Officials Shortage in the IHSA?

[LWPops]

I wanted to get a feel for what the officals who frequent this board think of this issue.

I referee in NW Indiana. We are entering Week #7 tonight (IHSAA starts a week earlier than IHSA). It's possible that varsity games in our last two weeks will have undermanned crews because schools say they cannot afford the financial hit to move some games to Saturday.

Is Illinois experiencing anything like this - or do you see officials ranks dwindling?

 

[ref2]

It's that way all over the country

 

[LWPops]

I just found out that we have to supply our LJ and work short-handed on the 13th. He is going to also be on a 4-man crew. Some ADs are willing to have 4-man crews in favor of moving games. Insane!

 

[ref2]

It is going to get a lot worse before things get better. In Illinois about 80% of officials leave before 5 years. Plenty of reasons from low pay to abuse. For a lot of people it just is not worth it.

 

[Quags57]

I am a huge proponent of paying the game officials more. When the school support staff is making as much or even more than the patched game officials, something is way wrong.