TP_071119

tinleyjunction.com sports
the Tinley Junction | July 11, 2019 | 39
fastbreak
JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY
MEDIA
1st and 3
THE FOOTBALL
SCHEDULES ARE OUT.
A FEW NOTES:
1. For openers
Tinley Park and
second-year coach
Josh O’Shea
(above) open the
season hosting
Chicago Payton at
7 p.m. Aug. 30 and
visit Peotone on
Sept. 6.
2. Who wants to host
this game?
Andrew’s opener
against Kewaskum,
Wisconsin,
on Aug. 31 is listed
at being played at
Andrew by the IHSA
and the Kewaskum
websites. It
is listed on the
Andrew website at
being at Kewaksum
and Bolts coach
Adam Lewandowski
confirmed it.
3. Big 2
Andrew must face
SWSC powers
Bolingbrook and
Homewood-Flossmoor
on the road.
THURSDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
Officials numbers are down - is verbal abuse to blame?
Jeff Vorva
Sports Editor
I
don’t know when and
how the tradition of
booing and yelling
at umpires and referees
started, but it did many
decades ago and we may
be paying the price now.
Think about it. What
other authority figure gets
to get chewed out and
called vile names by large
groups of people and have
it be socially acceptable?
Sure, people yell at cops,
judges, teachers, bosses,
politicians and others in
authority. But it’s generally
not accepted.
Umps and refs?
Fair game, every game.
Long before I was born,
a group of pro baseball
players including Phil
Rizzuto, Ralph Branca and
Roy Campanella recorded
a funny song called “The
Umpire.”
Some of the lines
include “We ain’t got no
use for the umpire unless
he calls ‘em our way,”
“He’s blind as a bat,” “Up
goes his thumb and the
bum says ‘You’re out.’”
and “He’s right when he’s
wrong and he’s wrong
when he’s right.”
This was a kid’s record,
by the way. Teach em’
early that officials suck.
In the pecking order of
sports, what would happen
if an athlete yelled and berated
his coach publicly the
same way a coach berates
an official? Bench time
and maybe getting kicked
off the team would be in
his or her future.
I’m not being a prude.
And I’m not saying it
should stop (except for
the unnecessary name
calling - cut it out you idiot
morons!). And I find “The
Umpire” to be a hilarious
ditty.
But there is a nationwide
shortage of refs and umps
and it’s getting so bad that
some states are encouraging
high school athletic
directors to schedule their
Friday night football
games on Saturday.
In Illinois, Inter Athletic
Council of Officials
Recruitment Chairman
Gary Grohovena could
spend a couple hours citing
facts and figures about the
decline in the numbers of
officials and he would just
be getting started.
“The numbers keep going
down and the average
age of a football official is
50,” Grohovena said. “In
five years, I’m wondering…wow.
“It’s nationwide, not just
Illinois. It’s most sports.
Baseball and softball are in
trouble. Football is getting
there. Basketball…maybe
not yet, but the numbers
are not growing the way
they should. Wrestling,
soccer, etc., etc., you name
it. They need more officials
in everything. And
there are no gender walls
either. It affects boys and
girls sports.”
He said he is at a loss
to figure out why people
don’t want the job.
The Tinley Park
resident, who has taken
his share of verbal garbage
in more than 30 years on
the job, admits that the
younger generation might
not want to deal with the
abuse, especially when it
gets physical.
“Unfortunately, you see
on the news a clip of someone
attacking a referee,”
Grohovena said. “You see
someone knocking down
a baseball umpire. That’s
scary when that happens.
But that’s just really rare.”
What’s not rare is the
constant yakking from
coaches and fans. Grohovena
said he is not sure
if that totally the reason
why the numbers are down
but it might be a part of the
reason.
Grohovena hopes that
people who dismiss being
officials for that reason
realize that other walks of
life offer criticism, too.
“You deal with these
challenges every day in
life,” he said. “If there is
a play at the plate and the
umpire calls the runner
Gary Grovena, a longtime referee and officials recruiter
from Tinley Park, executes a holding signal. JEFF
VORVA/22ND CENTURY MEDIA
safe, everybody on one
side says ‘Yay!’ and everybody
on the other side says
‘Boo!’ That boo…that’s
just a part of the game. You
have to accept that.
“If you work at McDonald’s,
someone can toss a
bag of fries back at you if
they are overdone. You can
get yelled at if the Coke is
too watery. How do you
deal with that? If you work
in a retail situation, you
have to deal with people
who are upset. You have to
explain to them what you
are going to do and how
you are going to handle it.
Policemen? They are very
good at conflict resolution.
Teachers deal with it all
the time. Most of us have
some conflict resolution
skills there.
“People are yelling and
some people don’t want to
be yelled at. But you deal
with it.
Grohovena admits officiating
is not for everyone.
But the 68-year-old
fell in love with it when he
started in his 30s.
“I envy the new officials
because they have more
games ahead of them and
I have more games behind
me,” he said. “The best
people I know are sports
officials. I’ve made so
many friends.
“I enjoy being on the
field. I enjoy the game.
I enjoy the high school
game and I enjoy the
people I work with.”
Now if we can just have
people on the sidelines and
in the stands tone it down
a bit.
Standing Pat
In last week’s column
about the youth team
Jayhawks, I accidentally
identified assistant coach
Pat Brankin as Ryan
Brankin (his son). Maybe
it’s because Ryan is getting
older and Pat is getting
younger...
LISTEN UP
“We have the guys to win a state championship. But it’s about
everybody working together and finding that team chemistry
because team chemistry can take you as far as you need to go.”
Joe DeHaan - Andrew football player
WHAT2WATCH
FOOTBALL
5 p.m. Wednesday, July 17
• Tinley Park is at Eisenhower for 7-on-7 action.
Index
36 – Athlete of the Week
36 – Sports roundup
Compiled by Sports Editor Jeff Vorva,
j.vorva@22ndcm.com