Increase in ejections, decrease in officials a major concern for NCHSAA
https://www.highschoolot.com/increase-in-ejections-decrease-in-officials-a-major-concern-for-nchsaa/18359334/By Nick Stevens, HighSchoolOT.com managing editor
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — At the N.C. High School Athletic Association board of directors meeting on Wednesday, board members reviewed the data surrounding ejections and officials. The association believes the increase in one of those is contributing to a decrease in the other.
Ejections are up in most categories year-over-year, the NCHSAA announced.
The largest rises for ejections came in profanity, which jumped from 153 ejections in 2017-2018 to 341 ejections so far this school year, and fighting, which increased from 210 ejections to 282 ejections so far this year.
"The profanity issue that we are dealing with has been at the forefront. We're not going to tolerate that, so that has perpetuated some of that," NCHSAA President Sandy George, who is also the principal at Mt. Airy High School, said. "The fighting is absolutely out of hand and we are trying to clean up some language in our handbook when leaving the bench area in order to participate in a fight."
Current NCHSAA rules state that student-athletes who leave the bench area and enter the playing field or court during a fight are guilty of participating in the fight, even if they never physically touch another person.
George believes a stricter interpretation of that rule is coming and that it could make ejection numbers rise again.
"We are getting stricter with that," she said. "There are more ejections coming because we cannot tolerate those behaviors."
Football saw more ejections than any other sports with 342 ejections last fall. Of those ejections, 123 were for fighting and 115 were for profanity. Boys soccer was second with 215 ejections, followed by boys basketball with 158 ejections.
Scarlett Steinert, a NCHSAA board member and athletic director for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district, said sportsmanship has to become more important within the schools.
"We talk sportsmanship a lot. We talk about it every meeting. We talk about it at athletic director meetings. We have to keep talking about it at the ground level, which are the kids and coaches," she said. "No matter what, you win with dignity, you lose with dignity ... We have to continue to push those types of conversations with kids that I don't think is happening enough at the ground level."
NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker agreed, stating that she thinks it's a generational issue.
"I think generationally, (talking about sportsmanship) is just not enough today. I think we have to be very intentional. We have to do a better job of providing our schools with more resources they can use, we have to give them more PSAs," she said. "We have to be aware of the climate in which we're living, just in general. As coaches, we've got to be very, very intentional in what we tell our young people."
George, Steinert, and Tucker all agreed that the uptick in ejections contributes to the drop in new officials too.
According to a report released by the NCHSAA on Wednesday, a large portion of the association's officials are older than 60 years old. Of the 6,366 officials registered with the NCHSAA in April, 1,000 of them are between the ages of 61-70, while 214 are over the age of 70. An additional 1,828 officials are between the ages of 51-60.
On the flip side, only 615 officials are between the ages of 18-25, and 767 officials are between the ages of 26-35.
"If I'm an official or I'm trying to talk someone into officiating, and you hear what's being said to them, you're thinking, 'Oh no, I don't want to do that,'" Tucker said. "Somehow we've got to really stress that to parents and students as well. We just can't have that."
The NCHSAA is working to recruit more officials as it faces a shortage of officials in many sports. The board passed a 5 percent increase in officiating fees on Wednesday. That increase will happen every four years beginning in the 2020-2021 school year.