Pace B B2, Avgust 1, 1979 - North Shore News- | Whistle while you work — The majority" of pro. sports fans are being cheated. Not by the players, and not because the good old home team can’t seem to win their share of games. . No, the public is being cheated by those poor maligned souls who run around with whistles around, their necks, on their fingers, or in their mouths.” The. calibre of officiating in most professional sport is ~ abysmal. It stinks,too. But before we all start to pick on our favourite hates in black or black and white, let’s put the blame where it belongs; on the leagues. Most. Officials are doing their best and we all know —_—___—\_we-cairt-expect_any-more-of “ RG a Lye yal oy ‘ sm ce ea as eet 8 ’ and 7 phate ‘typical response . that officials Of aay sport, in any place have to-accept. It ’ goes with the job. 7 Most officials have to live with the fact that the winners and: their fans will ignore them while those who lose think the guys with the’ whistles were either (a) totally incompetent, (b) paid. by -the other team, or (c) -both of the previous. However, from what we have witnessed in the North American Soccer League, every play in football, and quite often in soccer. The constant. action, __.Physicalness .of. the games and the complexities of the ‘actions involvéd make it extremely difficult to have either 22 or 24 men do what they must without some coaches and ‘officials were all at the same level, it worked. But times have changed. ‘Pro sport is big business. ‘Doesn't the public have a right to. -expect. that the ‘officiating end of the sport keep up with the rest-of the i For openers, there ap- pears to be a total lack of consistency in our soccer, football and hockey__ of- ficiating. This inconsistency ~rattles players-and-cert&inly- breaks the flow of the game. There are few things more frustrating for an athlete than haying an official penalize him for something which he did a few minutes ago the same way with no call made against him that time. _ That kind of officiating slows down and ruins the pace of the game and makes for frustrations which in turn © can lead to bigger problems. Then there is the all too breakdown. sport development?. BIG DEVELOPMENT _ DIFFERENCE _ _ NEEDED However, this is where the Full time officials would ‘qualitytof-the official Comes be in a position to spend ‘to the fore. This is where you _ separate your official who knows the game from the one who only knows the - rules. Your top official, (whoever that may be) has the ‘feel’_of the game. He . knows when to let things go, when they are not deliberate and when the infraction does not impede the flow of the game. Just think how many times over the past couple of years you have groaned as officials constantly stop good plays from developing or call them ‘back. Perhaps one of the major problems in both soccer and football is the fact that the officials are all part timers. They are not full time ‘working .Officials moving into more time. studying the game, working on their part in it and just as important, on a_ proper development system for a At one time there were a number of ex-players of- ficiating in the CFL. They were not appreciated by many of the other officials. There was a_ continual | problem between those who had the ‘feel’ of the game and those who had never taken part at the playing level. The old players were. finally weeded out and since then there has'not been a strong developmental system in the CFL. league. And the NASL has its own problems. WwW do “referees in Canada. ‘and the United States receive their. minor league ‘training. (with the possible; respon of | Vancouver)?’ If pro sport c can. n spend the money on all other: aspects of their game then surely the public has a-right to see.the _ calitre of officials develop. with the league, ere MORE ; ISN'T BETTER This year the - CFL ‘has. decided that to improve their problems. they would add a sixth field official: But ‘if he is trained the same as- the others, it. will not help. . Just. more. -bodies running. - around the field.’ Americans: have suggested - that soccer have more than One referee to the field. Isn't > it somewhat ironic that the . country where’ soccer is the newest, and the majority of people don’t even know how many men are on the field that they have all the an- swers? Tbe answer to officiating problems ‘is quality not quantity. ; Officiating is a tough o anyone whether athlete, official, colleague at work or outselves than that we do give of our best. In this sense we can’t knock the official. THATS THE BREAKS Nor can we knock him because he happens to call something against ‘our team’ or a.fayorite player. Thems the breaks of the game buddy and it doesn’t mean the official is wrong. It has been known to happen that our regular heroes have committed some offense on the fieldorice. © the Canadian Football League and to a large extent, the National Hockey League, we come to the conclusion that the of- ficiating is destroying much . of the entertainment value of pro sport. Baseball and _ basketball have martiaged to come up with generally strong organizations for officials and do a darn good job in their sports. LACK OF CONSISTENCY But in those other sports it is a far different matter. captures aggregate Ross Noga was the 13 and 14 year boys aggregate winner last weekend at the North Shore Winter Club's fourth invitational ‘B’ swim meet. Swimming for the North Vancouver Cruisers swim club, Noga had two first place finishes, in the 50 fly the 200 = individual 0 Ri satan aft be ns * AWNINGS medley, and a third place finish in the 100 breast. Kim Johnston was the runner-up in the I! and 12 girls aggregate award with a first in the 50 back, a second in the 200.individual medley, and a fourth in the 50 breast. Overall, the Cruisers team _ placed sixth in the 13 team event. .*& PATIO COVERS * SOLAR BRONZE GLASS * ALUMINUM REPLACEMENT THERMO WINDOWS ; * OPENING SKYLITES Phone now for a free estimate and save ALUMINAIRE INDUSTRIES LTD. 182 Pemberton, North Vancouver 986-6022 - common problem of officials who don't know how to stop blowing their whistles. This is probably the major problem especially in the NASL and the CFL at the present time. It is generally very true that penalties or infractions can be called on virtually a C2 5 ra \e , Jey STE Daw aes, Np: an aN professionals who are in the job as a career. -At present they are in it for a bit of extra money and probably the satisfaction they receive from what they do. This is the way all pro sport was many years ago and when everyone, league and team owners, players, . set of problems. By bringing in a few referees for the summer from Europe, the league standards do not improve that much. Some of these ‘imports’ appear to be here for the holiday just as any coach will tell you what happened with some of the earlier loan players. The homebrew referees in the league also have their road to hoe.- They ore _ usually the first ones to be “blamed when things don’t go the way the fan or a par- ticular team wants them to go. This has always been the | case and always will. But there is a time when the fan and the teams have a right to expect that the guys with the whistles are just as professional as the players.