[HLin NC]

material tells us its "sportsmanship" issues primarily but there are other reasons IMO.

Time- the time spent in meetings, study, travel, spending the bulk of Saturdays in youth ball, all weigh in. People are busy and have many activities- social, church, school, etc. It can be nervewracking to meet all the obligations.
If you are a young official with a family, particularly with small children, you may feel more pressing needs.

In our area, middle school games start between 4:30 and 5:00. A young official, just making his way into the working world, may have difficulty getting off work but these are the assignments he's going to draw.



Rules - I started umpiring Little League baseball and officiating football the same year. I caught on to the rules of baseball much quicker than I did the details of football. I still dispise the casebook.

Cost - it can be a little pricey for a first year official even with a bare bones equipment list. Between registration fees and gear, you are probably looking at about $300. That's about what a new official working MS ball is about going to make for the season in game fees.

Retention:

I can remember being a new official, showing up at meetings and hearing all the old war stories that never did a thing to teach me about officiating. Group your younger officials and put them off to themselves with qualified instructors.

Encourage smaller study groups outside of group meetings.

Try a "second hand" gear closet for new guys to pick up shirts and pants.
Help them find cheaper alternatives for equipment - rubber bands instead of down indicators, shoe outlet stores, Walmart brand compression gear instead of Nike or UnderArmor.

Encourage younger officials to ride to a varsity game with a crew, sit in on pre-game, and stay on the sideline, once or twice a season. Put them on clock duty if schools use officials for that and they can be around a varsity crew also.