I am a referee.
I have been since I was 14 years-old. Certified to referee volleyball, and on my way to become a certified referee in basketball, at least at a high school level. Yes, as a referee we do make mistakes and miss some things, but that is at a lower level. Not college.
I am writing about how even though at college level, volleyball referee’s make game costing mistakes. However, that isn’t what my issue is. It’s the fact that players will stoop so low and deny anything in order to get the point, despite the fact that there are four refs.
There is one top referee (which is the head ref), one down, and two linesmen.
Four sets of eyes watch and officiate a game.
Recently, I took in a game here at the college, where the Kodiaks took on their rival, the Medicine Hat Rattlers.
The women’s team played phenomenally, sweeping the Rattlers in three sets.
The men’s game however was a different story. Yes, the Kodiaks won, but there were some things that the referee missed.
I actually caught one of these mistakes on camera, where the referee said there was no touch, but there clearly was.
Volleyballs don’t just start going down when a player spikes them, shoot up a foot or so, and then go out of play.
That’s just not how gravity works.
This was the first call that I noticed that the top ref missed. The irksome point is that it happened right in front of his face, and he was actually looking at the play right there.
I can only say this with certainty as I caught in on camera.
The players never claimed to touch it, denial at its finest.
There was also the instance where the ball was in. Not by much, but enough to see it through the lens of the camera. The linesman called it in. The players, out.
The top ref sided with the players.
Which makes me wonder why we actually have some referees, such as linesman if their word isn’t always counted.
Why should people invest their time into becoming referees if the players will be sided with.
I know that this isn’t always the case, but it’s happened to me personally as well.
Even when I was younger, we would be assigned linesman duty.
I would call it as a saw it, and the refs would sometimes go against me. Painful as a child who had volunteered their time to be a linesman.
I’m only slightly perturbed by the fact that refs sometimes make mistakes.
I’m beyond raged that players at this level will lie about what happened just to get the point, or make the play.
I get that it determines if you go to provincials, and maybe even nationals, but is it really worth your morals and dignity as a player?
As children, we aren’t taught to lie and cheat.
Why is it okay now?
