Dr. Karissa Niehoff, the CEO of NFHS, has once again highlighted the shortage of officials across the country, which is becoming so serious it is impacting scheduling of high school contests.
Read Dr. Niehoff’s complete view 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. A recent survey now provides solid proof for those concerns.
A survey 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.
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.”
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.”
While unsportsmanlike behavior continues to be a major issue, it’s not one unique to high school sports. It will be helpful to address this issue – and others – with ideas on solutions from all levels of sport.
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.
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.
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 and Become a High School Official.
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Author: David Keech
David Keech is a retired teacher and works as a sportswriter, sports official and as an educational consultant. He has reported on amateur sports since 2011, known as 'KeechDaVoice.' David can be reached at [email protected]
