HS Football Refs

We are down 30% on HS Refs. That means more inexperienced Refs and 1st year Refs doing varsity games. Don’t be surprised to see some blown calls. I can hear the booing from the stands already.

Dakota @Ottawa Marquette was moved to Saturday afternoon because officials were not available Friday night. I'm sure that is not a unique situation.

not only inexperience ones, but ones who SHOULD have retired a long time ago. those might be the worst.

but your point is made - it continues to be an issue.

And yet fans and coaches continue to berate them, which only chases people away from officating.. I umpire slow pitch softball and there is a shortage there as well, so many people have walked away because they got tired of getting screamed at by guys in a meaningless weekday league.. so now most of the games I work are solo, and the same idiots that have chased away good umpires now bitch that the park district can't find more umpires.. lol

OSUBucks wrote:We are down 30% on HS Refs. That means more inexperienced Refs and 1st year Refs doing varsity games. Don’t be surprised to see some blown calls. I can hear the booing from the stands already.

Our crew is booked solid, 10 varsity games this fall, and we could have more if we were available for more Saturday contests that have been moved due to the shortage of officials. We were able to accept one of those Saturdays but we were asked early enough to clear our schedules. I get emails everyday from assignors begging guys to work their games. There are games, two days from now, that are still looking for officials. The need for underclass games is just as bad. I really believe you're gonna see Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night games in the near future.

HHSTigerFan2 wrote:And yet fans and coaches continue to berate them, which only chases people away from officating.. I umpire slow pitch softball and there is a shortage there as well, so many people have walked away because they got tired of getting screamed at by guys in a meaningless weekday league.. so now most of the games I work are solo, and the same idiots that have chased away good umpires now bitch that the park district can't find more umpires.. lol

To be honest, fans don't really bother me and 99% of head coaches are great guys. I'm a line judge so I get to interact with them every Friday night. Sure they get a little excited at times and may not like a call or non call but they're usually too busy to be worrying about me. I give head coaches a lot of leeway because I believe they've earned it by taking on the responsibility that the job requires. Assistants can be the annoying ones but it's a very rare occasion that I even acknowledge them. IMO the basketball, baseball, and softball officials are the ones that really take the abuse.