Youth Sports--out of control

Officiating youth sporting events can be a dangerous prospect when you consider the attitudes of some coaches, parents, and yes, even players. So it really isn’t much of a surprise to read about a soccer referee, Ricardo Portillo, getting punched by a soccer player after awarding the player a yellow card. But what is surprising is that Portillo later died as a result of the hit, leaving the 17-year-old player to face charges that could include manslaughter.

Some coaches, parents and players have gone totally overboard about youth sports. For some reason, they forget that it’s just a recreational league game and not the World Series or the World Cup. It’s not everyone, but I would be willing to bet that everyone involved in any youth sports program can identify people who fit the mode.

We are no stranger to it right here in the Tri-City area. In fact, it’s hard to believe that something like this hasn’t already happened here. That’s not to say there haven’t been incidents; I am more than sure there have been. But people today need to figure out what’s really important and it’s not wins and losses on a soccer field or baseball field or football field.

Not too long ago I remember working as an official. It’s a tough position because no matter what you do or say the judgment is going to have an adverse effect on one team or the other. It’s a difficult path to follow, and the best of officials manage to find their way without creating a mess during the game.

But there are times when even the best of officials has to intervene. There is a saying that when the officials are at their best, you hardly notice them on the field. The same can be said about teams, and players, and coaches. At times officials have to become more prominent, mostly in order to get control of the game.

A wise old official once told me that there were actually four games happening at once when any two teams take the field. There was the game the kids were playing, the game the official was calling, the game the coach is watching, and the game the parents were seeing. No two of the games are the same, but all of them are legitimate.

Everybody is watching the game for different things. The players are looking for the next play, the parents are watching Johnny and Susie play, and the coaches are making sure the players are doing what they have been shown to do in practice.

The officials have to sit in the middle of all that and make sure that, to the most part, the rules are observed. While they can’t see everything happening on the field at once, they need to be aware of player reactions and to some extent the commentary from the sidelines. They also need to know what to ignore. In officiating parlance it’s called having rabbit ears. What that means is that you are paying too much attention to the verbal commentary from the sidelines and acting on that.

A good official knows when to stop listening.

Still there are times when things get out of hand. One incident occurred locally when a driver sped down the back lane behind the B-field near Shepherd Stadium in Colonial Heights many years ago. The driver had gotten out of his car and was yelling and hollering at everyone. I walked out to the fence and asked him to leave the premises, to which he refused. Easy enough of a fix, a simple call to the CHPD got him ushered out of the area.

But actually getting nose-to-nose with players on the field is much rarer. There’s no doubt that such things can happen. It seems every year we hear about one or two confrontations. But to actually throw a punch at an official seems way out of bounds. Even had this incident not taken such a tragic turn it would have been reprehensible.

And now, it’s likely to end up in serious charges against the 17-year-old who struck the referee. It’s likely he will face a life-changing event. In all likelihood this is a multiple year prison sentence. And the sad thing is it won’t serve as a deterrent; somewhere someone else will do something equally stupid in a sporting event.