Editor's note: This story is part of a series, State of Play, that examines the variety of challenges facing youth sports and, in some cases, possible solutions.
CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - You can have all the players, coaches, and trainers you want, but you won’t have games without officials. Illinois needs more.
“There’s no doubt that varsity games are being played and being covered. It’s those lower-level games that are equally important, but those are the ones that seem to be suffering the most, said Illinois High School Association Associate Executive Director Kurt Gibson.
Gibson is in charge of officiating for the IHSA and says there was a ten-year downturn in the number of licensed officials in the state, though the numbers did improve a bit for this school year.
“We certainly could use more basketball officials. Baseball and softball are also on the lower end. Football, the big team sports, I’ll call them, big meaning the number of games and the number of participants, those are where we probably need our most help," he said.
Then, Gibson said, they need those officials to stay involved.
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“If we can keep folks in for a three-to-five year window, they’re more likely to stick with it over the long haul,” Gibson said.
An IHSA survey last year showed that officials mainly get into the gig to give back or to stay in shape. But, they usually back away because of sportsmanship. They don’t want to deal with the guff that Gibson says is getting worse.
Officials are human too, but sometimes, people forget that. It’s a problem.
“Officials understand that they’re going to make calls that people don’t agree with, but, when it gets to that more personal level, that’s when that’s when it really starts to turn people off,” said Gibson.
That’s why, for most of the last decade, officials have been steadily leaving their roles. It seems to be getting worse, not better.
The IHSA is attacking the problem by pairing newer officials with older ones as mentors, and partnering with Lombard-based ‘Officially Human,’ to learn better ways to get the message of sportsmanship across.
“We need to talk about why we need to support the work of officials, and maybe there’s more that our office can do to help our newer school administrators learn some techniques and strategies about how to handle some of those folks who are making the night or the day, depending on when the game is, not a good one for everybody,” said Gibson.
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