The new high school football season begins Thursday night, and the Louisiana High School Athletic Association is facing a referee shortage.
LHSAA officials blame parents and fans who verbally--and sometimes--physically assault officials for that shortage.
Now the LHSAA is warning fans of the consequences of their poor sportsmanship.
"It's got to stop--the misbehavior of fans (and) the misbehavior of fans and athletes combined." LHSAA executive director Eddie Bonine said.
According to Bonine, the LHSAA and its member schools have made aggressive changes over the last two years to address sportsmanship problems among fans in the stands. Bonine says the football field and all other athletic venues are extensions of the classroom, adding that any unsporting or violent behavior exhibited by some parents and fans would not be tolerated anywhere else on a school campus.
"Until the parents understand that their actions and/or their legal guardians or their family and friends or whatever--the fans--figure out that if they're going to act like their going to act and they're going to insert themselves into what's supposed to be a positive competitive environment, it's going to affect not only the school but it's unfortunately going to affect the students on the floor," Bonine said.
Bonine says schools whose parents violate sportsmanship rules can face stiff penalties from the LHSAA, up to playing games in closed venues without any fans allowed inside to watch.
"We took away season times. We took away hosting sites. We took away stuff," Bonine said, noting that he issued those penalties to various schools over the last two years. "The last thing I want to do or we can do, which we have the authority to do, is you're going to play Friday night, but you're not going to have any fans in the stands.
"That affects mom, dad, grandparents from both sides, in-laws, you name it," Bonine continued. "They may never do anything. It's somebody else that does it, and it affects everybody. Unfortunately, it seems like a blanket consequence, and to a certain degree it is, but that's the only thing that we can do on this end. That's going to have to happen before the message is out there. Go to the game. Behave yourself. Some people are going to boo the officials. That's going to happen. Administration is going to be in place to help handle it, but at the end of the day, when something like that hits the fan, it's going to come to me, and I'm the one whose going to have to clean it up, and I do that."