Jim MacCrea’s Oct. 8 article, “Rules of the game,” presented an utterly erroneous view of intramural officiating. For four years, we have been involved with intramural sports — first as athletes, then later as referees and supervisors. We have officiated hundreds of contests and met hundreds of officials and participants.

Through our tenure, we can confidently say that the vast majority of intramural officials are hard working, fair, and knowledgeable of the rules of the sport for which there are refereeing. Our training adequately prepares us for the season ahead, and veteran officials are present to help newer officials with learning both the rules and their job.

Certainly calls are missed, but then again, so are calls by professionals. Many of our returning officials have been selected to referee interscholastic sports by virtue of their excellence in intramurals. Never have we viewed anyone acting like a “Nazi with a power trip” — as intramural supervisors we would not permit that, neither would our boss. He makes it crystal clear that no one, supervisor or referee, is better than anyone else, and that everyone is to be respected.

Dealing with “abrasive” players happens often, especially in the higher skill levels and contact sports. Intramural officials have been chased around entire soccer fields and have been threatened with assault.

As is usual, the frequency of penalties called will vary on the skill and intensity of the game — if a game is out of hand, it is the referee’s job to settle it down by calling penalties and prevent anyone from becoming injured.

For anyone who does not believe our colleagues perform how an official should, we invite you to join up for a season of a sport, make some money, and see how it really is. After that, we promise you your eyes will be opened.

Jon Gucinski

Graduate Student

Logistics, Operation & Management Information Systems

Justin McCarthy

Senior

Architecture