In the last couple of weeks, a fan threw a bottle that hit an official at a basketball game.

At another local gym, two fans of the same team were arguing with each other, dropping some salty language with a lot of finger pointing regarding conduct during the game.

At Minnesota State on Saturday, a belligerent fan walked toward the court twice, yelling loudly at the officials just a few feet away.

It’s not been a great couple weeks for fan behavior at local basketball games. It’s not been an easy couple weeks to be a basketball official.

What are we doing here?

A lot has been made lately about the shortage of game officials in all sports, and that’s real. Most game officials are older, with too few younger officials getting started. Plenty of games have been cancelled, especially at the lower levels.

There are several reasons why young people aren’t interested in becoming an official, but the biggie is dealing with inappropriate behavior from players, coaches and, most significantly, the fans.

Officiating is generally thankless work to begin with, and taking any abuse is sometimes enough to give it up.

Not sure how we got to this point, but it’s getting worse.

There have been a lot of officiating jokes made in this space, which certainly tends to be pro-official, but the trend in fan behavior is serious. To be fair, the large majority of fans are there for the right reason, supporting their children and those teams.

Officials aren’t perfect, and they don’t care who wins. They are at an athletic disadvantage, and there are more athletes competing in a game than officials’ eyes to watch. Annually, officials are required to study the rules and are tested on them.

It’s unlikely anyone in the bleachers has ever cracked the rule book. In fact, you can tell the fans that don’t know the rules by what they yell.

Players and coaches aren’t perfect, either, but if they have an emotional response to something that happens during a game, it’s understandable.

For someone in the crowd there to watch one of their children play a game, there is time to consider your response and actions.

It’s hard to believe that somebody could be sitting on the sofa and think, “Maybe I should go to the high school game and yell at officials, coaches or players.”

If that’s the best you can come up with, maybe stay at home.

Site supervisors have become essential to handling issues that occur outside the boundaries. Kinda sad that each school needs to have a “babysitter” for the folks that should be setting an example for kids.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to see these incidents. There have been plenty of them nationally, and it was only a matter of time until they happened closer to home.

It can’t be long before some school decides that fans are no longer allowed at games. Or high-school athletics will no longer exist, turned over to for-profit clubs.

Chad Courrier column

That will truly be a shame, and one of the joys of going to high school will be lost.

Maybe something to consider before screaming or throwing a bottle at one of the officials.

Chad Courrier is the Free Press sports editor. He’s at 507-344-6353, ccourrier@mankatofreepress.com or on Twitter @ChadCourrier.

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