Officials at the boys soccer game on Oct. 8 were recognized for their contribution towards maintaining fairness and order in all sports events. The week of Oct. 5 was Official’s Week and the Spartans celebrated and recognized the positive impact that officials have on sporting events.

“I think the biggest thing is we can’t play without our officials. But if we were not recognizing officials and making them feel appreciated, they’re not required to be at our school,” junior Aiden Pagnucci said.

Showing respect towards officials is a huge part of sports. Pagnucci thinks that by not arguing about little things makes a huge difference. Officials make the calls how they see it and nobody is perfect. Refs, players, and coaches are always trying their best, so fans should always be respectful towards everyone.

“We did it super short notice,” Pagnucci revealed. “We didn’t actually know when officials week was. We just knew that it existed, but we didn’t know when it was.”

Once learning about officials week, the team and athletic director Ella Olson scrambled into action. They met earlier in the week and planned to create a video around officials week.

“We had a meeting and said, ‘Hey this is coming up,’ and then kind of threw everything together.” Pagnucci said.

One of the biggest challenges Pagnucci dealt with was the time crunch in putting it together.

“I think facing that time crunch was a huge challenge we faced, but I think we overcame it pretty well.” Pagnucci remarked.

The Sportsmanship Group, which is primarily student led, set up the celebration of officials week. They wrote a script for the PA announcer to read out during games. They also wrote a script for their promotional video with David Coy to post on social media and helped in the making of gift bags for the officials.

“Just kinda silly stuff, but it means a lot,” Olson said. “Most of the officials emailed me afterwards and thanked me for what we did.”

Olson plans to continue celebrating the officials every year going forward.