These are all interesting insights. I have watched a lot of high school sports over the last ten years and I have seen officials who I thought were calling fairly and those who were just terrible, but seldom did I see any that I thought were cheating. I have known of officials who carry vendettas against certain coaching staffs and I worked with one football ref who told me his goal for one particular season was to go 11 weeks without pulling his flag out of his pocket.
But, in spite of all of that, I have rarely seen a contest of any kind where I felt the referees made the difference in the outcome. It happens occasionally, but the best team usually wins.