The Ohio High School Athletic Association has suffered from a shortage of game officials for many years. Berkshire High School decided one way to solve that problem was to become the first school in Geauga County to offer a sports officiating class which started this fall.
“We are not holding any of the students to decide to go on to be officials,” Dave List, Berkshire’s social studies teacher and the instructor for the new course, told The Weekly Villager. “Ultimately that is their choice because there are certainly some things they have to make sure they cover like going through the concussion test, and making sure they have all of the of the requirements for the OHSAA and that’s on them.”
According to the 16th-year softball coach, although Berkshire is the first school in Geauga County to offer this course, it is not the first school in Northeast Ohio to do so, having taken a page out of Grand Valley’s book.
“Grand Valley was doing this before we were and last year I was approached by Principal Jon Franks and Athletic Director Brian Hiscox and asked if I would include that course in my schedule,” noted List. “Being a longtime coach and recognizing the need for officials, I was, like, absolutely.”
Having coached several sports since he was 19 years-old, List said he believed he could use his experience from a coaching perspective to teach a new generation of sports officials.
“Good officials are the ones that are not noticed during the game and they realize the game is meant to be decided by the players on the field whether that is a softball game or a basketball game,” he added. “I try to impart that to them and also some of my experience in terms of interactions with officials from a coaching standpoint.”
List said the course accounted for half of a credit that went towards the required electives needed for a student to graduate from Berkshire for each semester and once they completed the course, they could use the opportunity to earn money officiating youth sports or use their OHSAA certification to log volunteer hours as a sporting official.
The first quarter taught students how to officiate basketball games to prepare them for opportunities in the upcoming winter season; they are now learning how to become baseball and softball officials.
When the third quarter begins, List said the plan is to teach the students how to officiate soccer matches and then will give the students the option of choosing to pursue officiating in either volleyball or football for the fourth quarter.
“With basketball the hope was let’s try to get as many kids as ready for the first sport that will come around after the first quarter,” List noted. “It was too late to do baseball and softball and too late to do football and volleyball because those had already started.”
The course structure has the students complete modules, different chapters that deal with different aspects of coaching the sport and include short tests at the end that determine the completion of each module. Once all modules are completed, the students must take a test administered by the State of Ohio that allows them to become OHSAA certified in becoming a basketball referee.
If the students pass the OHSAA certification test, they are allowed to officiate youth and junior high basketball games but would not be permitted to referee junior varsity and high school varsity contests because of the bylaws.
“I believe there is a bylaw that provides a person who is still in high school cannot do high school games just because of the conflict of interest,” said List.
According to List, the students were receptive when they were studying the modules but acknowledged he sensed apprehension when he had guest speakers come by to talk about their experiences as sports officials.
“You have to have some thick skin and I think there is that fear of getting yelled at by parents,” he said. “It is a little bit daunting for a high school student if you have to think about those things, For this course, I guess my biggest reward is if we do actually start to see some of these students really go out there and put it into action and at that point I think that is what I am hoping to get out of that. I guess my excitement is a little more wait and see and see how many come out of this.”
“As everybody associated with sports is well aware, there is an officiating shortage so, again, our hope is that we can get a few here and there,” List said. “As high school students they are only going to be able to officiate at the youth and junior high level. It is more about them becoming certified to officiate because there is such a need out there.”
