I try, as hard as I possibly can, not to criticize officials.

I used to umpire, years ago, and I tried to do a good job. I tried to be in position, make calls firmly like I was sure of myself, and I explained to coaches what I saw if there was a borderline call.
But you can't please everybody. And officials are the easiest targets on an athletic field or court. When most fans' teams are struggling, there's a good chance the officials have something to do with it.
Covering high school sports, I get a chance to see a little bit of everything. And it's amazing to see an athlete who is really good at what he/she does. Football players get all of the attention, and basketball and baseball players aren't far behind, but there are some really special athletes in every sport this county offers. And the athletes play with passion; you can tell, as you watch from the stands, that it really means something to them.
That's why I'm a little surprised at how some high school sports handle officiating. Most sports have the proper amount of officials; but it's very odd to see tennis matches and volleyball matches. I have overheard Ledford assistant coach Chris Doby tell his players that tennis and golf are the only two gentleman's games left; the athletes themselves are responsible to make their own calls.
But that puts teenagers in a tough spot. There are plenty of calls in tennis that are very tough to call. Shoot, sometimes if you watch a match on TV and they have the super slow-motion replay, it's still nearly impossible to tell whether a ball was in or out.
So you're asking a high school athlete to call his/her own match? That just strikes me as odd. Sure, we can all watch sports with Anne Frank's view of the world, assuming there is good in everyone and no one would intentionally make a bad call.
But what if it's game point? Match point? Human nature, in the heat of battle, would be to make a call in your own favor. And I'm not talking about obvious calls. In tennis, if a player feels like she is not getting a fair shake from her opponent, she can request coaches come out and call the lines. But then there are negative connotations from doing that; her opponent, and the other team, will think she's accusing that person of cheating.
Volleyball is almost as tough. There actually are two officials in volleyball. One is in a chair at the net, and the other is on the opposite side of the net with the scorekeeper. His job is to check the substitutions; I'm not kidding. Each team has one or two people at the scorer's table keeping up with the score, stats, and substitutions. Do we really need to pay an official to do this?
But the most troubling part about volleyball is the officials calling the lines — this is usually a member of each team's junior varsity squad. This is not fair to the teams, but it's especially not fair to the young athletes themselves.
These are 14- and 15-year-old girls who have just finished a match of their own. Most girls that age don't want to stand in front of a crowd with a little flag and call balls in or out. And the calls they have to make are not easy; some of the shots, like the ones Melissa McMath was hitting at Central on Tuesday, are coming at warp speed. Judging whether those are in or out is not easy.
I can only assume this system is in place to save money. The schools don't want to pay three or four officials to call a volleyball match, and I completely understand that. If there is limited attendance, the gate may barely cover the cost of officials. But there has to be a better solution than running young girls out there and putting them in that position.