Scoreboard Guy

Hey lets go easy on the Zebras

We have had many tweets, emails and phone calls about the state of the affairs regarding the officials and certain games in this years Blue and Gold tourney. Being a former coach and official i feel like I may have some inisght into this rather touchy situation. As a former Athletic Director I have dealt with coaches who for whatever reason were unable to be a game, players who didn't show up and fans who failed to attend. In all those cases the games were still played. On the 1 or 2 occasions where the officials didn't show we couldn't play. We have to officials to be able to participate, it is the most thankless job associated with High School Sports. Basketball officials seem to take more abuse than any other game administrators, partly because of the pace of the game, partly because of the proximity of the fans and partly because of the mere fact that the game is played inside where voices easier heard and understood. Think about the fact there are maybe 2 football plays per minute while in a basketball game there are many opportunities to blow the whistle. Unfortunately there were some calls and no calls which occurred in the past 3 days of the Blue and Gold and I am sure they happened in other tournaments around Southwest Missouri. But I know most of the officials and for the most part they are well meaning men and lets cut them some slack. Are there times where they blow it, absolutely, but I blow it as well on a daily basis. Are there some that I wouldn't want doing a game that I was coaching or playing? You bet, but there are more that I could care less if they were in charge because for the most part they are as fair as they can be. It is human nature to want to blame failures on outside forces rather than admit that you just came up short and officials are an easy target.