Making Those Calls Can Be Dangerous : Referees: Players, coaches and fans can become a threat to officials' safety during and after games.

By MIKE REILLEY

Jan. 31, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Mike Dias heard the boos, jeers and taunts from high school basketball fans all night long.

It was nothing new to him. Dias, who is black, was used to hearing all the racial slurs and insults fans could toss at him.

But on this night, he was officiating a close game between Freeway League rivals Sunny Hills and Fullerton, and everyone seemed to have an opinion when Dias blew his whistle.

Dias had learned to ignore taunts during his three years of officiating Orange County games. Just call the game. Do your job. Then go home and relax.

But Dias said he heard some disturbing words from a fan behind the Sunny Hills bench.

“I’m going to kill you.”

Dias kept thinking about those words through the game’s final minutes. Afterward, he asked Fullerton Vice Principal Don Morrison to escort him to the locker room.

They never made it.

“We were walking off the floor and I felt I was being shoved from behind,” Dias said. “Then I felt someone punch me in the side and I was elbowed in back. I thought, ‘Oh no, I’m going to get killed.’ ”

Dias said he turned to retaliate, but Morrison and another administrator separated them.

The fan who allegedly attacked Dias was Robert Carnesi, 37, of Fullerton. Carnesi is the uncle of Sunny Hills point guard Dominic Carnesi, who fouled out late in the game. Sunny Hills won, 85-80.

“I would’ve hated to see what would have happened if Fullerton had won,” Dias said. “I would probably be in the hospital right now.”

Dias has filed assault charges against the elder Carnesi. A court date is pending and Robert Carnesi has refused to comment on the alleged incident.

“I didn’t sleep for a week after that,” Dias said. “Someone could’ve stabbed me from behind and walked away and no one would have known the difference.”

Dias quit officiating games on the junior and recreational levels after the incident at Fullerton. He said he might quit officiating at the high school too, because the risk isn’t worth the $38 he gets paid per game.

“My life has more meaning than basketball,” he said.

The Southern Section has listed the Dias incident among three assaults involving high school officials in the past 3 1/2 months:

--On Oct. 13, two referees were attacked by Palmdale High players during a football game.

--On Dec. 6, two referees allegedly were attacked after a basketball game between Damien and Victor Valley.

Athletes, fans and coaches who once treated officials as authority figures are now prone to challenge their judgment--verbally and physically. Officials also are finding themselves in the middle of an increasing number of fights.

“When we get to the point where people don’t trust our officials anymore, then the hunt’s over,” Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas said. “The asylum is being run by the inmates.”

Mel Narol, legal columnist for The Referee magazine and legal counsel to the National Assn. of Sports Officials, said there are at least 100 publicized cases of officials who were assaulted in youth sports each year. The confrontations range from pushing and shoving to serious assault.

“It’s a sad commentary,” said Narol, a former basketball official who is now a lawyer in Princeton, N.J. “Years ago, officials involved in assaults wouldn’t say anything. They were concerned that if they made a noise, they wouldn’t get to officiate in the same district or college again. They were afraid to speak out.”

Tom Hammill, editor of The Referee, keeps a file of press clippings about assaults on officials. He said the file grows thicker each year.

“It’s not one level (of competition) more than the other,” he said. “There’s no place where officials are immune to it. It seems to be everywhere.”

Louie Fuentes can recite many of the taunts he has heard in his 20 years of officiating college and high school basketball games. One of his favorites: “Hey ref, you watching the same game we are?”

Fuentes laughs. “We aren’t watching the same game,” he said. “There are three sides to a game. There’s the side the coaches and players see. Then there’s the side the fans see. The refs don’t see the same game. We’re not just watching the ball go in the hole or the guy getting bumped. We have to watch the entire game.”

Fuentes, who also assigns games to the 305 high school referees in the Orange County Basketball Officials Assn., has heard all of the verbal abuse and he knows about the physical abuse too.

Fuentes was officiating a college basketball game between Utah and Notre Dame a few years ago when he saw a penny fly from the stands and hit Irish Coach Digger Phelps.

Phelps, realizing this was no penny from heaven, turned to Fuentes and said: “That was meant for you, not me.”

Fuentes has dodged a variety of artillery from the stands--rolls of toilet paper, candy, paper cups, ice and coins, to name a few. He’s collected enough spare change to feed a parking meter for hours.

Dias said officials also become targets when players fight. He said he’s “scared to death” when a fight starts.

“When you’re out there and all the fans are on the floor, you know the fans will come at you,” Dias said. “What do you do? Officials will probably have to start carrying a pistol. It’s out of control.”

Ken Jaussi, who was an official during Capistrano Valley’s fight-marred game against Mission Viejo last week, said young athletes follow examples set by professionals. They watch Pete Rose bump an umpire or John McEnroe berate a line judge, then imitate what they see.

“Kids see the taunting and baiting all the time,” Jaussi said. “It snowballs with every level. Plus the games are played by kids who are bigger and more physical than before. There’s a lot of bumping and the frustration builds.”

Villa Park Principal Walt Otto, who has officiated soccer, baseball and basketball games for 20 years, said referees can tone down the frustration by calling fouls early in the game.

“If they let if get out of hand in the first quarter, they’ll have problems in the fourth quarter,” he said. “If a referee is swift, sure and fair and he controls the first two minutes, that sets the tone. The chances are slim that there will be a problem. But it the ref lets the kids punch and shove, he will constantly be having to catch up with the attitude and posture of the game.”

Dias disagrees. He said coaches take advantage of officials. Scheduling problems leave a shortage of officials at the freshman and junior varsity levels, he said, so some referees work three or four games a night.

“Coaches will kiss up to you at the end of the game,” Dias said. “They ask you to stay around and do another game because they need you. Then (they) totally abuse you. You’re doing them a favor and they make every demand they can on you.

“We’re just a piece of meat to coaches. They could care less about your feelings.”