Three things have to exist in order for there to be organized sports. First you need players. Second, you need the essential equipment, at least the ball or puck. Third, you need to have a referee or game official.

Unfortunately, the third item on the list is slowly disappearing from organized sports as fewer and fewer people want to subject themselves to the abuse they get from coaches, players and fans.

The Alabama High School Athletic Association sent out an email before baseball season this spring basically begging people to sign up to become a high school umpire, due to an umpire shortage in Alabama this year.

The trend is nationwide, and it’s mostly due to the abuse officials have to deal with from coaches, parents and fans.

Eighty percent of officials quit after two years, according to the National Association of Sports Officials, and 75 percent of officials said it’s because of the hostile behaviors of adults at games.

I have refereed both youth and high school soccer and baseball in my time, and while I have never been physically threatened, I have had to deal with mouthy people, who most of the time, don’t even know the rules. I had one parent follow me and my fellow officials to our cars in the parking lot telling us what a terrible job we did, and another time, several players followed us off the field cursing at us.

So why do we treat game officials with so little respect? I believe it is because we all feel we need a scapegoat, and the officials are as good of one as any.

Our favorite team didn’t lose the game themselves, the referees lost it for them. We saw that the other day in the NCAA Tournament semifinal, when Auburn fouled a Virginia player shooting a 3-pointer right before the final buzzer. The player then made all three free throws with 0.6 seconds left and Virginia took a 63-62 victory.

The foul was clear as day, and the correct call, but that didn’t stop many Auburn fans from screaming they had been robbed. Those who weren’t screaming about the call looked a few seconds before when a Virginia player appeared to double-dribble, which should have been a turnover and given Auburn the ball.

While on replay, the player did, in fact, double-dribble, how many fans noticed that in real time? I’m willing to bet hardly any. It’s only after they watched the replay several times that they saw it. Referees don’t get that luxury.

As Charles Barkley said after the game. “If I could referee from my living room with slow motion replays and a 50-inch high-definition television, I would never miss a call.”

The same goes for high school games that our children play. Little Johnny or Lucy’s team couldn’t have lost because they played poorly, or made silly mistakes that cost them runs or points. It was because the referee was crooked, or blind, or incompetent.

Guess what. Referees do make mistakes. So do players and coaches. In fact, players make a lot more mistakes than game officials do. But we don’t usually scream at them and tell them how terrible they are.

So there are two options fans and parents have when it comes to referee treatment. Either don’t berate or act hostile toward the officials during the game, or grab a whistle and a rule book and do it yourself.

With the referee shortage currently in this country, they could certainly use your help.

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