The coach knows he should not have said what he said to get thrown out of the high school baseball game.

That is why he did not fight the one-game suspension that followed.

The coach also had good reason to be upset at the umpire, who I suspect knows he did not belong on the field for a varsity game. Any amateur body language expert could tell you that he was terrified out there.

During the junior varsity game, the umpire stood behind home plate like he was a deer in the headlights. He hardly moved between pitches, and he never seemed to look around between the action.

That is why a couple of balls that got past the catcher sat on the warning track behind home plate for a couple of innings. Any experienced umpire will tell you that is something that should never happen.

During the varsity game, the umpire worked in the field, and he was even more shell shocked as two teams battled in a conference game. The coaches say that he simply did not make a call on seven different plays, instead deferring to the umpire behind the plate to step in and make his call for him.

The coach, who is stressing out about getting his team into the state tournament, eventually had enough. He blew a fuse and swore as he yelled about the umpire not making a call.

A few days later, a head coach from a different team almost lost his mind for the exact same scenario. His team was playing on the same field and with the same umpire. This coach, though, kept his cool, at least on the outside. But he was blown away by the lack of confidence in the nervous umpire.

In his report about the ejection, the umpire supposedly said that he was thrown off his game because he was getting yelled at from both sides. That is not a good position to put anyone in.

This whole situation is just unfortunate and so very sad.

In this case, the coach who was thrown out of the game and the umpire were both victims of the ever-growing shortage of youth sports officials. So were the players.

That shortage, by the way, is due almost entirely to the parents who verbally abuse sports officials at all levels.

Coaches and players deserve the best officiating possible. Officials deserve time to learn and develop confidence before being thrown into such an intense game. Neither happened in this case.

The nervous umpire actually deserves praise for stepping up to the plate, so to speak, so the boys can play the game. Without umpires and referees, it is just recess, after all. Or, more likely, there will be no games at all.

For his willingness the help, the umpire, who I suspect does not watch a lot of baseball, was placed into a difficult position because we simply do not have enough umpires to slowly break in a greenhorn.

Ideally, this umpire would not work a varsity game until he had enough lower-level games under his belt. Ideally, we would have enough umpires to make the new umps wait a few years — or longer — before they get thrown into the varsity fire.

That is how it used to work for officials. A basketball official would have to work his or her way up through the ranks before even getting a freshman high school game. They would first spend years working grade school, junior high and rec league games to cut their teeth, learn the ropes and prove their mettle.

Now, depending on the sport, an official might get a varsity game in his or her first year in the pool. This can lead to some very nervous sports officials because not all of us were born with a lack of self-awareness.

Even the best officials were nervous officials at one time. Well, the ones who do not suffer from a serious mental condition were, anyway.

I can tell you this from experience. In December of 2022, I decided to step up and help our local Montana Officials Association basketball pool in Butte and don the stripes. After working two junior high games with the legendary Mike Anderson in Whitehall, I was assigned to work two junior varsity girls’ games in a tipoff tournament in Anaconda.

So, my third and fourth games as an official came on back-to-back junior varsity games.

While I think I did a pretty good job putting on a brave face, I was nervous as could be as I dressed and took the court for the games, which were not even played in the main gym in Anaconda.

Those junior varsity games, which were played in front of about 50 fans, felt like Saturday of the Final Four. I was like a deer in the head lights, just like that nervous umpire.

If they were varsity games, I would have passed out right on the floor.

I grew up playing and watching basketball. I read the rule book, and I easily passed the test to join the MOA. Yet I quickly learned that it is a lot easier to make calls from the crowd. Too many times, I would see a foul and hesitate too long to make the call.

A lot of my games went like that as I slowly built up the confidence to do the job. Then, the games started to become fun. Really fun. While it took more than two full seasons to really feel comfortable in that referee uniform, I started to look forward to every high school game I get to work.

Sure, there are some coaches out there who will beg to differ, but I finally felt like I belonged on the court this past season. It took three seasons for that to happen.

If I could tell that nervous umpire one thing, it would be to stick with it. Eventually, you will get the hang of the job. You are putting on the uniform for the right reasons. You are doing it so the boys can play baseball, and that right there is reason to be celebrated.

In the meantime, make your calls with conviction, even if the confidence is not there yet. The key to a good sports official is selling the call. If you act like you know you got it right, most of the time the spectators, players and coaches will at least think you might have gotten it right.

If I could say one thing to the fans who yell at officials it would be to knock it off.  Your angry words are not making any situation better, even if screaming at referees and umpires is something we have all done for years.

Sure, it is almost impossible to always keep a level head when you are watching your son or daughter compete.

And let’s be honest. As fans, we do not want every call to be correct. We want every call to go our way.

Fans yelling never bothers me on the basketball court. There is nothing like dealing with backlash from writing opinion columns for three decades that will thicken your skin.

Most seasoned officials in any high school sport do not care about people yelling at them. Oh, they might throw you out of a baseball game for yelling too much, but your words are not going to make them lose any sleep.

For the men and women testing the waters to see if officiating is right for them, though, your beratement might be what pushes them away. It might also be what cause those who might be thinking about becoming an official to think again.

Believe it or not, high school sports are not life or death. While only one team can win each game, players and fans from both sides benefit from the games being played. They cannot be played without officials. Not yet.

Eventually, if he is not driven away, that umpire might grow in confidence. Eventually, he might lose that deer-in-the-headlights look and show that he belongs on the varsity field.

First, we have to shut up and give him a chance.

— Bill Foley, who still feels like an ass for yelling at an umpire last summer in Missoula, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74 or Bluesky at @foles74.bsky.social. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.