How to fix the referee shortage problem.

[numberone]

This topic gets discussed at every seeding meeting but nothing ever gets said or done. Now I don't have all the answers but ask me this.
How many of us like getting yelled or screamed at by our employer? How many of us either quit or transferred or felt like quitting because they were upset? About getting harassed.
Now imagine being a 17 year old kid getting screamed at every time they ref. I've seen parents (Adults) get in the face and threaten 15-18 year old kids. I've seen Wisconsin parents shove teenage refs over a bad call.
Who would want to get treated that way. I wouldn't.
We have to make parents more responsible and be harsher on them. I see police officers at most tourneys I say use then. Talk to the parents about expectations. Warn them and give them examples of what you see and what's going to happen if they don't act like adults in front of their children.
If you get that problem fixed then more kids will want to stay in it. And before you say nothing can change. I would say  what have you tried that  has worked?

[bigG]

They should advertise in college wrestling rooms. Most of our schools are driving distance from a college of some wort. Most college kids want spending money. Funny how some parents come unglued on our HS kids. I bet coaches and parents would be more inclined to shaddap if college kids were blowing the whistles.

[WINfan]

They should advertise in college wrestling rooms. Most of our schools are driving distance from a college of some wort. Most college kids want spending money. Funny how some parents come unglued on our HS kids. I bet coaches and parents would be more inclined to shaddap if college kids were blowing the whistles.

My thoughts exactly!!

[Dale Einerson]

Wouldn't the ideal target be the high school wrestler, that graduates, but doesn't go on to wrestle? 

Seems to me, as a Father of 3 that wrestled in college, that it is a might unrealistic to think an athlete, during their season, while holding down a course load of 12-16 credits, can take on that part time job.  The colleges wrestle almost every weekend...if we are thinking they could referee after college, that is something, but most of them are now trying to tackle a new full time job in the real world; hopefully some would referee or coach if they can.

The recent graduate that isn't wrestling in college, still has wrestling fresh in their mind, looking for part-time work, that seems to be the target recruit.

Agnostic Hemp Necklace wearing hippie signing off...

[WINfan]

Wouldn't the ideal target be the high school wrestler, that graduates, but doesn't go on to wrestle? 

Seems to me, as a Father of 3 that wrestled in college, that it is a might unrealistic to think an athlete, during their season, while holding down a course load of 12-16 credits, can take on that part time job.  The colleges wrestle almost every weekend...if we are thinking they could referee after college, that is something, but most of them are now trying to tackle a new full time job in the real world; hopefully some would referee or coach if they can.

The recent graduate that isn't wrestling in college, still has wrestling fresh in their mind, looking for part-time work, that seems to be the target recruit.

Agnostic Hemp Necklace wearing hippie signing off...

You have some good points, but isnt a bonus to reffing as a part time job is you get to pick your workload?   I agree with you about the high school kid that isnt going to college as well.  Ill add another one for you......what about the college kid that wrestled in high school that doesnt wrestle in college?

Either way, I would like to see some type of movement, maybe like the WWF did for "give wrestling a shot" week.   

[Dale Einerson]

Heavens I miss the forum...please read my 1st line above and know we are in non-violent agreement.

[1Iota]

Wouldn't the ideal target be the high school wrestler, that graduates, but doesn't go on to wrestle? 

Seems to me, as a Father of 3 that wrestled in college, that it is a might unrealistic to think an athlete, during their season, while holding down a course load of 12-16 credits, can take on that part time job.  The colleges wrestle almost every weekend...if we are thinking they could referee after college, that is something, but most of them are now trying to tackle a new full time job in the real world; hopefully some would referee or coach if they can.

The recent graduate that isn't wrestling in college, still has wrestling fresh in their mind, looking for part-time work, that seems to be the target recruit.

Agnostic Hemp Necklace wearing hippie signing off...

I agree that a college wrestler would not have the time to also ref on the side.  College athletics has become a full time job, even at the D-III level.  However, my Son did not go on to wrestle after HS, but with his 8 years of experience in the sport was asked to wrestle a youth tournament near his college.  It occurred to him that this was an easier way to earn money than most part time jobs available to college students.  He went on to get his certification & starting his Sophomore year worked mainly JV tournaments.  The great thing was he was in control of his schedule.  If he had a big test, he didn't work.  If he had a lighter week he would schedule a weekday dual, normally the JV portion, & a tournament.  He ended up making more money that he was making working at the University book store & his schedule was up to him. 

I would encourage ever wrestler that has invested a number of years in the sport, but has no plans to wrestle in college to consider this avenue. 

[stbird]

Best bet is to make it widely known how much a referee can make in his free time.  Most high school kids probably have no idea!  I know I don't have any idea but I see coaches quitting to referee because they can make a lot more money in less time. 

[bigG]

Wouldn't the ideal target be the high school wrestler, that graduates, but doesn't go on to wrestle? 

Seems to me, as a Father of 3 that wrestled in college, that it is a might unrealistic to think an athlete, during their season, while holding down a course load of 12-16 credits, can take on that part time job.  The colleges wrestle almost every weekend...if we are thinking they could referee after college, that is something, but most of them are now trying to tackle a new full time job in the real world; hopefully some would referee or coach if they can.

The recent graduate that isn't wrestling in college, still has wrestling fresh in their mind, looking for part-time work, that seems to be the target recruit.

Agnostic Hemp Necklace wearing hippie signing off...

Good idea, but I wonder if that graduate not continuing has a job, or goes to school. Same problem, then. Time.

Maybe the trick will be getting coaches to do a bit of promotion to those rasslin' graduates. I'd be glad to court my old wrestlers into reffing.

Maybe offer them some of those agnostic hemp necklaces you have. It would make sense if hemp didn't know quite what to believe.

[imnofish]

Wouldn't the ideal target be the high school wrestler, that graduates, but doesn't go on to wrestle? 

Seems to me, as a Father of 3 that wrestled in college, that it is a might unrealistic to think an athlete, during their season, while holding down a course load of 12-16 credits, can take on that part time job.  The colleges wrestle almost every weekend...if we are thinking they could referee after college, that is something, but most of them are now trying to tackle a new full time job in the real world; hopefully some would referee or coach if they can.

The recent graduate that isn't wrestling in college, still has wrestling fresh in their mind, looking for part-time work, that seems to be the target recruit.

Agnostic Hemp Necklace wearing hippie signing off...

Good idea.  I wrestled some in college.  After leaving competition, I fed my wrestling addiction by coaching our city's youth program and officiating wrestling.  It just seemed like a natural next step.  For any aspiring coach, officiating can provide an excellent opportunity to better understand the sport that you love.

[TomM]

Is there technology available (projection device) to show a 'expected proper adult behavior' video after the initial round at events?

'Someone' (raise your had if interested and capable) might produce a 'educational' video with demonstration of techniques to be expected of 'parents' and/or 'coaches' of kids.

Something 'similar', but better than this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1IgHxQh0Q5M

Showing 'Do this, not that'...

Thoughts?

[Coach Q]

Part of the problem is that we do things completely backwards in Wrestling for referees. As a guy that coaches 2 sports in h.s. and umpires 2 others we make it very difficult on the new guys. In most other sports we get them to start at the lower youth levels and we work up and many times have a partner with experience do the games with them and mentor them along. The parents are usually in the stands and at many times a fence separating us.
In Wrestling often times (not always)we start them in the youth tournaments with screaming parents and relatives 4-5 feet away on matside criticizing every call.  We then ask them to work for free to benefit the club or I was given $50 for being there from 8:00-4:00 for filling in for a referee that didn't show up. Granted most youth tournaments pay much more but as an 18-19 year old to have screaming fans in my face it doesn't surprise me that many don't want to come back.
Keep the fans in the stands!

[picklesnthings]

My son, who is a junior in high school, got his WIAA license this year.  He has done 2 youth tournaments thus far and hasn't had any issues with parents.  He has 3 more youth tournaments scheduled.  He also has 2 junior high meets scheduled where another veteran WIAA official will be there as well (they are having 2 mats at each JH meet).   He is making very good money for working any where from 3 to 6 hours on a Sunday which he would not even come close to working a part time job somewhere for the same amount of time.  It is not for everyone - you have to be thick skinned and I told him to stick to his calls.   I think the main thing is he absolutely loves wrestling and that helps with the reffing aspect of it.

[DocWrestling]

Honestly the only way to fix the problem is...

1) Automatic ejection for any fan addressing/questioning the official/umpire

2) Automatic ejection for any coach confronting or yelling at an official.  Simply need to allow coaches to call time out in all sports where they can discuss a rules interpretation in a calm manner.

Maybe in wrestling a coach is given 2 timeouts per dual or something like that.  Maybe in baseball they are given 1 timeout.  Make it so coaches have to use their timeouts wisely and cannot dispute everything

The WIAA and schools have a pretty good way to monitor and discipline coaches.  They need to get more involved with monitoring, disciplining, and calling out parents.

In our youth baseball program, we started ejecting more coaches and parents and it has greatly improved the behavior of all.  One swear word and they are ejected.  

As far as wrestling our youth tournaments are a joke and a mess that lead to referee shortages as well as dwindle our wrestling participation numbers.  

[thequad]

If we could get coaches to help young referees by explaining the mistake calmly and not having change the call but just let them know what their mistake was.
When I started out a coach did this to me and that was a good way to handle it.