Next Generation Of Officials ...
 

Back when I was in high school, we took three "core" subjects, hunt'in, grunt'in, and cave painting, plus gym.

In gym, the teacher would just toss out some basketballs, volleyballs, or softballs, and we would "go at it".

My kids, in their high school physical education classes, did it differently, with classes in "life sports", archery, golf, running, tennis, badminton, table tennis, yoga, etc.

I would have loved this class (below) back in the day.

https://www.wtol.com/article/sports/...8-8d077335cee8

Note: Did anybody else have to square dance with the girls (the one and only time we had coed classes) in junior high school? Do they do that anymore?

Article about a high school coach who started a sports officiating class.

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Recruitment ...
 

I can't comment on Virginia (but probably the same), but we have a major shortage of officials, in many sports, here in Connecticut.

In basketball, an official may now often work a freshman, junior varsity, varsity, tripleheader. Sometimes an official may have to work alone, with no partner. This pretty much never happened in past years.

In the past, local officials would often complain about the quantity and quality of games they were assigned. Now they just complain about quality.

For the first forty-two years of my basketball officiating career, I never once had to consider this, but for the past two years I was definitely overworked.

Along with the NFHS, our state CIAC is constantly looking for new ideas (recruitment tables at state tournament games, recruitment posters in college locker rooms, etc,) to recruit new officials.

This could just be another arrow in the quiver.