SAINT LOUIS, MO (KMOX) - When students return to class for academics, many will return to the fields and courts for school athletics. High School games may be put in jeopardy by an ongoing shortage of officials.
"15 years ago, I had 381 officials to assign and now I'm down to 230," says Dennis Barbero. As High School Soccer Assignor for Assignors Plus, Barbero schedules referees and linesmen for all of the high school soccer games in the greater St. Louis region -- roughly 7-thousand a year across more than 100 schools.
His counterpart for baseball, softball, and basketball -- Bill Buchanan with the St. Louis Suburban Conference -- has seen a similar decline in the number of officials he can call on to fill games. "A lot of the high schools in the St. Louis area for baseball or softball don't have lights, so you're forced to play everything at 4 o'clock in the afternoon," explains Buchanan it's a challenge finding someone to work them, "getting officials there at that time because they have another job. This is a secondary job for most officials. It's that work schedule." Another challenge is that many officials work multiple sports.
Barbero explains, the pool of available officials is also slim in less populated areas, and it's hard to find ones willing or able to take the time to drive to far-away games.
Recruiting is also tough. "A lot the kids coming out of high school have already seen the results of what it is to officiate a game and have the fans yell or the coaches scream... ...and they choose not to," points out Barbero. He says the vast majority of new officials leave within three years.
He says organizations have started offering better pay and other incentives to attract and retain sports officials. The Missouri State High School Activities Association has increased wages for officials in recent years, plus is offering reduced registration fees and stipends for new officials.
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