The Shortage of Sports Officials

Sports play a large role in the lives of so many students, and in most cases, the people who help make games possible are the referees. The referee (ref) dictates the game, enforces the rule of the sport, and tries to keep it fair. They are crucial to so many sports that are played all over the world. But nowadays, referees are hard to get. 

“There’s a high demand of refs right now because we just don’t have enough,” soccer Coach, Dewayne Edwards, said.

Edwards is a coach for a soccer club called Colorado Rush, and he coaches two different competitive high school age teams. Edwards and his teams have taken a hit from the referee shortage in some of their games.

“Having no refs affects us tremendously. I mean, there are times where we don’t have any refs during our games,” Edwards said. 

Of course, it’s not just Edward’s teams impacted by the small number of refs. Teams everywhere are seeing a huge shortage of the referees they rely on so much. 

“I’ve had about three games that have been affected by the shortage of refs,” freshman, Lauren Area, said. 

Area plays soccer and she hopes to play for the high school this spring. Her club team has competed in games where they’ve had only one ref instead of three, but they’ve also played games with no refs at all. Of course, all the players and coaches are greatly affected by the ref shortage, but the remaining refs are also impacted.

“The refs I know just feel like it’s exhausting and tiring because there’s so much work,” Referee, Ernie Martinez, said. 

Martinez is one of the campus security guards at Conifer High School, as well as, a youth sports referee for basketball, baseball, and softball. He has been officiating for 12 years for high school sports. With such a small amount of refs to officiate games, Martinez and the other remaining refs are constantly asked to do work. They are needed for many games, more than they can fit into their schedules. They can end up getting more games than they want, which can be very stressful.

But what is the reason behind all the disappearing refs that are causing so much trouble for the teams and the leftover refs? 

“A lot of refs have retired since COVID and a lot of them have just quit,” Martinez said. 

Martinez is friends with a lot of other officials, including those who are now retired. With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting everyone, a lot of older referees saw it as a good opportunity to retire. But some younger referees’ decisions were also influenced by the pandemic. Sports were either canceled or played with the high risk of getting sick, which resulted in a lot of refs quitting. However, the pandemic isn’t the only thing that has drained the supply of youth sports refs. According to Martinez, the pay may be part of the reason a lot of refs are gone. 

“Colorado’s in the bottom 5 [in the nation] of payment for their officials,” Martinez said.

The pay for a varsity game of basketball, baseball, or softball is around 61 dollars in the state of Colorado. While that may seem like a lot, sometimes the verbal abuse isn’t worth the money. Parents, players, and coaches all get very fired up, and most of them almost never agree with every call that the refs make. The refs can receive a lot of hateful comments, and sometimes the pay just isn’t worth all the things that they have to go through.

Between the pandemic, pay, and abuse, a huge number of refs quit or retired, resulting in the shortage. But what can be done to get more referees? How can parents, coaches, and players change their attitudes towards refs? 

“Coaches and parents across the board need to be more constructive with their criticism,” Edwards said. 

Rather than beating down the refs, Edwards believes that everyone in the sports community should help the referees learn and grow. If the players, coaches, and parents can stop saying hateful things, a lot more refs may be encouraged to stay. While encouraging refs to stay is one way to help with the shortage, more refs are still needed 

“The courses are out there for anyone and they are made to be easily accessible,” Edwards said. 

There are many websites that provide registrations and training that can allow anyone to be certified as an official. Websites such as CSA (Colorado Soccer Association) or NASO (National Association of Sports Officials) can help certify a referee in the sport they are looking to officiate. With the right experience and hard work, anyone can decide to help out and become a referee.  

“There’s a lot of promise in it, but it’s just a matter of having the drive to do it,” Edwards said.