Is there a shortage of Officials in your State/Area? Why?

[camaulds]

I am curious if other States and areas of Michigan are experiencing the same level of frustration with regard to bringing in new Officials.

I have Officiated in Louisiana and Michigan starting in 1976. When I initially signed up in West Monroe, Louisiana in 1976 we were in dire need of Football Officials. Is that still the case in NE Louisiana? I moved to Mid-Michigan a short time later only to find that there was an abundance of Officials here. That changed over the years. Now we are hurting here just like we were in Louisiana in the late 70's.

Do you have enough Officials to cover all your games? Are some of your games worked short handed due to shortage of Officials? Does your association regularly have to contract games out to other associations due to shortage?

Any good ideas out there for recruiting new Officials?

What are your thoughts on why we have a shortage if there is one in your area? If you have more than enough for coverage what are you doing to generate interest?

Here in Mid-Michigan soccer has caused numbers in football to drop and with it interest in Officiating football. That is not the prime reason for lack of Officials but it is one of the bricks in the wall so to speak. We just don't have the numbers out for FB that we once did.

I have 3 sons and one daughter. The 3 oldest have worked little league baseball as umpires. My oldest son Officiates with us here for the MHSAA. His interest is lukewarm at best. The passion to do this just isn't there yet. He loves FB but doesn't have the time to devote to our craft. The next son gave up Officiating completely. He hates the arguing and getting yelled at. To quote him, "there are too many other things I can do to make money where I don't have to put up with all of the arguing and yelling from coaches and parents."

In short, we are too busy as a society to devote the time and energy to Officiating. Coaches, players and parents discourage new recruits at an early age. Other sports and interest pull kids away from playing the sport(s)resulting in a lessening of the talent pool to draw from.

Lastly, we may be becoming a sedintary society bent on a hassel free existence with little or no responsibility. With competition from video games, TV, movies etc., we just aren't "out there" as a people to same degree as 15-25 years ago. What we do is just the opposite of all that!

When I ask young people what they have better to do than Officiate the game they love I get a variety of answers. Most of those answers fall into one of the above categories.

What do we do about it?

[dlangdon]

I think here in West Virginia, we have not felt the shortage of officials as much because some schools have merged with other schools to form larger schools. I think all of the closings have been completed for a while, and we well be short here. In our state clinic last year (WVSSAC) ask coaches and officials alike to try to interest senior players to think about officiating so we did not need to start having Saturday games to have enough officials to cover. It takes three years for a new official to be able to work a varcity game unless they just do not have anyone else, then you can use a second year official if both coaches agree.

[Rick KY]

In Northern Kentucky we currently ahve no shortage of football officials. The NKOA has over 100 members and 12 full time varsity crews. We have many officials over 50 years old, and several planning to retire in the next 1-3 years, so recruiting is important. Luckily, we have been able to recruit as many as 8 new poeple per year for the last 5 years, mostly by word of mouth or 1:1 recruiting efforts. We have a healthy organization.

[BktBallRef]

Ditto Rick Ky. Our association fields 13 crews on most Friday nights and up to 16 during early season non-conference play.

We recruit using a lot of different methods. For example:

1) Getting the prep sports editor to do stories on officials and publish recruiting notices.

2) We do a "You Make the Call," during the local HS pre-game radio broadcast, which includes a recruiting spill after the "play" but before the "call."

3) Prior to each game, the referee gives a card to the PA announcer. The card is used to introduce the officials for the game and has a recruiting message built in with contact information.

4) And probably our best tool is our web site, which is linked at the bottom.

FYI - Baseball and softball is a completely different story!

[Tom Cook]

Northern Indiana has a shortage of officials in most sports. I had a full varsity schedule last year, my third.
This area has a lot pf good programs. In 98 or 97 there were four area teams making a total of 6 or 7 appearances in the state finals (5 classes).
I think that with such a large percentage of the "lovers of the game" following their favorite teams there aren't quite enough people left to officiate. I've talked to several people trying to recruit them, but they don't want to miss their neighbors kid playing on Friday night. Also, I believe that that people don't want to give up their weeknights to "pay their dues" at lower level games.
We also have shortages in most of the other sports (basketball not included).

[Larry Gonski]

In Southern California, there is a shortage mainly because of the start times for the new officials. Some games start at 2:30 or 3:00. Usually to qualify for varsity assignments, you have to have three years under your belt.

[Ed Hickland]

In many areas of the country the games necessary to move up are held in the late afternoon. That restricts a number of potential officials, especially, in football where the opportunity to work the required number of games is low.

Since it affects us all, the schools could be more accomodating in this age where lighting fields is done more and more and schedule 6pm sub-varsity games. That would also give more parents a chance to come to the games.

For veteran officials, we need to mentor our successors. If I look at the local association -- Suffolk County Long Island -- varsity officials are getting older and the number of young officials to replace retiring varsity officials has not kept pace. Yet, the average length of service is less than 10 years. There is a need to continually train and incent new officials.