Pressures

Jimmy Buffet has a line in a song about something being "another example of love in decline." This is another example of the difficult choices that life presses in on people. I have been attending clinics to become qualified to officiate volleyball games on the High School level or lower. The Booking Agents have been repeating over and over that they will not use, and no booking agent is supposed to use, officials who are not qualified. The first requirement is to be registered with the state high school association. The official position is that no unregistered official may work any games. Unregistered equals unqualified.

But here is a region that is covered by a booking agent who has about seventy to eighty high schools in his region. These are the large high schools with strong programs and they want four officials at each game. But there are not that many registered officials withing his agency. The booking agent is always on the hunt for new officials, but the deadline is passed for registration for this year. The state test has been given and is not repeated until next year. The schools want their games officiated. The booking agent feels the pressure to find officials. The temptation to use unregistered officials becomes very great.

The other part of the story is that there were four deaths in sporting events last year. One of those deaths happened in a contest in which an unregistered official was working. There is no public information that the unregistered official did anything to contribute to the death of the athlete. But in the great emotional upheaval of the parents, the fact that an unregistered official was working that game will be a significant part of the wrongful death action brought against the school, the state association, the booking agent, and the official.

The pressure to use whoever is available versus the reason why such officials ought not to be used. We human beings live in a complicated and complex world of choices and demands. It is so easy to sit back and pompously declare what should and should not be done. But in the ebb and flow of our lives the choices are much harder and the "rightness" becomes less absolute. Certainly there are situations on the far ends of the spectrum which can be resolved quickly and easily, but I think most of our lives are in the middle in mess and we try to do the best we can. It is also why we need forgiveness for we frequently discover that we have made choices that were not helpful, wise or good. Like the booking agent, trying to provide officials so that high schools could play, who sent that unregistered official and now finds that there is this horrible mess.