OT: High school football officiating shortage

[JerseyBills]

How do you get to be a cfb or nfl official? Do you work your way up or is there tests

[That's No Moon]

1 hour ago, Big Turk said:

 

Now add that they increasing resort to violence against officials and it has happened from many angles...parents, coaches and players increasingly almost to the point it's considered normal.

 

Used to be that was unthinkable to do that but not anymore.

I had to have refs escorted to their cars by state troopers twice this year for middle school basketball.

[PetermansRedemption]

8 minutes ago, JerseyBills said:

How do you get to be a cfb or nfl official? Do you work your way up or is there tests

Many, many years. In the Buffalo area, it takes about 2 years to be a regular high school official, 4-5 years to be a varsity high school official. After being a varsity level official you can apply to D3. After a few years cutting your teeth at D3 you can apply for a D1 position. But you need to have a lot of good tape and references to be considered at that level. It’s hard to make a D1 conference, it’s basically impossible to make the NFL. You have a better chance of winning the lottery. 

[Augie]

1 hour ago, Johnny Hammersticks said:

They literally can’t pay officials enough money here in Vermont (I think they’re paying $85-90 per game plus mileage), and having been a varsity lacrosse coach for 9 years I completely understand why.  State regulatory agencies, such as the Vermont Principals Association here in VT, need to implement state-wide zero tolerance policies for fans and and make sure they are enforced.

 

How they handle it now is by giving a “bench misconduct” penalty to the home team and warn the fan(s).  If it continues they can eject the fan, but I’ve only seen that happen once.  

 

Not football, where they always had some law enforcement, but our son had an AAU basketball game in Miami where the refs decided to halt the game until they could get police in the gym. What is this world coming to? We can’t watch some 14 year olds play basketball without restoring to criminal (literally!) behavior?  

[LewPort71]

To OP. Congrats on becoming a sports official for HS sports.  It is a great time commitment but there is a lot of fulfilment that comes with it.

I have officiated HS  soccer for 20 years but this year I am taking a pause in the action and will mentor the  young ones. My knees are a mess

and replacement is imminent.  In that time I  have only had one 'encounter' and it was mild.  A lady fan of the worst team in the area offered me her 

glasses after one match.   Listening to the fans is one thing I tell the new referees NOT to do.  Few of them played soccer, so they generally are not 

aware of what they are yelling about.  Alas, football is different as everyone in the stands thinks they are Ed Hochuli.

Advice.  Know the rules intimately and be confident of your calls.  That will reduce fan's abuse.

[HOUSE]

A very rewarding career, you will love the parents

 

 

 

Edited August 8, 2023 by HOUSE

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

3 hours ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

https://www.bakersfield.com/news/sports-official-shortage-reaches-crisis-level/article_dfb87734-30be-11ee-b4c9-f70b7bafd39c.html

 

I've debated becoming a High School football official for the last couple of years. This year I think I'm going to jump into the fire. Attend my first meeting tomorrow night, hopefully officiate an intersquad scrimmage later in the week and the following week is week 1 of the high school football season.

 

A recent local news article (linked above) for my county reports that the shortage of high school football officials has reached "crisis levels." They only expect to have 40 officials, enough to make up only 8 of the five man officiating crews that are expected to officiate the 13 or 14 varsity football games each week. As a result, the number of games that will be played on a Thursday night is expected to jump from 36 last year to 59 this year. 

 

The article mentions that the shortage of officials is a nationwide problem. Curious if Buffalo is having the same shortage. It would appear the decrease in total number of kids playing football hasn't helped the official shortage. The shortage would only be relieved if High Schools started eliminating their football programs all together. 

 

Nobody really does it for the money as the article mentions the rate is about $67- $85 per game. For me I've just wanted to do it to give back to the game that I love, keep my mind sharp, and be a part of a team.

 

Curious to know if any fellow forum members have current or past experience officiating at the high school level and what their thoughts are. 

 

 

 

If you're going to be a HS official, do it NY state as they pay much better.  I used to ref HS volleyball till I moved away in 2008.  Doing a JV then varsity back to back was around $90 back then and I recall we were going to be getting a fairly large increase the following season..  Plus I lived in Rochester district where they also paid mileage.  I lived in a NW suburb of Rochester and was doing games in Wayland/Cohocton which added close to another $50 in mileage which likely has also gone up as gas prices are also much higher. 

 

Recall Buffalo district didn't directly pay mileage, instead they had somehow calculated the average distance each official would to travel to the average school and everyone got that amount every match regardless how far you actually drove.

 

This was about 15 years ago, so who knows what the policy's are now.  Do recall in Rochester the AD's were beating on the assigners to assign officials with the lowest mileage even if that often meant having officials that really should be working lower level matches.  Didn't matter, $$ came first!

 

Moved to NC and we'd get around $60 and in the 5 or 6 years I was doing it, never got an increase, plus no mileage down here.  I stopped about 8 years ago mainly due to lack of time, planned to start again the following year, but never did and at this point, not likely I will bother as now retired and traveling too much.

[NoSaint]

3 hours ago, KDIGGZ said:

To get $50-100 a pop for the abuse and stress, it's not worth it. Coaches, parents, players all treat you like crap. Miss a call and people literally want your head on a stake. I'm sure people could think of a million better things to do with their time 

yup. You’d have to be a masochist, not a sports enthusiast, to sign up for the job. 
 

low pay, weekday games can conflict with standard work schedules by the time you bake in commutes and prep… even if you are excellent you are shredded by folks that barely understand the rules. 
 

sign me up for literally anything else. 

[Buffalo716]

2 hours ago, JerseyBills said:

How do you get to be a cfb or nfl official? Do you work your way up or is there tests

It's a grind like any profession

 

You start at the local high school level... JV first than varsity... Eventually maybe get a junior college or D3 game

 

Then hit up the MAC if you're in Buffalo and see if they need any officials... 

 

But you better have a resume

 

And it's a long grind... I still know division 1 refs to this day

 

And they do not get to enjoy and appreciate football... Because they are in the middle of it... And they don't want to get hit with any suspicion of fixing

 

They are refs and refs only they can't even be fans

Edited August 6, 2023 by Buffalo716

[oldmanfan]

My dad’s second job was officiating way back in the 60’s-90’s.  He did basketball, football, soccer, and baseball.  As an ump he got an offer to go full time with a shot at doing the majors but he didn’t want to be away from the family as much as the job called for.  Back then coaches, parents and kids had more respect for officials.  But now it’s ridiculous.  Parents with no clue about the rules or about the difficulties of officiating just yell obscenities, start fights, and all that kind of crap.  I considered following in my dad’s footsteps, but you could see the crap starting in the 80’s/90’s and it gets worse and worse.  So I said no thanks.

[Freddie's Dead]

I used to love umpiring softball.  While it sometimes got ugly, I was never in fear of life or limb.  Now, after two soccer refs have been killed, you'd never see me reffing anything ever again.  Good luck, stay safe.

[Aussie Joe]

Abuse of officials at junior sports is a problem world wide I would suggest.

 

Certainly see it on this side of the lake ..

[Let's Go Buffalo]

I used to officiate football, basketball, and baseball. Then I got into coaching. A few years back I tore my Achilles Tendon, and I kind sat out for a while, and then never got back into officiating. I enjoyed it, and it helped keep me in shape somewhat. When I first started, the fans really got under my skin, but after a few seasons, I just learned to tune them out, and it seemed to get better. I still coach, but haven't officiated in a few years. You'll earn your wings for sure!