To those who participate in sport, the impact a referee or umpire has on the game is all too obvious. Officials prompt an outcry of cheers and boos and can potentially determine the outcome of a game. Officiating is just as vital a piece of sport as the players who participate.
While professional and collegiate sport officiating are common conversation topics in bars and barbershops, intramural sport officiating at N.C. State is a common conversation topic that can be heard before class, at the house party on the weekend, and especially in the gym after an IM basketball game. It is a topic which can arouse anger, frustration, or even rage depending on the person and the previous experiences they have had with an intramural official.
Students are divided on their opinions of the referees. Some say that the referees are awful and have no idea what they are doing while others argue that they are doing the best that they can, since they’re underpaid.
For Adam Buie, a junior in sport management and intramural referee for flag football, softball, and basketball, this division of opinion is all too evident.
“Most people know we have a tough job and are okay with our calls,” Buie said. “But occasionally, we have some idiot who will come along and screw it up for everybody.”
Matt Cross, a senior in sociology, though, feels the referees could do a better job.
“Most of the time they do a decent job but at times they are not very good,” Cross said. “Sometimes it’s obvious they have friends on the other team and that team ends up getting more calls.”
Referees are supposed to be objective and call a game evenly for both sides, Wes Murphy, an IM official and IM sports supervisor, said. Murphy said emotions are not supposed to sway decisions, but lamented it occasionally happens.
“I start everybody out with a clean slate” Murphy said. “But if I know a team likes to beg for calls, its hard not to let that impact my calls.”
Buie, on the other hand, tries not to let emotions dictate how he sees things.
“I try and stay as objective as possible,” he said. “You just can’t let emotions determine your calls.”
According to the referees, the best way to help yourself and your team is to stay calm, polite, and respectful.
“If people come up to me to talk about a call and are respectful I am going to be respectful back,” Murphy said.”We are happy to give an explanation for a call as long as the person I am talking to is under control.”
But some students don’t always see eye-to-eye with the referees on questionable calls.
“I have had a lot of bad calls go my way and every time I try to talk with the officials they won’t let me,” Cross said. “All they do is tell me to go talk with their supervisor after the game.”
The sentiment is not held by all students, though, as Kelly Flaherty, a senior in business administration and four-year participant in intramural sports, has no problem with the methods used by referees.
“I think for the most part they do a pretty good job,” Flaherty said. “It’s tough what they do, and for the most part I think most of the calls that they make are OK.”
Flaherty also believes that the referees give the same amount of leeway in their calls for both male and female participants.
“They make the same calls for and against us [girls] as they do with the guys,” she said.
Referees say that different sports are more difficult to officiate than others, and basketball is typically one of the toughest.
“Basketball is the worst sport to officiate,” Murphy said. “It is really fast-paced and gets very competitive, and a lot of people think they are better than they are.”
