I Get Why There’s a Shortage of Referees

You know, across sports, people talk about the shortage of referees. I get that. So–my logic was, I’ll become a ref. Easy-peasy. I’ve done it in club in my region as a coach for 20 years, did JH/HS a couple years in the ’90s, and have coached high-level VB for 30+ years.

And then reality set in. There may be a shortage, but the powers-that-be aren’t really interested in solving the issues.

#1: We need younger officials. Why aren’t there younger officials.

• Cost. To officiate for schools, you’ll need black slacks and all black shoes. There’s $130 or so. You have to PAY to register with a state institution. That’s $85 more…then you have to buy the specific three colored shirts–$30 each, another $90. That’s $305 and the person hasn’t been paid yet. Do you know many 21-30 year olds who have $300 sitting around to sink into the paperwork of a job they haven’t been paid for yet (and won’t pay THAT much anyways)?…now think about the gear a baseball/softball ump has to have…

• Paperwork. USAV, AAU, NFHSA…three different registrations (you’ll actually pay for all of them, so keep adding to that $300 above…)–and wait, wanna do college? Now you’ve got to do PAVO. Now you have to apply for each, go through a number of steps, authorize the background checks (because they are ALL separate) and then, you get to try and figure out how to find places to ref–because you’re not going to get effective hints from the governing bodies.

So–you’re 23-24. Are you going to do all this? For school ball, you’re giving up your weeknights after working a day job. Those club gigs–they’re taking away your weekend (social life). Or think of the other sports–it’s not different. Why am I doing this to make my $60 umping or run up and down a court to be screamed at by parents in the stands of AAU basketball? You may not like the younger generation and complain about them–but they aren’t dumb and so this deters them from officiating.

#2: The Old Boys Network

This is alive and well. For basketball (recently if not currently), assignors keep the good jobs for themselves and their friends. Newer, younger refs, ones who aren’t in that drinking buddy circle, they’re going to get the Jr High games of Smellypits Tech vs. Sister Mary for the Blind. At a former school, the bball coach talked about a 22yo ref who played in college, spent time at HS summer tourneys reffing to get better–that he was spectacular, but couldn’t get assignments for anything other than college JV vs. juco games, so he stopped reffing. He moved to a different part of the country and started reffing again–and suddenly was getting assigned bigger/better games, the better he did, the better his assignments…and he’s now on ESPN regularly as an official working D1 games.

This goes on with other sports and absolutely goes on within volleyball. I’ve been told I need to hang out with an assignor/go drinking after working a club tourney if I want to be given college matches. I’ve been told that it doesn’t matter if I am good or not, “you have to pay your dues” and accept bad matches, travel to matches at places far away/no one else wants to do and that “after four or five years, then you’ll start getting better assignments.” –Does that sound appealing? Edited in: I’ve also been told that I’ll need to make sure to be available last-minute as a ‘sub official’ so that I curry favor with assignors.

To be fair–I understand getting seen enough to know if someone’s competent. 4-5 years to figure that out? No, sorry. When recruiting, I can tell within 10 minutes if a kid’s got skills and what level they are appropriate for. As a coach, I knew within 10 points of watching an official if they were going to be solid or not regardless of how old they were or their years as a ref. Why do officials evaluators need ‘four or five years’ to permit someone to get a ‘better assignment’?

There’s also the reverse of this–swhy do bad officials get multiple games then? You’ve had the 4-5 years to evaluate…yet they get regular work and non-sucky contests. Simple answer and you know it, too: It’s not what you know–it’s who you know.

And be available on a couple hours’ notice to sub? Life exists, planning is required. I don’t know many people willing to sit by a phone waiting for a call like that–or willing to disrupt their personal or work lives to do this.

#3: There’s a Shortage?

Is there? I’ve been to one club location where they’ve been stretched thin/can’t always get enough officials, but with others officials received scheduled breaks one to three times throughout the day. With a couple tourneys, I reached out and was specifically told in one case “Thanks, but we have more than enough.” Good–but then don’t post on your social media regularly, reposting calls for officials/that there are shortages!

#4: The Left and Right Hands don’t cooperate

The IHSA here tells new officials that they should contact assignors regarding availability….the problem is, there are no VB assignors south of Champaign or outside the St. Louis east metro area–but they don’t tell you then that you have to contact school athletic directors directly OR how to contact them/find their email addresses. And when you do that–you’ll get told sometimes “We use an assigner. Contact _____________.” Reasonable answer–though that assigner isn’t on the state list. You’ve also just wasted time contacting that AD as one of several hundred emails to schools that you thought weren’t using assigners!

It’s no different with college. With college officiating, I had one assigner tell me that I can’t be assigned until I’m a PAVO member. A different one said not to waste money registering with PAVO until July when it becomes a ‘new year’ (because memberships expire then and paying before that point is useless since there are no matches MAY-JUL)–and that that will be fine and I can get scheduled as long as I acknowledge I’ll need to join PAVO/go to a clinic before the season starts and another said PAVO’s just recommended if you’re only planning to do NJCAA matches

Which is it? I dunno. 30+ years in volleyball and all I know from it is: it can’t be all three.

Does all this make you excited to officiate and go thru the process? And if you’re thinking about volleyball, think about baseball and softball…because those officials get paid way less per hour than a VB ref *AND* get assigned some outrageous hours–you know, like games starting at 6am or 1130pm. Wheeeee!!!!