Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
I totally agree with this. Later times would help in many situations for officials. It is easier for varsity officials when your game is the main focus.
Peace
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Me too. And we wonder why we lose so many younger officials before they could possibly work varsity games. First, they often get mistreated at the middle school and subvarsity games that they do work. Second, the games they do work can be as early as 2:30 in the afternoon. This can be a problem for people who have jobs, because not everyone can work a job with flexible hours or use leave time to work early games. Students may be able to work early games, depending on class times, but not those who have real jobs.
If we can support newer officials for at least the first 3 years of their careers, give them training and development opportunities to prepare them for the varsity level (with occasional varsity assignments toward the end of the program), and ensure that games are scheduled at realistic times (not earlier than 4:30 PM for a subvarsity game), then we might see more young officials stay, and avert the shortages. And let's not forget the ladies, y'all. If we can have both men and women in stripes, we might go a long way to solving the problem of having enough officials. EBO is almost 1/5 female (7 women for ~55 officials).