‘People feel like now they can say almost anything’: Veteran referee calls out bad behaviour

Veteran referee Ed McHugh discusses the growing problem faced by officials when it comes to bad behaviour from coaches and spectators.

A veteran referee in Nova Scotia says officials are facing a growing problem of bad behaviour from coaches and spectators, with verbal abuse being the most common at minor sport games.

“In hockey you are behind a plexiglass, so a lot of it is not heard by officials. In basketball the fan is right there,” said Ed McHugh, who has been a referee for more than 50 years and is a former president of Basketball Nova Scotia. “So it’s verbal abuse, it’s threats, it’s insults to your integrity and your intelligence.

“The hardest part is sometimes fans do not understand game management and there are times that certain calls are made in all sports.”

Last week, the Nova Scotia RCMP said it was looking into a “hate-motivated incident” directed at a youth refereeing a hockey game in Musquodoboit Harbour. Police said the incident happened at the Eastern Shore Community Centre the night of Feb. 6 and they are asking anyone who witnessed it to contact them.

McHugh says people who attend minor league games need to understand how young the players are.

“These are 10-to-14-year-olds, these are not professionals. These are not teams playing in the NHL or the NBA. These are kids that people are putting pressure on and yelling at the officials to try and fix something out there,” he said.

“In Basketball Nova Scotia we currently now lose about 80 per cent of officials after the second year. Most of it is because of verbal abuse.”

McHugh thinks social media has taken a lot of the filters away from people.

“People feel like now they can say almost anything to anybody. I think some civility has left society and we got to find a way to bring it back. You can’t treat people in the way that it is happening in the rinks and fields. You got to treat them the same way you treat someone you meet on the sidewalk or at a business meeting,” he said.

“I know people get excited and sports are an exciting thing. I get it and that’s the joy of it. Just focus on your team and cheer for them.”

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