them to their car. So as a result not many people want to be as referee, as it is such an unforgiving job. 

"It's a really difficult job. It's a really thankless job. No matter what you do, you're wrong." said athletic director for Carver High School Scott Pitzner in an interview, "It's hard to make the right call. I think sometimes it moves fast. And I always say to people who say 'they're out there doing a terrible job' You can sign up take the course and become an official and help us out because we need officials. ". 

As Pitzner noted, there is a shortage of refs, and nobody wants to be a ref these days because of the way that they are treated.