Forget about dropping participation levels and pandemic-mandated disruptions — one of the very real threats to youth and high school sports is a disturbing lack of qualified officials. In fact, a survey by NFHS of state high school associations indicates that approximately 50,000 individuals have discontinued their service as high school officials since the 2018-19 season — the last full school year unaffected by the pandemic.

(Editor’s note: I am one of those 50,000 who has hung up his whistle since the pandemic began. The last basketball I refereed was in March 2020 on the same day the NBA closed down for the season, and safety concerns kept me from returning to the soccer pitch in the fall as well. Now I pursue more sedentary pursuits where I don’t get yelled at quite as much.)

There is a role that team dealers can play in helping to recruit more new officials for all sports and Dr. Karissa L. Niehoff, NFHS Chief Executive Officer, recently sent out an appeal that is excerpted here:  

Several times in this column the past three years, the NFHS has shared concerns about the declining number of officials for high school sports. Last fall, in fact, the headline stated that the officiating shortage had reached a crisis level across the country.

Dana Pappas, who has been on board as NFHS director of officiating services since last summer, said 43 states have reported losses totaling more than 33,000 officials. However, several larger states have not reported yet, so the exact figure is likely to approach 50,000.

While there are several contributing factors to this sizeable decline, such as the age-old problem of unsportsmanlike behavior by students, coaches, parents and other fans, Pappas said one of the latest challenges is related to the pandemic.  

“In talking to some of the state directors, many of these losses are people who were probably on the brink of retirement and then COVID kind of forced the issue,” Pappas said. “Nationally, we’ve gone from about 240,000 to 200,000, which has become an area of concern for states just to cover games at all or with the maximum number of officials on a crew.”

Interestingly, about the same number of individuals – between 50,000 and 60,000 – have expressed an interest in officiating the past four years through the NFHS’ #BecomeAnOfficial Program, but the number of officials actually coming in the front door do not come close to matching those going out the back door.

There is some good news on the horizon, however. After hearing the same message – shortage of officials – from every level of sport in the country, the NFHS is orchestrating and leading a first-ever National Officials Consortium Summit in April to collectively address the concerns.

“What we discovered was that everyone was working on the same problem, but there is no strategic collaboration between the entities,” Pappas said. “We understand that everybody is reliant upon our pipeline at the high school level. So, we want to work together to replenish and keep that pipeline healthy and figure out ways that we can do the work collectively instead of everyone doing it on their own.”

In addition to the NCAA, more than 30 national-level sports organizations have committed to be a part of the consortium hosted by the NFHS in Indianapolis April 12-14. Various youth, high school, college and professional sports organizations, as well as national governing bodies for Olympic sports, have expressed an interest in coming together to address the growing shortage of officials.

In the meantime, the NFHS is continuing in its attempt to recruit more individuals to officiating, including current high school athletes and current parents of athletes.

“Many sport parents have been around the sport for 18 years, and then their kid graduates, so we’re trying to reach out to those individuals to get them to stay involved on the field, on the court or on the mat as officials,” Pappas said.

In an attempt to encourage more individuals to consider officiating high school sports, the NFHS is trying to celebrate those involved and turn negatives into positives.

“A lot of times in the news we hear people blaming officials because they lost a game,” Pappas said. “We hear stories about assaults and stories about poor treatment of officials. So, we are trying to highlight individuals within the officiating community to talk about how officiating was transformative for them in their lives, and why it’s important to get involved.”

While work continues to retain more officials by improving behavior of players, coaches and fans, recruitment efforts must intensify to keep high school sports going in our nation’s schools. Apply online at www.HighSchoolOfficials.com