{"id":6935,"date":"2021-12-15T09:48:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T14:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=6935"},"modified":"2025-08-22T19:06:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T23:06:04","slug":"high-school-basketball-official-shortages-a-real-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2021\/12\/15\/high-school-basketball-official-shortages-a-real-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"High School Basketball Official Shortages a Real Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are many reasons, but the biggest of which<\/p>\n

nobody wants to talk about…<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In Aroostook County, high school basketball is a rich tradition. With the exception of last year\u2019s COVID season, people pack our tiny gyms to support the student athletes\u2019 passion for the game. The one primary element that allows the games to go on are the unsung \u201cthird team\u201d that everyone loves to hate: the referees. They are the law, the over-bearing authority, but their job is to remain invisible. One major problem facing the future of high school basketball here in the county is the shortage of officials.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Julie Goupille began officiating in 1997. When she began, there were 75 active officials on Aroostook County\u2019s Board 150. Now there are 28. \u201cOne reason I think is it is a time commitment. People have to give up their evenings. And there is a lot of travel involved,\u201d Goupille said. \u201cWhen I first started, you never worked multiple games in a day. But because of dwindling numbers, it will happen every weekend this season.\u201d This further explains the challenges that assignors run into.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Julie Goupille at a 2019 Class D Girls Regional Final. (Photo By Tim Goupille).<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Like anything else, there isn\u2019t just one reason. But there is one that just about every official can attest to. \u201cIn my opinion, the primary reason is the abuse that officials take,\u201d Goupille said. Everyone is guilty about complaining about calls or blaming the refs for why their team has a lost a game. After all, they are the easy targets. You don\u2019t have to take any responsibility when laying the blame at the door of the officials. If your team lost by one point, it wasn\u2019t the five layups they missed or the 10 free throws that didn\u2019t fall. It was the player-control call with five seconds left in the fourth quarter. \u201cYou are fair game when you\u2019re out on the floor,\u201d Goupille said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Young Board 150 official Will Bridges started officiating just one year removed from high school. \u201cI wanted to stay in the world of sports when I was going into college and also stay with basketball throughout my life,\u201d Bridges said. But he really started because of the need for people willing to step up. \u201cI knew Maine, but specifically Aroostook County, needed officials to help with games around the county.<\/span>\u201d With just two years of experience, Will has put up with more than his fair share of grief when out on the floor. \u201cI have received more abuse than what I thought I was going to get when I first started. I received it from mostly coaches and fans.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Board #150 Officials Pedro Rodriguez (left) and Mark Turner (right) (Photo by Tim Goupille).<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For referees, there are not many personal goals to strive for. Their jobs are to disappear into anonymity. They don\u2019t want to be a talking point after the game. It is a thankless job in every sense of the word. But the biggest milestone they can reach is making the tournament. Every year a certain number of officials from each board across the state of Maine are selected to officiate tournament games. \u201cThe highlight of my career was probably getting selected to go to Bangor for the first time,\u201d Goupille said. \u201cOnce you have a taste of that, it\u2019s addictive. You want to work hard every year to go back.\u201d She officiated at the tournament for seven years and worked a state championship game in 2020.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With the declining numbers of officials, you might ask what can be done to prevent the numbers from getting too low. \u201cAs officials, we also have a responsibility to enforce the rules we have in regard to sportsmanship,\u201d Goupille said. \u201cIf, collectively, we could crack down on coaches, players and fans, we would see a huge change. The biggest need to stop verbal abuse of officials is to raise the expectations of how coaches, players and fans should behave when at a game. The expectation now is that you pay your five bucks to get into the game, and then you can do and say whatever you want.\u201d An overall attitude change toward what people can say to officials would undoubtedly stop the decline and get more people willing to become officials. \u201cLet\u2019s face it, all of us who have officiated are a little bit touched in the head. We\u2019re crazy to get out there and take the abuse year in and year out. We do it for the love of the game. And we do it for the kids\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Perhaps most ironic about fans, players and coaches lashing out is that they simply do not have as deep an understanding of the rules as the officials on the floor. The officials have taken the course.\u00a0 They also have to take a test every season, refreshing themselves on the rules. \u201cI believe probably 95 percent of people at games know the basics. But probably 2 percent know the rules as much as the officials do,\u201d Will Bridges said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Overall, people need a little more understanding and a little more open-mindedness on those involved in high school basketball. Although officials may make many mistakes, they are never the only reason a team lost the game. They are doing their best. If they believe they could do a better job, they can go take the course.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are many reasons, but the biggest of which nobody wants to talk about… \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In Aroostook County, high school basketball is a rich tradition. With the exception of last year\u2019s COVID season, people pack our tiny gyms to support the student athletes\u2019 passion for the game. The one primary element that allows the games to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8213,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6935\/revisions\/8213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}