COULD YOU DO IT?
It all begins with an idea.
An average family of four spends approximately $70,000 or more over seven years to train one child in a recreational sports league. That isn’t including travel, food, hotel stay, etc. for the rest of the family that supports the player. That isn’t close to what is included in this analysis for one child to pursue a dream of playing at the next level. What could a family do with that amount of money? It’s an incredible investment financially. Add that to the emotional and psychological costs it has on the athletic participants? What about the amount of time it takes to train, travel and observe your kid or kids to even play in these recreational sports? I believe those costs are incredibly high to everyone involved. In many instances, there are even greater financial investments that a family undertakes and you have to ask, “what kind of return are these families getting from this increasingly growing financial investment?”. Does it affect their ability to get a collegiate education without loans if they don’t get an athletic scholarship? What percentage of those kids playing recreational ball are actually going to college? Is some of the frustration within a game, where there is a missed traveling violation, related to the amount of time and investment spent? I believe it can be. The level of stress and burden pushing our kids to become professional athletes before the age of 12 and the pressure has to be released somewhere and given to someone. Unfortunately, it feels as if the officials are the easy scapegoat.
Now, look at this intertwined with the fact that most officials are underpaid and not all are the best educated in the rules but make every effort to be? Do farents (fan-parents) know the rules? Do coaches know the rules? Question – what color is the rule book that applies to the sport your kid is playing? Could you ref a game your child participates in? This is where I want to introduce the show, ‘you say you want to ref, let’s do it!’ It could be interesting to let a couple of parents volunteer from the stands, give them a jersey and a whistle and have them call the game. This obviously would be done for its comedic value, but it is a show that I want to be produced one day. I believe everyone could enjoy it - what do you think?
OH YEA, WHO DO YOU THINK I AM?
It all begins with an idea.
My name is Khiah Lynch and I am an official. I have been refereeing for about 15 seasons in various sports. I'm an avid sportsperson and I love watching, playing and observing most sports. I've even coached sports in my past. You name a sport, I played it. Basketball, Football, Croquet, Bowling, Swimming, and Billiards. Golf? Yes. And, that’s not all…there is certainly more. All in all, I love sports; that is one of the reasons why I'm doing a blog about this topic.
I get yelled at, cursed at, told I'm wrong, blind, don't know the rules, and can't even count to three on a daily basis. Unbelievable, huh? I'm hated by 50% of the fans on every call. Who would want to do this vocation? Who would do it? Maybe a crazy person. It takes a certain type of human to subject themselves to officiate. Many of us are perfectionists. Many of us need to be seen. Many of us need money. Ok, well most of us need the money, but that's not why most of us do it. Most of us do it because we love the sport. It keeps us close to something we love and respect. We love the comradery. Plus, it keeps us active. It lets us run and keep in touch with the younger kids of newer generations.
As we travel this road together in my videos, I want to hopefully dispel some of the myths and some of the rumors about how bad you think we are and explain why we make the calls we make. I want to give you a voice too to share some of the calls you think we should or should not have made and ask the questions you don’t get to ask in us the stands. I'll give you the truth and the real deal keeping it 100 to the best of my ability and knowledge. I'm open to questions regarding rules or their application in any sport. I will answer all questions that you submit and some may make it to the blog or podcast. Remember: be nice AND a good sport or I may have to call a technical foul on you!
Share your thoughts with me and I will share mine. Referees are the only team of people that should be unbiased. I’ve seen a lot of plays and will take questions regardless of age, skill or sport. From elementary to middle school to high school to collegiate and even semi-pro and professional athletics. Voice your questions/concerns!! I want to share and educate you on some of what I've learned and been taught with a predisposition towards the rules as we try to fairly apply them. Our goal is to help educate all of the game’s participants and hopefully end the adversarial relationship and violence that has beset some of our sporting events.
Let’s continue the conversation -- Don’t forget to - Ask Me The Referee.