With our state crowding all the sports into a reduced time frame, will we have enough officials to work all the contests? I know in our area many of our officials work multiple sports. If the covid struggle is still with us will any opt out. For a variety of reasons it has been difficult for many associations to recruit young officials. Will some of the older officials sit out or even work a reduced schedule?
Enough officials?
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I'm sure there are officials who will opt out for health reasons.
Regular seasons really don't overlap. To use the 3 primary male sports as an example, basketball finishes before football begins and football ends before baseball begins. Playoffs have always overlapped.
I believe ADs are going to schedule so that there's as little conflicting games as possible. For example, I don't believe you're going to see any contests played on Friday nights when football games are scheduled. Officials may work softball and football but there won't be any Friday night softball games. You have M, T, W, T and S to get two softball games in.
Bottom line, there's really no way to answer that question until schedules are published. I think it affects student-athletes more so than officials, especially in 1A and 2A.
Actually, they weren't looking.
I know of a couple of dozen NC officials who made inquiries with supervisors in SC regarding fall sports. We were turned away, many without so much as a "No thank you." There were plenty of NC officials who were interested in working with two counties of the border. They could have avoided a shortage but the SCHSL refused to allow NC officials to register and work games.
Add in additional sports starting next week, not getting better. Also, a lot of football officials are also College baseball umps, $94.50 vs. $200-$500 per game not a hard decision.
