Quote:
Originally Posted by sdoebler
We have already spread basketball out over all six playing days available to address the shortage of officials and days with too many games. Losing officials to other sports and not having days available to play games would be very difficult.
There could easily be a reduction in total games for teams, but that is yet to be determined.
On the other end our main assignor said he expects a large influx of officials due to the amount of people in the gig economy that have lost work and hours.
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From what I've seen and been told in my area:
- Some officials who officiated multiple fall sports have opted to drop one or more sports to focus on one sport only.
- Renewals in my association appear to be way down, and some officials have already chosen to drop one or more sports they officiated in the past. This could be for any of the following:
(a) The general uncertainty of schools reopening and sports being allowed to have their seasons.
(b) Older officials not wanting to put themselves at risk.
(c) People waiting until the new extended deadline to register when they hope to have more idea about whether their sports will be played in some capacity.
(d) The usual attrition from people unwilling or unable to continue officiating.
Basketball, baseball, and softball are played near daily here. It's not uncommon for many officials to be asked to work 5-6 days a week, especially in the last two sports, out of necessity because of how thin the ranks are -- especially for spring sports whose 4:00 and 4:30 PM start times preclude anyone working 9-5 to officiate those sports/games. As it stands now, enough officials being sick, injured, or last-second call-offs is enough to drive assignors crazy as they ensure the varsity games are sufficiently covered even if it means sub-varsity games end up being officiated solo.
Adding to the issue here was the local CYO's decision to stop playing games on Sunday except for Thanksgiving and Christmas tournaments. Many Sunday games have been moved to weeknights which means CYO assignors are now competing with high school assignors to find officials for those games. As a result, some of these CYO night games in basketball might have one or both officials coming from a nearby 4:00 freshman game to cover one or two CYO games starting at 6:00 (sometimes moved to 6:15 or 6:30 to accommodate those officials, or simply started as soon as possible once the officials arrive and take the court).
With the likelihood that this year's officiating groups will be even thinner than prior years, I easily see more officials that predominantly work sub-varsity games being asked to take on the occasional varsity game on an as-needed basis for better or worse.
One last concern might be what happens if a player or coach in a game contracts COVID-19. In basketball, it's possible that all three crews (and up to seven officials) would need to self-quarantine for two weeks -- giving assignors that much more of a headache as they try to keep as many games covered as possible.