Basketball official Ally Salata.

Fans’ treatment of officials in every sport, from youth sports to professional, is bad and seemingly getting worse by the year.

We can only hope it doesn’t get this bad, which Fox News in Vermont reported last week:

“Vermont State Police are investigating the death of a man who was killed in a brawl at a middle school basketball game.
Russell Giroux, 60, was pronounced dead at the hospital after a ‘large fight involving multiple spectators’ broke out at the game between seventh and eighth graders (italics are the Observer’s) between Alburgh and St. Albans at the Alburgh Community Education Center.
Police said troopers arrived after the melee took place, and some participants departed the school. When troopers arrived, Giroux ‘subsequently sought medical attention, was transported by ambulance to Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans, and was pronounced dead at the hospital.’”

How important could the outcome of a call or the final score really been?

So, the Observer wanted to know even before this horrific incident back East, why is Ally Salata officiating basketball games?

It’s a sport she’s been close to her whole life – as the daughter of a coach, as a Rio Rancho Ram and, since graduating from RRHS in 2013, back in the RAC to watch her dad’s games.

After all, aren’t those guys and gals wearing stripes often thought of as the bad guys?

It turns out that two-person or three-person crew isn’t out to make sure one team wins, or one player keeps getting fouls whistled against him/her, unlike what the parents or even coaches may think.

“They’re there to keep the game safe, first of all,” she replied. “When I first stepped out on the floor as an official, (I got) a completely different view – completely different.”

If you’ve been to a Rams or Storm game, any level, you’ve heard the voices. It’s hard to tell if those yelling are coaching or officiating, and some are doing both. Of course, it’s easier to be a parent than an official.

“The referee shortage is insane. You have 105 games on a Tuesday night with only 150 officials in the total region,” she said. “So that’s why they’re canceling a lot of these middle school games. Parents have been a problem …”

Salata said she took the brunt from a player recently.

“They were playing a physical game and I was letting them play. The kid went up for a layup and he just fell – on his own, no illegal contact – and he said, ‘That is an F’in foul.’ Loud enough for me to hear it, loud enough for parents to hear it, and I, like, I’m not going to tolerate that. ‘You are 13 years old.’ The coach warned me about this kid beforehand.”

Salata gave the kid a technical foul, which was the proper reaction.

Never envisioned wearing stripes as a player

“I didn’t really put too much thought into (officiating) as an athlete back then,” she said during halftime of a recent Ram boys’ game. “Now, as an adult, when I see certain officials, I’m like, ‘Oh, great – we have this guy.’”

Since she decided to become an official, after her sister Georgia – also a former Ram cager – graduated last May, she looks at games differently.

“I wanted to either step in as a coach for basketball; I never thought about officiating,” she said. “I’ve seen so many of my dad’s games, I’ve seen so many of my brother’s games … How could I continue to watch and be involved in in the game of basketball while earning extra income for my family?

“They’re paying officials pretty decent (money).”

Like it is for all officials, it’s a slow but steady climb to the top, and in the New Mexico Activities Association and New Mexico Officials Association, the trek begins in middle schools gyms and, once in the high school gyms, freshman and junior varsity games, before one can finally work a varsity game.

That doesn’t mean the “fans” are any less vocal.

Thanks to the shortage of officials and Salata’s knowledge of the game, plus availability, she’s officiating “middle school right now, and I just moved up to sub-varsity … I’ve done a few JV games already.”

Her farthest trips have been to Moriarty and Cochiti Pueblo, and the NMOA has worked with her to keep her trips short – Salata is coaching RRHS powerlifters and, with track and field season soon to start, back with the female throwers.

“When I’m here, I’m no longer watching from the spectator view – I’m watching from an official’s view,” she said. “Now that I look at it, (I realize) as an athlete back then, I didn’t give the officials any credit whatsoever. I thought I was always right; I was always in the right. But they have a different view on things, and I never considered that as an athlete.

“Officials are a huge part of basketball – you can’t play without them,” she said. “You know, I took a lot of charges. So, as an athlete, I always thought, ‘I was set; you are wrong.’ Now that I see it (as an official), I was in the wrong – athletes are not always right.”

Now 28 years old and the mother of a rambunctious 2-year-old, Zayne, she’s found she knows less about hoops than she thought she did.

“If a kid dives for a ball and there’s sliding, it’s not a travel,” she said. “But you see it a lot, the referees are quick (to blow the whistle and say), ‘Travel.’ And the fans … you may think you’re right, but in the rule book, it’s different.”

She made a trip with an officiating administrator to see a college game, “and when I saw how they work, it was a no-brainer. I can do this.”

These days, when there’s a basketball game on TV, Salata’s not aware of the score – and might not even know who’s playing. She’s watching the people in stripes.

“If I want to be an official, I need to be putting in the time, watching film studying games from the official’s point of view,” she said.

She hopes to see more officials, especially more females.

“We only have, like, less than 20 female officials in the Central region, so the more females we can get, (the better).”

What does coach Wally Salata think?

“The thing I noticed is, a lot of the officials know who she is, and they’re kinda taking her under their wings,” Wally Salata said. “I appreciate that.

“It’s a tough gig, officiating,” he said, “but there is no easy fix. It’s gonna be something that we have to fix – as coaches, as fans. Understand that these guys are still trying to learn the game. But I always will tell you, the hard part of an official is, if you’ve never played the game, you don’t understand it. You can read all the books you want.

“You see the game differently when you haven’t played it,” he said. “I played it all my life. There’s calls you see and they won’t call it, because it’s not their area, or they’re not consistent.

“But with Ally, she wanted to do it. She’s doing well. She’s doing a lot of middle school games and she even did a C-team game the other day.

“If she stays focused, and she wants to stay in it, she can be a pretty good official,” he concluded. “It’s a good gig, because basketball is played all year. … She’s a mom, so that’s going to help her financially, make extra money.

“If I wasn’t a coach, I’d be an official, because I can get games every single week.”