Since school started last August, I have been to too many athletic contests in Athens and Limestone County to count.

From football to basketball to baseball, softball and soccer, I’ve been all over the county taking pictures and covering all of them.

While the sports may be different throughout the year, there is one constant — the game officials. Whether they be called referees, umpires, head linesmen or side judges, they are there to make sure the players are safe and the rules are followed.

It takes a lot to be a high school official. You can’t just show up one day and decide it’s something you want to do. Officials have to go to a class and then take a test on the rules of the sport they are officiating. They are then given rules quizzes throughout the season and are assessed by AHSAA officials. How well they do on the tests and on the field determines if they are able to officiate in the state playoffs.

The life of an official is not one of glamor. You have to really love the game to do the job because there is certainly not a lot of positive feedback from the crowd. The referee is usually the first person blamed when a team loses a close game.

There is always a close call or controversial moment during the course of a game that fans can point to and use as an excuse for a loss.

To be fair to those in Limestone County, I have never witnessed any abuse of an official in my time covering county sports. Of course, there is always the yelling that happens when a pitch that the crowd thinks is a ball is called a strike, or if a foul is not called when there is contact between two players. But we have been lucky there has been nothing worse than that.

In other states, officials have been physically attacked by angry fans, even players, over calls made or not made.

I have been an official for both baseball and soccer and I have had my share of moments, although nothing too severe. I was followed to my car by a fan who spent the entire time telling me and my partners what a horrible job we did. I also had players cursing at me through a fence as I drove away in my car following another game. Those incidents have been few and far between. For the most part, officiating has been a positive experience.

It should be that way for every game official. Some of them are former players who wanted to stay involved in the sport. Others, like me, weren’t good enough to continue playing after a certain age so refereeing is a way to be in the action. But, we all do it for the love of the game. Officials play a vital role in athletics. Without them, there wouldn’t be games — at least not organized ones.

So, next time you go to a game, take a moment to appreciate the job those men and women in uniform are doing. A “good game” or pat on the back following a job well done would surely be appreciated.

Jeff Edwards can be reached at jeff@athensnews-courier.com.