ISU intramurals officials have tough jobs — although maybe not as tough as other sports officials.

Attacks on professional umpires and referees have grown in number over the past few years.

Laz Diaz, a Major League Baseball umpire, was attacked in April by an unruly fan while officiating a Royals-White Sox game. Over the past year, soccer referees have been assaulted in Australia, England, South Africa and Zimbabwe by fans and players.

While this trend has grown around the world, ISU intramural referees don’t have to fear attacks from students.

Angie Stephenson and Krista Anderson, both intramural volleyball referees, said they don’t run into many abrasive players while officiating.

“For the most part they respect us,” Stephenson said. “They understand that we know the rules a little better.”

Of course, not everyone shares Stephenson’s view of the referees.

Gregg Schmidt, sophomore in electrical engineering, participated in six different intramural sports during his freshman year. He said he believes the referees know what they are doing, but they take advantage of their jobs.

“They’re Nazis with power trips,” Schmidt said. “They need to stop thinking that they are all big and bad and let people play the game.”

Stephenson said the frequency of calls depends upon the division in which the team plays.

“If it’s an A team, you’re calling everything,” she said. “If it’s a D team, you’re letting a lot more slide.”

Protesting a call

If a team questions a call by an intramural referee, it has the option of protesting that call.

Under section 3.a of the Suspensions, Penalties and Protests section of the 2003-04 Intramural Handbook, a protest to a call on the field will be heard only if it “has a direct and immediate impact on the outcome of a contest.”

Garry Greenlee, associate director of recreation services, said he doesn’t receive very many protests to calls. He said that if a call is missed in the first half, there is plenty of playing time left to overcome the missed call, so a protest wouldn’t be heard. Protests during preliminary games are also not heard.

“It’s not essential that you win or lose to make the tournament, so we take [the preliminaries] as a learning situation for the officials and the teams,” Greenlee said.

This takes some pressure off the intramural referees who, Greenlee said, don’t get a lot of training.

Referee training

Students who want to referee are required to attend three meetings, Greenlee said.

“When you come to our meeting, we assume you’ve got an interest and a background in the sport you are coming into,” Greenlee said.

Stephenson and Anderson both agree that knowledge in the sport helps.

“If someone came in and they had never played the game, they would probably need more training,” Anderson said.

Greenlee said the first meeting is mostly “book keeping stuff”: collecting contact information and availability times and passing on payroll information. The students are given an overview of the sport and an idea of what the working conditions may be like.

The second meeting provides on-field training clinics that cover the mechanics on how to referee. These clinics are the only time that students are given actual referee training. They are held in two or three sessions to accommodate the large numbers of referees required for each sport. Football and basketball require around 100 referees, while soccer and volleyball require between 60 and 75.

The final meeting covers the rules of the sport and those specific to intramurals. Referees are then given their schedules for the preliminary games which cover a three week period.

Logan Schleier, sophomore in pre-business, said he feels intramural referees miss about half the calls. However, he feels they do what they can with the experience they have.

“For the training that they’ve got, I think they are doing just fine,” he said.

Despite the brief training period, intramural referees are still the ones making the calls.

“Just keep it in perspective,” Greenlee said. “Play hard, play to win, play competitive. That’s what intramurals is all about.”