By DREW MARKOL
The Intelligencer
April showers bring ...
Stop there.
The part about the showers. Roberta Butler doesn't want to hear it. Whether it's April or September. Rain is rain, and rain is bad.
First thing every spring or fall morning, Butler pulls back the curtain and takes a look and hopes.
When you're the one in charge of assigning officiating crews to field hockey or lacrosse games from the varsity level on down to the junior highs, weather plays an enormous role.
With barely enough officials to cover the events, a day washed out means makeup games on days when there are already a slew of other games scheduled.
"All of a sudden you have all these games on the same day, and it's a nightmare getting officials to all the places you need them," Butler said. "Sometimes you can't do it. There are maybe seven to eight days in a season where I can't cover every game because I don't have enough officials to go around."
Take a shallow pool of aging officials. Mix in the common starting time - 3:30 p.m. - that most 9-to-5ers can't make. Add several new, lesser-known sports and a dollop of verbal abuse from fans. The result is not enough officials to go around.
When a slate of events gets washed away, nobody moves until they hear from Butler.
"The assigners really have a thankless job," Pennridge athletic
director Joe Thompson said. "I know that we always have to reschedule events and so do all of the other schools because of weather.
"They're trying to put officials in so many different spots, and there are only so many to go around."
Finding competent officials for football and basketball is not a problem. Baseball, softball and soccer are holding steady, while wrestling and track and field need help.
The sports without problems are the ones many people grew up playing and watching and, consequently, have an understanding of how they're played. Football and basketball also are generally played at night or weekends, making it easier for officials to get to them.
But, take newer sports such as lacrosse and volleyball, sports most adults didn't grow up playing or watching, and there's no built-in base to draw officials from. That innate feel for a game is missing, making it more difficult to officiate.
Many lacrosse officials learned the rules from a book, not from years of playing, and then have to apply them to what is a high-speed game that doesn't allow them to refer to a manual.
Full article:
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/ ... 48680.html
