Are Junior High Football Officials in the Panhandle Biased?

I've been around youth sports a long time, coaching many baseball teams and watching other sports my kids are playing in. I've seen so much different officiating, argued with quite a bit of it on the field, admittedly.

Never, though, have I seen more lopsided officiating than I've seen recently here in the Texas Panhandle. Not on the baseball field where I usually see my officiating, but this is on the junior high football field.

Road Officials Seem Biased

So far, my son has had two road games. One in Pampa, and one in Hereford. Now, I've watched plenty of football in my lifetime; however, not at the youth level. In fact, I typically don't just watch my kids play; I'm usually on the field coaching, so I see the officials differently, the game differently.

Sitting in the stands for these two road games showed me something, though. These officials? They seem incredibly biased. I don't want to say that they are unequivocally, but what I've seen in these two road games? My goodness.

Missed Calls All Over The Field

I'll start with the missed calls. Some of them were so incredibly blatant it blew me away. I'm talking about seeing kids lined up two full yards offsides and not getting called for it. Obvious face masks against our team that weren't called, with officials telling the kids and coaches, "Sorry, didn't see it". How could you miss it? You were staring right at the kid with the ball.

I counted six missed calls by officials, and not questionable ones. I mean ones we could see from the stands sitting 30 yards away from the play. False starts by the home team that weren't called at least twice. Their receiver was three yards past the line of scrimmage before the ball was snapped. It was truly appalling that so many calls weren't made.

Phantom Calls Galore

At one point, there were calls going against our team that baffled everyone. A false start on our team with literally ZERO movement. A horse collar tackle called against us when the opposing player was clearly taken down by his arm, and that call happened on what would've been a five-yard loss.

My favorite? An unsportsmanlike conduct call against us when a kid went to the referee to let him know what the other team was constantly doing, and it was being missed. A flag came flying across the field and put our opponents on the 20-yard line. They would end up scoring two plays later.

Are Neutral Officials Calling These Games

I don't know how officials are chosen for these games, but I feel like we may need to take a look at the selection process for them. I wouldn't say this if it was just one game that had some apparent biased calls. These are two road games, called heavily for our opponent.

Are these hometown officials that are called in since they live there? Maybe alumni of the school? I feel like we need to be sure there are neutral officials at each game, with no ties to the city or school. I know, it's just a junior high football game, but all these boys deserve to play in a fair game.