Dear Parents,

Youth sports are at a crisis point, and your immediate and ongoing help is required if your children enjoy participating in athletics.

The number of sports officials in the State of Ohio and around the Country is dwindling. The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) recently reported that a survey of state high school associations showed that there are about 50,000 FEWER high school officials since the 2018-19 school year.

Increasingly, youth and high school sports organizations are cancelling games or working with smaller officiating crews. Coaches are more frequently left to officiate games themselves, and newer officials are being rushed into action at higher levels of play much sooner than would typically occur. Research indicates that as many as 70% of new officials quit officiating entirely within 3 years of obtaining certification.

Why? The overwhelming reason cited by officials is unacceptable behavior by coaches, parents, and other spectators. National surveys have shown that almost one of every two officials have felt physically threatened after officiating a game. The focus MUST be on the children playing the games, and not on the individuals officiating the contests. For those wondering why we are no longer holding playoffs – this is your reason. The problem behaviors increase exponentially during playoff games, and eliminating playoffs is our small attempt to hopefully help provide a better atmosphere for officials and players alike.

What does this mean for this season? Levels of play that used to have two umpires at games will only have one umpire at many games this season. Coaches may end up umpiring games at times – especially if the summer is rainy because the umpire crunch will become even more difficult to navigate as games get rescheduled. The alternative is that games could be cancelled outright and not rescheduled due to the lack of available officials. The coach pitch level may not have any umpires at all. Many of the middle school, high school, and college students who used to fill these positions have no interest in the role any longer because they are tired of being yelled at by their neighbors and classmates’ parents.

What can you do? Provide POSITIVE support at games – cheer for the players on all teams. Do not react loudly or yell about calls – even those that may appear to you to be clearly wrong. These are kids playing a game. One of the great life lessons we hope children learn from competition is how to deal with adversity. Let them fail and pick themselves up. They don’t need you to “save” or “protect” them from a “bad” call that didn’t go their way. Allow them the opportunity to show you how they can put the last play behind them and move on to the next play with clear eyes and focus. Always remember that the umpires are human, and some of them are teenagers or young adults. We need them to stay involved for the future. NO UMPIRE IS WORKING THE GAME BECAUSE HE OR SHE CARES WHO WINS. If you arrive at a game with the expectation of being “homered”, you will amazingly find exactly what you were looking for through your skewed lenses, despite no actual truth to the claim. If you see an individual acting out inappropriately, report the individual. Any person acting out is only embarrassing themselves, their family, neighbors, community, and most sadly – their player who is on the field of play.

This trend can be changed, but it will take efforts from everyone involved to alter the course into a more positive direction. We appreciate you taking this seriously and doing your best to help provide your child with a positive experience that can hopefully continue throughout their childhood.

Sincerely,

League Directors from Brecksville, Broadview Heights, Brooklyn Heights, Cuyahoga Heights, Independence, Newburgh Heights, Nordonia, and Valley View