COVID-19 made SC’s referee shortage worse. How high schools are playing through it
There is nothing like ... Thursday night lights? Don’t be surprised if that’s a more common occurrence in a 2020 football season that’s been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The South Carolina High School League’s season is only 2 weeks old, but a shortage in referees to cover a full Friday night slate has forced some games to be moved to Thursdays.
An existing shortage statewide was made worse by the coronavirus pandemic. There were 85 football officials in the state who opted out of the season — mostly because of COVID-19 concerns — though four opted back in, according to S.C. High School League assistant commissioner Charlie Wentzky, who oversees officiating.
“We braced our schools already and told them some games might have to be moved. It is going to be a scramble some weeks,” Wentzky said. “If you can volunteer to move a game, that helps. We will try and hope not to make a school move more than one game to a Thursday night.”
Last week, a few games were moved a day earlier because of the shortage, while others were moved because of weather concerns. This week, A.C. Flora’s varsity home game against Richland Northeast will be played Thursday to help with the shortage.
Swansea also will host Orangeburg-Wilkinson on Thursday. The Tigers are playing three of their four home games on Thursday because they have no junior varsity team. That will mean one less game needing to be staffed with officials on Friday night.
With games on Thursdays and Fridays, some referees work both nights to provide the officiating coverage that’s needed.
Thursday night games mean one less day of preparation — and usually a smaller crowd — though there already are reduced capacities at high school football games in South Carolina because of COVID-19 safety protocols.
The Columbia area was hit the hardest by the opt-outs.
Columbia-area official Dennis O’Keefe said there were 30 opt-outs from District 5 (Columbia region). O’Keefe is in his 46th year as an official. He gave up refereeing basketball in 2015 and now concentrates on football.
“We have had a shortage in the last five years and it is exasperated this year because of the coronavirus,” O’Keefe said. “We have had to deal with it as best as we can. Playoffs won’t be as bad because they will have less teams to make them this year and will be adequately covered.
“But the problem is getting to the playoffs. We still have six weeks left. It has been an interesting and rough year.”
There are 100 games across the state every week. Each game requires a five-man crew, and about 20 to 25 schools request another official to run the clock, according to O’Keefe.
There are 665 registered football officials in South Carolina, not including the 85 who opted out. O’Keefe and Wentzky both said about 600 are needed to adequately operate.
There are about 75 registered officials who can’t work on a given week for a variety of reasons, O’Keefe said, such as family obligations, only wanting to work JV games, vacations — or if they are refereeing in a Saturday college game and need to travel the night before.
There isn’t any consideration to go to a four-man crew for varsity games, Wentzky said.
The official shortage isn’t just a South Carolina issue.. The Michigan High School Athletic Association is down nearly 30%in its registered officials from a year ago and Missouri State High School Activities Association is down 15% on officials in all sports, according to the National Federation of High Schools.
To combat that, the NFHS embarked on a national officials recruitment campaign called “Make The Right Call” to get more officials involved in all sports.
There has been an influx of new officials over the last year, O’Keefe said, and most have returned. With several officials close to retiring, more are needed.
It is rare that newer officials would start on the varsity level right away, but that could be needed at some point in the year because of the circumstances, according to Wentzky.
There is an effort to put newer referees on crews with veteran officials. They are also trying to cross-train officials so they can be used in different areas over the field. That effort could help in the long run.
“Given our thin numbers, we are having to use some younger officials in terms of experience,” Wentzky said. “Hopefully those newer guys might get four or five varsity games out of necessity and make us stronger.”
