Friday night football games in the fall are a Pennsylvania tradition but more games are being scheduled on Thursday nights or Saturday afternoons because there aren’t enough officials. For high school football, seven officials on the field are what’s ideal, but many times five are calling the games.

There’s a shortage of referees or officials in other sports too like lacrosse, soccer and field hockey.

On The Spark Monday was Patrick Gebhart, Assistant Executive Director of Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association who said,"The, poor treatment of officials nationally that has been ranked as the number one reason that officials retire and don't come back, after a few years, if we get an official to their third year, we feel pretty strongly that they'll continue to have a great career. But poor treatment by coaches and spectators has been the number one reason across the country, including Pennsylvania, that officials, retire."

Gebhard said athletic directors are making a greater effort to control coach and fan behavior toward officials.

Gebhard indicated there are other reasons there aren't as many people willing to become officials or are leaving,"Back in 2015, the state legislature began to require officials to have clearances. They cost approximately $60 for the three clearances. They're good for five years. Well, when it came to the renewal program, we lost the officials from 2015 because they didn't want to go through the process. 2021 they had to renew. Many officials felt the same way. I don't want to go through that again. I don't want to pay the $60 even though it's mandated by the state legislature. I think many officials felt they didn't want to go through that. And as everyone remembers, in 2020, COVID hit and many officials dropped just because they might have had an underlying illness or just didn't want to go through wearing a mask while they officiate. So we did lose officials for those two reasons."

Gebhard said officials or associations representing officials negotiate pay rates with schools.

What's being done to recruit new officials? Gebhard described several marketing and advertising campaigns, including in schools and at championship events. Younger people are becoming officials through a junior officiating program where they officiate middle school grade athletic contests.

If you are interested in becoming an official or have questions, go to the PIAA website here.

Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.