Posted on 10/15/2001, 8:19:24 PM by Dan from Michigan
High school football referees want respect for their work
By SUSAN FIELD
The Associated Press
10/15/01 2:11 PM
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (AP) -- All Doug Mascho wants is a little respect.
Hearing the crowd jeer doesn't stop him from being a volunteer high school football referee, but sometimes, he and other volunteers would like to hear a cheer.
Listening to negatives from fans in the stands can be challenging, especially when fans don't know the rules, said Mascho, who is head of the Heart of Michigan Officials Association.
It's also sometimes frustrating to see the crowd become impatient when a game official does make a mistake.
"We have to be perfect all the time," Mascho said. "And then they don't notice."
Of Mascho's interesting football officiating stories, the most odd, he said, involved the mother of a football player who walked onto the field and refused to leave.
The woman, he said, was staging a protest because the opponent's coach was on the field, and her son's was not.
"When she came down, she was standing right in the coach's box," Mascho said. "It was bizarre."
It's sometimes a thankless job, with ribbing and heckling from football parents and spectators, but Mascho loves the job, despite the unspectacular pay. They travel all over central Michigan to act as high school football game officials throughout the season.
"You have to have a deaf ear," Mascho said. "You don't do it to get rich.
"You do it because you like sports and you like kids. And it's fun to be on the field."
Mascho, a corrections officer at the state prison in Carson City, jokes that his career and his hobby, refereeing, both consist of telling people they've done something wrong.
Mascho, who works with a crew from Stanton, Rosebush and Greenville, said officials spend Thursdays and Fridays away from home, and that the work is a big commitment
Getting paid an average of $50 for officiating a varsity game, and $35 to $40 for a junior varsity game, the job isn't about glamour. It's about making sure kids have fun on the field, Mascho said.
Mascho tells high school players before games begin that they must respect each other and the rules of the game. "It's a very violent game," Mascho said. "After a while, you get mad at each other.
"You try to keep a lid on it; keep the kids calmed down."
Prior to games, Mascho and his peers get together -- sometimes they drive to games together -- and discuss rules, past games and "go over any freaky play" to prepare for game time.
"We just talk everything over," he said. "We make sure we're on the same page."
For varsity football games, there are five officials, which Mascho said is not enough.
"You can't see everything," he said.
In their travels from Mount Pleasant to Leslie, Farwell, Beaverton, Harrison and as far as Grand Haven, Mascho and his peers spend a lot of time together during the football season.
"From about the beginning of August to the middle of November, we're together quite a bit," he said. "Off season, we stay in touch."
High school game officials also try to be more lenient with players than their counterparts are in the National Collegiate Athletic Association or those in professional sports, Mascho said.
"These kids aren't professional," he said. "Many of them won't go on to play in college.
And referees are there to find others who want to join the ranks of high school athletic officials -- others who also want to see the young athletes have a good time.
Recruiting can be difficult, Mascho said. He relies on friends, runs classified ads at times and runs promotions with the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
It's called a pregame and it is done one hour before the game since we take control of the game 1/2 hour before kickoff and until the end of the game. We go over free kicks, scrimmage kicks, running plays, passing plays, PAT kicks, goal line responsibility, and field goals inside the 15 or outside the 15. Every member of the crew has responsibility for certain parts of the field during every type of play.
If any of you ever have Big 12 refs, please be prepared for a lot of yellow hankies and holding penalities -- that is their speciality!
High School Refs here in OK are pretty good and I hear very few complaints which makes me wish they were the Big 12 Refs!
Best "I was there" story I remember is a HS player at the plate admitting that the noisy fan was his mom [and he wishing that she would just be quiet].
In that case, I would recommend a different career.
I don't think he's coaching anymore. The team got clobbered as well, and we clinched the playoffs with that win.
Thanks Coach!
I look at it this way. We have 10 rules in football. And if a rule is broken that gives a team an advantage, I'm going to throw it. But if I see a slight hold on the opposite side of the field, 15 yards from the ball, am I going to throw it? Probably not, because then, IMHO, I am interferring with the game. A police officer rarely gives anyone a ticket for driving 5 mph over the speed limit. Though the rules are black and white, there has to be some gray, or the official could get carried away...
Volunteer? I think this is confusing — later on in the article, the author states that they get paid. Does she mean that all sports officials that are not full-time are "volunteer"?
Getting paid an average of $50 for officiating a varsity game, and $35 to $40 for a junior varsity game...
I agree that it is almost volunteering!
Prior to games, Mascho and his peers get together -- sometimes they drive to games together...
This is a huge understatement. Most high school (and ALL college) officials have a huge comaraderie among their crew. Most drive to every game together and then go out for dinner (and usually "adult beverages") afterwards.
As a high school and college basketball official, I can tell you that there are moronic players, coaches, fans, and especially parents everywhere. The abuse that you can receive is unbelievable, but it does go with the territory.
Kinda like that episode of the Andy Griffith Show where Barney gets power hungry and starts enforcing every little rule in the book, only to have Gomer Pyle chasing him down in the street later on yelling "Citizen's Arrest!!! Citizen's Arrest!!!" for a similar irrelevant infraction.
I understand where Dan is coming from. Thankfully a lot of my games were in the military, so you have some discipline from the players. The HS games were DODDS in Europe and I did HS sports in Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky during assignments here. Age and bad knees retired me. Keep calling them like you see em Dan.
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