Many topics touched on at LHSAA Media Day

Published 5:15 am Monday, July 30, 2018

BATON ROUGE — There were a plethora of topics discussed during the Louisiana High School Athletic Association’s Media Day on Thursday.

Everything from the LHSAA headquarters on Old Hammond Highway being paid off, how social media is changing everything regarding high school athletics, and the enforcement of the state’s rules when it comes to eligibility of student athletes was touched upon at the meeting.

The hottest topic of the day though was about the state of high school officials in the state.

“We are losing lots of first, second and third-year officials,” LHSAA Assistant-Executive Director Lee Sanders, who is in charge of officials. “Just like we are using teachers in our classrooms. For us, we have to figure out a way to recruit and retain officials. That is the million-dollar question.

“It is just not a Louisiana problem. It is a national problem,” Sanders added.

Sanders admitted that sportsmanship, or to be more accurate a lack of sportsmanship from fans, may be playing a role in the declining numbers of officials throughout the state.

“I think sportsmanship is a big issue,” Sanders said. “I think what they deal with from fans and coaches. It is very challenging.”

LHSAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine echoed that sentiment.

“Sportsmanship,” Bonine said. “Gosh, people expect the officials to be perfect and get better as the game goes on. You know they are human. They really do get a bad rep.

“Sometimes they need to get their butt chewed a little bit if something happens. They are doing the best they can. They don’t show up to be bad by no means. I truly believe that,” Bonine added.

So how does the state do a better job of not only recruiting officials, but retaining them once they join the Louisiana High School Officials Association (LHSOA)?

“I think we need to target the kid who is no longer participating in athletics that is not going to playing at the next level,” Bonine said. “Those are the ones that we need to reach out to. Does that mean we need to go to LSU, LSUA, Nicholls, Southeastern Louisiana and other colleges and try to recruit them? Maybe.”

“Hopefully we can do something to target that demographic of 21 to 30 and be able to retain them,” Sanders said.

The state of officiating in the state wasn’t the only thing Bonine elabortated on. He also talked about new software the LHSAA will be utilizing to help streamline the process of reclassification. 

“If you have ever been to one of our reclassification meetings there is a lot of dynamics going on,” Bonine said. “Sometimes those dynamics turn into political or historical pieces which can make those meetings go on and on for hours.

“This program identifies all of our schools by classification and by geography and then it clusters them with similar schools,” Bonine said. “It takes away the old push pin and string method. It can calculate in real time what the mileage is going to be for playing those teams in your district, and also shows what it would be if you add another team or take a team out and reshuffling the districts.” 

“It is not going to be an end all be all but it will be a tool to assist us,” Bonine added.

Bonine also discussed how pleased he, and the rest of his staff, were with the host sites of this past year’s state championship games.

“Louisiana doesn’t realize how lucky they are,” Bonine said. “You have cities here that want to host things. I came from a state where we had to go look for places to host events. 

“The cities that do not now are really doing a great job. I mean how kids in the United States would love to play in the Superdome? If there is a better baseball facility that the one in Sulphur then show it to me. Softball is the same way. 

“The cities bend over backwards here.”