Local sports officials endure taunts for love of game

By Pete Borello, Town Crier Staff Writer

Umpire Mark Shaw officiates a Homestead High School baseball game last week.

They’re allowed to whistle while they work, but their workplace is always a potentially hostile environment. They’re often cursed at on the job and occasionally harassed on the way to the parking lot. They are paid little - if at all - yet many observers expect them to be perfect.

They’re sports officials.

Hundreds of Los Altos-area residents sign up for duty each year, as youth soccer referees, Little League baseball umpires, high school football officials, etc. Most are men, although the number of women officials is on the rise, and they range from teenagers to senior citizens.

“We get all kinds of people - police officers, lawyers, doctors, teachers,” said Robert Martinez, the president of Fermar, which has been supplying officials for all the high school games in Santa Clara County since 1977. “There’s a lot of diversity, from professional people to blue-collar workers. It’s a big mixture.”

Their backgrounds vary, but refs typically share a few common traits.

“They have a love for their game,” Martinez said, “and most of them have played their game at a high level.”

Neither is a prerequisite for the job, however. Fermar and youth organizations such as Little League and AYSO don’t require applicants to have prior experience playing or officiating their sport of choice. What’s mandatory: time to train. They must learn the rules, mechanics and how to deal with all sorts of scenarios, coaches, players and spectators.

Fermar, for example, puts prospective officials through four to six weeks of training per sport. There are meetings, clinics and finally a test on the rules. Once they pass, the rookie refs are assigned to freshman-level or junior-varsity games. Martinez said each official is evaluated once or twice per season; when they are deemed good enough, they are allowed to work varsity games.

“Officials are evaluated on a drop-in basis each year,” said Mountain View High School teacher David Blasquez, a veteran ref of both basketball and water polo. “Now the longer you have been officiating the less frequent the observations are, if the association believes you are doing a good job. This is usually determined by lack of complaints and messages of good officiating.”

Youth organization officials are typically under less scrutiny and start calling games with less training.

At either level, the best training seems to be the on-the-job variety.

“My training, for the most part, is the thousands of hours I have spent on the field,” said Los Altos resident Mark Vasser, who’s worked from AYSO to high school soccer games. “Many years, I have refereed over 150 soccer matches.”

Vasser, who also umpires Little League games, is in his 18th year of officiating. While that seems like a lot, Vasser is a newbie compared to Chuck Camuso.

Camuso, a physical education teacher and baseball coach at Homestead High School, has been officiating since 1952. He’s worked as a football and basketball ref at virtually every level: professional, major college, community college and high school. Camuso has retired from officiating basketball - he now evaluates refs in the sport for Fermar - but he continues to work football games at both the high school and community college levels.

“I enjoy being out there, and it’s a good workout - it keeps me in shape,” said Camuso, who toiled as an NBA official from 1969 to 1972 and did two NFL games in 2001 when the regular refs went on strike. “I enjoy being with the kids - it makes me feel young. It’s a good couple of nights work.”

It may be good work, but as Camuso added, “You’re not going to get rich doing games around here.”

Fermar pays $25 to $55 per contest, depending on experience. Youth leagues - like AYSO - rely heavily on volunteers.

Although this is part-time work, much is expected from officials. There are some players, coaches and fans who practically demand perfection.

“That’s probably a true statement in their eyes, but we can’t be,” Martinez said. “We can’t cover everything.”

Not even the pros can do that. As Major League umpire Ed Vargo once said, “We’re supposed to be perfect our first day on the job and then show constant improvement.”

An official who is less than perfect (also known as a human being) may suffer the wrath of fans, coaches and players.

“Spectators and players frequently put their mouth in gear before engaging their brains and way before I can blow my whistle,” said Los Altos Hills resident Tom Gardner, a 14-year soccer ref who’s worked youth club, high school and college matches.

Fans in particular tend not to tolerate what they consider blown calls - especially against their teams - and they aren’t afraid of straining their vocal cords to let the officials know it.

“We had games at Los Altos this year where parents were coming out of the stands to yell at referees and coaches complaining every conceivable call,” said Jon Wiener, boys water polo coach at Los Altos High School. “I don’t know why everybody seems to think the referees are out to screw them, but too many coaches and parents who yell at referees don’t understand the game in the first place.”

Several local refs interviewed for this story cited verbal abuse as the worst part of the job and listed parents as the prime offenders.

“Parents - I love them all,” Martinez said, “but they all think they know how to officiate a game.”

Camuso said he’s tossed out a few parents over the years for going too far with verbal taunts.

Refs have more control over the game participants. Officials don’t put up with four-letter words from players and coaches - they’re usually ejected for such actions - but they will listen to criticism.

“Swearing is a no-no,” Camuso said. “But if they want to do things like complain about a call, it’s all right. If you let things like that get to you, you’ll go crazy and won’t last long. You can’t have thin skin.”

Officials sometimes could use armor, though. It doesn’t happen often, but refs have been physically threatened and/or attacked by players, coaches and even parents.

Vasser told a story about an AYSO under-18 boys game he officiated five years ago in which he received a two-handed push from a coach, followed by another hard shove from one of his players. Another ref responded by picking up the ball and ending the game.

“(That was) by far, the worst experience I’ve ever had in my 17-plus years of reffing,” said Vasser, who noted he’s seen a marked improvement in the overall behavior of coaches, fans and players in recent years.

The closest Camuso said he’s come to being attacked in 52 years as a whistle-blower was when college coach Jim Harrick chased him and his partner into the dressing room. Other close calls include a few encounters with fans who harassed him all the way to his car after high school games.

“At the high school level, you’re not protected by anybody. You walk out with the fans - there’s no separate exit or any security guards with you,” Camuso said. “If they’re pissed at you, they’re going to say something. And you’re either going to take it, or fire back something.”

Martinez said such incidents are rare but admitted safety is always a concern.

“It’s one of the negatives of the job; it’s open season on us,” he said. “That’s the frustrating part.”

Martinez added that Fermar is considering measures that would make officials less vulnerable, such as requiring the host school to provide more security.

An official always runs the risk of retaliation for making an unpopular call, which is why Martinez ranks courage among his seven requirements for being a good official.

“You have to have the courage to make the right call,” he said, “even if it’s against the home team.”

Integrity tops Martinez’s list, followed by hustle, judgment, communication, consistency, courage and common sense.

Ask coaches what makes a good official, and it’s a good bet most of them will include the word “consistency” in their responses.

“As a coach, we can just hope that the calls are consistent on both sides,” said Mountain View High volleyball coach Gerrie Phillips. “I believe that the majority of times they are.”

Phillips’ counterpart at Los Altos High, Dave Winn, has a different opinion.

“I think refs, especially volleyball refs, have too many style differences which can affect the way the game is played. Some refs like to call a game tight, meaning sets must be perfect and with lots of whistle-blowing. Other refs call a game very loose and anything goes,” he said. “Refs need to be taught how a game should be called so you don’t have to worry about those style differences. There’s always going to be tough judgment calls that need to be made, but I don’t get the feeling that the refs all attend any clinics where the consistency is taught.”

For fast-paced games like basketball, coaches want officials who are fit enough to keep up with the action. Fermar doesn’t require a fitness test, but officials are encouraged to take part in a conditioning program.

“Last season we had a ref who kept getting caught in the same spot because there was too much action and he couldn’t keep up,” said Los Altos High girls basketball coach Vern Hubbard. “He couldn’t get back down the court in time to get in position.”

The physical demands make basketball the most difficult sport to officiate, according to Camuso.

“Basketball is definitely - because of the action,” he said. “It’s getting better in college with three (refs), but in high school they’re still using two.”

Ben Murray, girls water polo coach at Mountain View High who has six years’ experience officiating, said his sport is also tough to call.

“It’s a hard job, especially where there is just one ref,” he said. “… Unfortunately, in polo we are chronically short of refs so we don’t always get the best ones - but we can’t really let them go either.”

Martinez acknowledged that Fermar is in need of more refs; the youth leagues are constantly seeking officials as well.

“In football, 18 new officials signed up last year and only six decided to come back,” Martinez said. “They said they didn’t expect it to be so much work. There’s a lot of preparation involved.”

Despite the time commitment, criticism and low pay, refs find satisfaction in their work. Many benefit from the exercise, some do it to remain close to the game and others consider it a community service.

While they’ve all had bad experiences, there are enough good experiences to keep many of them coming back, year after year. Just ask Los Altos resident Kevin Moynihan, a nine-year AYSO ref.

“In my experience, the vast majority of fans, players and coaches respect the officials and appreciate our efforts,” he said.