Referees and sports officials have a huge impact on sports games.  There are three specific things that I think affect the games the most: their mood, age, and their angle or viewpoint.

You never know whether you will get a fair referee or not.  Some favor a certain team, so they will make calls for the team that they like better.  This is a big problem though because players and coaches shouldn’t have to worry if the officials are going to make the right calls or not.    

Personally playing softball, I’ve experienced my fair share of bad referees.  I’ve noticed that unless the game is very close, you are able to tell where the game is going to go by what kind of mood the referee is in.  If a coach makes them mad or argues with the referee, then most likely the calls aren’t going to go in that coach’s favor.

The referee’s mood can also be impacted by the atmosphere.  In an article on referee training by Tom Webb on Taylor & Francis Online said, “Recent research has shown that sports with subjective officiating tend to experience greater home advantage and that referees’ decisions can be influenced by crowd noise.”

Loud or rude fans can help the referee choose which team they’d give the call to.  Brian Freeman from Blazersedge, a website devoted to the Portland Trail Blazers, stated, “Creating a scene to disrespect the ref may make even the fairest official have to fight their natural instinct to retaliate.”

The way that a team reacts to a call also has a great impact.  Not only the coaches but, the players can get upset from bad calls.  Bad sportsmanship from players can also cause the referee to sway towards one team over the other.  For example, if a player overacts and says something or rolls their eyes in front of the referee then you’re most likely not going to get the call that you want.  This also will set the tone for how the rest of the game goes.  

The last impact that I think is important is the perspective of the referee.  If they don’t have the right viewpoint of the ball, then the right call isn’t going to be made.  Sometimes, the referees miss the play and there isn’t anything that the coaches can do. I wish that there was a way that you could avoid these situations but, you can’t because it is expected for refs to make mistakes.  No matter how good the referee is, this will always happen especially in high school sports.

Athletic directors need to determine a better way to get fair and qualified refs to work at the high school games.  With better refs, the games would be more competitive and cleaner.

Disclaimer: Articles designated as “Editorial” represent the views and opinions of the author, not the 2017-2018 Periscope staff, CHS Administration, or the CHS student body.