Conference recognizing sports officials with banquet each season

COLUMBUS, Ohio — In high school sports, the spotlight usually shines on the athletes and coaches. 

But one conference in the state is pushing to recognize another group that makes every game possible.

Being a sports official isn’t easy — they’re charged with making the tough calls.

“Officials put in so much time and effort, and always have to make the tough decisions, and upset either the AD, or a coach or player,” said Bart Andrews, an official for the Ohio Capital Conference.

Andrews officiates football, basketball and baseball, and he said sometimes, parents can get out of control. 

“There was an incident this past weekend where a parent followed the officiating crew from the stadium to their car complaining how the game ended or some calls,” Andrews said.

He said they often hear things from the stands, but try to ignore it and focus on their job. 

“Unless it gets too belligerent or persistent or the foul language then you have to take care of it,” Andrews said.

“They have a hard job, people show up to a game and its about as challenging for them as some of the athletes at times,” said Steve Petros, commissioner for the Ohio Capital Conference.

For the last two years, Steve Petros has been the commissioner of the Ohio Capital Conference.

The OCC is made up of 33 schools in central Ohio.

But Petros said there’s been a shortage of officials, and he’s trying to do something about it. 

“I thought maybe they don’t get recognized enough for some of those efforts,” Petros said.

Petros took it into his own hands and decided to start recognizing the officials. They have a banquet three times a year by season. 

“It’s kind of cool because each school votes on it so we like to consider ourselves a top conference in the state of Ohio so when you get recognized as official of the year, you’re pretty good,” Petros said.

Andrews said he’s happy that the OCC commissioner is meeting with the ADs to make sure everyone is on the same page about treating the officials with respect. 

“And recognizing that you have to enforce this stuff and we recognize the good job that you’re doing,” Andrews said.

And he has spoken to other officials in the OCC that said they appreciate the recognition. 

“It’s nice. It is a rather thankless job and only some people see it, so when you do have others from the outside see it and recognize it, it does mean something different,” Andrews said.