00:00Do you feel like I should be doing seven games for an hour?
00:02No, I don't.
00:03You know why I'm doing seven games for 24 hours?
00:05Because there are fewer and fewer people that are willing to do this.
00:08Do you understand that?
00:09And most of the time, people that are unwilling to do it is because of you people.
00:13Why don't you just throw up, please?
00:16A viral video clip viewed more than 1.5 million times on X
00:21captures the youth sports referee crisis in a mere 12 seconds.
00:26Refs and umpires are quitting in droves because of verbal abuse from parents and coaches, low pay and the thankless nature of the job.
00:34The National Federation of State High School Associations says it's lost more than 50,000 officials since the 2018-2019 season.
00:42And it's worse at the youth level.
00:45The dwindling pool of officials has led to games being delayed, rescheduled or outright canceled.
00:51Parents behaving badly at youth games get all the headlines.
00:56And it's becoming a bigger issue as the cost and pressures of youth sports skyrocket.
01:01But the problems begin behind the scenes.
01:04Danine Gonsalves owns the Referee Advocates, a referee management group for youth soccer in Minnesota.
01:10She is seeing more awareness of the issue, but the fix is difficult.
01:15We can no longer just rely on the people that are passionate about sports to be able to like fill in.
01:24And we're begging them to fill into a spot that is not a model that's going to work anymore.
01:29We have to put money towards it.
01:31We have to put time and attention towards the referee experience if we want to see something change.
01:37Gonsalves said creating a framework for training and certification and then working with clubs, teams and coaches to place those officials is the starting point.
01:46New officials also need time to develop their skills and learn on the job, which will eventually create a pipeline for high-end leagues and games.
01:55Retention is an issue because some coaches, parents and players aren't very tolerant early on.
02:01As a 13-year-old, former NHL player Landon Ferraro was excited to make a little money in the sport he loved.
02:08He took all the classes, got certified, bought a uniform and signed up to ref a week of games for $20 a pop.
02:16Until an incident, his first time on the ice.
02:19These two kids ran into each other.
02:21Neither of them had the puck.
02:22They hit each other hard, as fast as six-year-olds can go.
02:26One coach comes out and he's just trying to help his player.
02:29And the other coach is coming out and he is screaming out that there's a penalty, all this.
02:37And I'm sitting there, I'm a kid.
02:39It was one of the first things that went into my mind.
02:41I'm like, I'm never doing this again.
02:43Like, scary.
02:44That story can be typical unless those coaching and watching know that learning is part of the process for officials.
02:51Gonsalves believes in giving the game back to the kids, letting them handle the ups and downs, referees included.
02:58Resilience is really key.
03:00Part of what we do in our programming is making sure that they understand that it is going to be a stressful job, right?
03:07It is something that's hard and you will have somebody say something against your call.
03:12Communities and professional teams are also realizing the scope of the problem.
03:17A new online training program for youth officials is launching in Atlanta early next year.
03:23The Georgia Recreation and Park Association is partnering with the Atlanta Braves, Falcons and Atlanta United to create what they call a first-of-its-kind virtual officiating course to address the shortage.
03:36Gonsalves sees the shift as well.
03:39Investing in officials makes organizations look good.
03:42They should also give parents and coaches an outlet for their frustrations.
03:46I think this is sort of the boiling pot is if parents and coaches don't have an outlet to express their frustration, it ends up landing on the referee.
03:56And so we have a game feedback form that we highly encourage our entire community to use so that they can let us know what they're seeing out there and they actually become a part of the solution.
04:09It is not a quick fix. Even businesses with experience in the space know that building a sustainable pipeline for officials that can lead to greater numbers down the road takes patience, structure and, most important, money.
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