Local News
WIAA Op-Ed Asks Parents to “Cool It”
Here’s
a novel idea. How about you show up to sporting events, as a parent, and just
sit and watch the sporting event and NOT yell at the refs. That’s the feeling
being conveyed by the folks who run high school sports in Wisconsin. The
Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association said in an op-ed this week that
parents need to “cool it.” The letter, co-written by Karissa
Niehoff, director of the National Federation of State High School Associations
and WIAA Executive Director Dave Anderson, says poor behavior of some parents
at games towards officials “humiliates your child, annoys those sitting around
you, embarrasses your child’s school and is the primary reason Wisconsin has an
alarming shortage of high school officials.” The op-ed says that a recent
survey of sports officials found that over 75 percent of high school officials
listed “adult behavior” as the primary reason they quit, and that a shortage of
qualified officials has caused events in some areas to be postponed or
cancelled.