Colorado high school referees, fed up with low pay and abuse, are leaving more games uncovered

The shortage of officials for high school sports in Colorado has reached “a crisis stage,” according to an assistant commissioner with the Colorado High School Activities Association.

Games are being rescheduled to different days of the week in multiple sports, referees are working sub-varsity soccer games solo, C-team softball games are being played without umpires and games that would otherwise be postponed because of inclement weather are being canceled.

Myriad reasons exist for the shortage of officials this fall, with many putting abusive behavior by fans at the top of the list.

But low pay is a significant factor; Colorado pays its high school football officials significantly less than many surrounding states.

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High school football officials in Texas this fall are paid $110 to $160 per game, with additional pay for those who travel more than 30 miles from home. Meanwhile, officials in Colorado are paid $64.72 per contest. Only one official per crew is eligible for mileage reimbursement for travel outside their local area, so crews are expected to carpool.

It’s not just football-obsessed Texas that is paying officials more than Colorado. All seven states bordering Colorado pay their officials more.

Nebraska is paying an average of $120 per football game in the Lincoln area, according to Shane Smith with the Nebraska High School Officials Association. Wyoming pays $100 per game, and Kansas pays $85 to $100, with rates varying based on location, according to officials with each state's high school activities association. Oklahoma pays $95 per game, Arizona $85, Utah $74 and New Mexico $70.

Colorado doesn’t lag quite as far behind surrounding states in what it pays officials for other high school sports but is still at or near the bottom for each, CHSAA commissioner Mike Krueger acknowledged in an Oct. 13 news release.

“Our goal, and what we are striving for, is to be among the leaders in what we pay our sports officials," Krueger said. "We will continue our efforts to create new and impactful initiatives that address challenges like poor sporting behavior and encouraging schools to stress hospitality for our officials; but the pay issue is also at the forefront and we are addressing it immediately.”

CHSAA, the nonprofit activity association, sets the rates that officials receive, but the host schools are responsible for paying them during the regular season. Officials fees for postseason play are paid by CHSAA from ticket revenue.

2022-23 CHSAA Officials Fees by Coloradoan on Scribd

“We have to figure out a way to pay people more,” said Eric Johnson, the athletic director at Windsor High School and a longtime basketball official. “I think it would help significantly.

“We have to start getting in front of this.”

Michael Book, hired last spring as the CHSAA assistant commissioner in charge of sports officials, acknowledged that low pay is contributing to the current shortage.

“We know, schools, officials know that there needs to be a significant movement for pay across the board,” he said.

Colorado isn’t just behind the curve in what it is paying its officials, but also in addressing the issue.

Wyoming increased its officials' pay in all sports by $20 a game this season while also tripling the per diem, from 5 cents to 15 cents per mile, officials receive for travel in another's vehicle, said Trevor Wilson, an associate commissioner with that state's high school activities association. Louisiana raised its pay for officials this school year by $10 per game, except for baseball, where the increase was $4, the Shreveport Times reported.

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Budgetary concerns prevented CHSAA from making a similar move, Book said. Schools need to know what they’re going to be paying officials while they’re building their budgets and don’t necessarily have extra money to cover a substantial increase after those budgets are set and approved.

“We have to follow our process,” Book said. “We have our committee meeting in November to discuss the structure and the proposal, and then we’ll present that to the membership for their vote in January.”

Book isn’t sure schools are ready to pay for a substantial increase in officials’ pay all at once, suggesting it could be phased in over a three- to five-year period.

Colorado's population growth increases demand for officials even as fewer are taking games

As a general economic rule, costs rise when the supply of a good or service decreases.

Yet Colorado has done little to increase the pay of the people officiating high school sports in the state despite a rapidly increasing demand. Football officials in the state are paid just $8.72 more per game this season than they were in 2010. Increases in soccer ($10.61) and softball ($7.55) have been similarly modest over that same timeframe.

Although some states allow schools to pay officials more than the rates set by their activities associations, Colorado does not, Book said.

CHSAA’s membership has grown from 341 schools in 2012-13 to 368 this year, and the organization has increased the number of sports it sanctions. There has been rapid growth in the number of schools participating in boys and girls lacrosse and ice hockey, along with recent additions of girls wrestling and boys volleyball.

The state’s population has increased 13.5%, from about 5.2 million in 2012, to an estimated 5.9 million in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Colorado had more than 400 high school soccer officials statewide in 2012-13 and was down to 296 at the start of the fall 2022 season, said John Barron, the area director for soccer officials in Fort Collins, Loveland, Windsor and all of northeastern Colorado.

Other sports have seen similar reductions, with football, girls lacrosse, softball and baseball impacted the most, Book said.

“Some sports are not as bad as others, but I would say we’re deficient in all sports as far as numbers,” Book said. “We’re not comfortable in any sport.”

Games in varsity sports are being moved to different days to ensure the availability of officials. An increasing percentage of sub-varsity games are being played with a reduced number of officials.

“Football has been the most critical as far as having to move games, because we just don’t have enough crews to cover all games,” Book said. “We’ve moved a considerable number of games across the state off of Friday nights.”

Eaton, which has its own football stadium, will play only two Friday night home games this fall. Wellington and Windsor, which also have their own stadiums, are each playing two of their five home games on Thursdays.

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Ryan Roark, a football and wrestling official and director of operations for Northern Colorado Sports Officials, said as many as 70 football games this fall had to be moved to different nights or times of day to secure an officiating crew. He’s personally doing double duty on two Fridays this fall, officiating a six-man football game on the Eastern Plains in the afternoon and an 11-man game in Greeley that night.

“The smaller schools are kind of getting the short end of the stick, having to move their games more often,” Roark said.

It’s not just the small schools that are feeling the pain.

When Roark was scheduling football officials for this season’s games over the summer, there was one Friday night when 28 crews would have been needed to accommodate the preferred schedules of participating schools. He had only 16 crews available, forcing 12 of those games to be moved.

Roark said the NCSO added one crew this year to get to seven in the Fort Collins area, thanks to aggressive local recruiting. But the Greeley and Longmont areas have only three crews apiece, so Fort Collins crews are often assigned to cover games in those communities.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to significant losses in the officiating ranks, he had 22 football crews to assign to games. This fall, he’s at 16.

“There are definitely a lot of issues,” Roark said. “Obviously, money smooths some of that over.

“If we got paid 500 bucks a game, guys would definitely be willing to do more things and travel to more games.”

Quality suffers as number of officials drops

Getting the games played isn’t the only issue the shortage of officials is creating.

There’s also an associated drop in the quality of the officiating, as experienced officials age out or leave officiating for various reasons and less-experienced officials move up to fill their spots.

Until about 10 years ago, the number of new officials coming into the game generally matched the number of older officials stepping away, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. Recent years have seen far more officials leaving the ranks than joining.

“When the older guys start to hang it up, there’s nobody really to fill those shoes,” Roark said.

As they scramble to find enough officials to cover games, states are lowering the standards required for varsity contests and postseason play and allowing contests to be officiated by smaller crews.

U.S. Soccer modified its qualification standards with a number of changes over the years, combining some of the officiating grades and reducing the number of assessments required for promotion, Barron said.

“With the total dilution of the officiating community, there’s no impetus to upgrade unless you’re really into it,” he said. “It used to be, when you went to tournaments, the assigner would look at it and see, ‘This official has had this assessment. They’ve proven themselves, so we know we can assign them to a more challenging game.’

“Now none of that happens. We just need warm bodies so we can put people on matches.”

And there still aren’t enough warm bodies to cover all the matches.

A number of junior-varsity boys soccer games in and around Fort Collins this season have been officiated by a single referee, sometimes without the help of linesmen. Some sub-varsity softball games are being played with just one umpire and others with no umpires at all, forcing parents or assistant coaches to fill the void.

Varsity soccer matches in Colorado require three officials, a referee and two linesmen. Varsity softball games require two umpires, one behind home plate and another in the field. Varsity volleyball matches require two paid officials in addition to two volunteer linesmen.

“The priority is varsity because those are the games that count for RPI and standings and playoffs and everything,” Barron said. “You have to meet the varsity requirements. There’s no requirement to have an official at a JV game, so having one sometimes in this day and age is a luxury.”

Fan behavior still the biggest issue, CHSAA official says

Everyone involved with officiating high school sports in Colorado agrees that increased pay would lure more people into officiating and keep them involved longer.

Improving their working conditions would help a lot, too, they said.

“The fan behavior and that kind of thing, I would rank as No. 1,” Book said, “because every time I would ask someone if they were interested in officiating in recent years, the No. 1 response I get is, ‘I don’t want to get yelled at.”

Johnson, who is both an athletic director and basketball official, said schools have to do more than they have done previously to address problems with the behavior of their coaches, athletes and fans at all levels. Reading a sportsmanship statement at the start of a game, as most do, isn’t enough.

“You have to have someone in that gym that’s willing to have that hard conversation with a belligerent parent or grandparent to say, ‘You’re not meeting the expectations we have for conduct. You need to calm down,’ ” Johnson said.

And they need to be willing to remove those who don’t.

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Of particular concern, he said, are the sub-varsity games, sometimes played at the same time as the varsity contests on different fields or in different gyms.

Those are the games most likely to have younger, less-experienced officials who are less equipped to deal with criticism. And they’re making less money than their counterparts working the varsity contests.

For sub-varsity contests this fall, Colorado schools are paying officials $49.88 for football games, $46.16 for soccer, $46.69 for softball and $39.80 for volleyball.

“Varsity guys can handle getting dog-cussed on the bad call or whatever,” Johnson said. “… But it’s those kids in the JV gym that need the support, and that’s where we forget about it. We don’t have people watching the parents in the auxiliary gym.”

Fans aren’t the only problem, though. Coaches who spend the entire game harping on officials model that behavior to their athletes and fans.

“I’m a huge believer that what you permit, you promote,” Johnson said. “So, if your coach is belligerent towards officials and caustic on that relationship, then fans also jump in on that.”

What's being done to step up recruiting efforts

The NFHS and state associations across the country have increased efforts to get more people involved in officiating.

With delivery services and fast-food restaurants paying part-time employees anywhere from $14 to $20 an hour to fill their own labor shortages, officiating sports has lost some of the appeal it once held.

“A lot of them are like, ‘I can go make just as much money slinging burgers at Freddy’s or Chick-fil-A and not be getting screamed at to do it,’ ” Johnson said.

It didn’t help, either, that many of the primary pipelines for new officials — club sports, city and county recreational sports programs and college intramurals — were shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Building new pipelines is a high priority, Book said.

He’s working with youth sports organizations across the state to identify and train young officials who might want to move up to the high school ranks and participating in the NFHS’ national efforts. He was in a video conference Thursday, he said, with the NFHS and NFL to begin discussions on establishing clinics and training programs for young officials run by NFL officials.

And he’s a huge proponent of adding officiating classes to high school physical education offerings, as Windsor did this fall.

“We’re trying to find any way to get some youth involved and interested so that when they get to be college age or, down the line, if they’re interested in officiating and have some background in it, they can continue at a younger age, so that we can start the pipeline,” Book said.

Windsor’s class uses curriculum from the NFHS to teach students some basic protocols for dealing with heat-related illness, collapsed athletes and other safety concerns, then allows students to zero in on the mechanics and rules of officiating the specific sports that interest them most, teacher Sam Boshart said.

He’s teaching two sections this fall, with 30 students in one and 32 in the other, and has 30 pre-registered for one section in the spring.

“My goal is to kind of get them prepared for a little of everything, give them an idea of how do you think you’re going to handle situations and help them build their confidence in things they’re likely to encounter as an official,” Boshart said. “Then they get to study through the rulebook, take some practice quizzes and go from there.”

There are similar classes at some other high schools in Colorado, Book said, and Boshart said several other schools in the area have asked him for additional information to see about adding similar courses.

“I tell people all the time, it’s a great thing because you can set your own hours; it’s very flexible,” Johnson said. “You can work as much or as little as you want.

“I’ve made tons of relationships, gotten to see most every high school in the state of Colorado, some of the traditions, the crowds, the community support. There’s a lot of really cool, fun things you get to experience.”

System is breaking down and needs to be fixed

Regardless of the causes, the shortage of officials needs to be fixed or high school sports will eventually disappear.

Many of the officials that remain are working more games than they would like to fill holes in the schedules, and that’s leading to more injuries and general burnout that will take them out of the game sooner, Barron said.

He officiated 11 games in one five-day stretch last month and said that’s becoming a typical workload.

“My plan was to start doing less games over time and help people and mentor people to take over,” said Barron, 56, who has a full-time job doing contract work for the federal government. “But I’m doing more games now than I ever have done. My wife says, ‘John who?’ because she never sees me anymore.”

Roark said he officiated 67 football games in 10 weeks last fall and is on pace to match or exceed that total this season. He works JV games on Mondays, middle-school games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and high school games on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

“We’re moving guys around and trying to get guys doing more games, spending a lot of time on meetings and training,” he said. “That’s a lot of time away for 60 bucks a game. Luckily, I’m single and don’t have a wife and kid at home. We’re asking these guys with families to do multiple nights each week, and it’s a lot.”

Some officials have shifted from high school sports to club sports, where they can work three to four games one or two nights a week and an occasional weekend tournament, earning $40-$60 a game, Johnson said.

Club sports raise other concerns, though, that he and others don’t want to see duplicated in school sports. Participation fees and transportation issues keep many kids who want to play from being able to do so. Parents often serve as coaches, without going through the training and background checks public schools require.

And the more money they pay for their kids to play, the more parents believe they have the right to criticize the coaches and officials.

So simply raising the participation fees of athletes playing high school sports to cover pay increases for officials isn’t necessarily the answer, Johnson said.

Something has to be done soon, though.

“High school sports we know is not the most important thing that we do at a school, but it is absolutely one of the most visible and most proud,” Johnson said. “We want to give kids the opportunity to have that, and if we don’t have officials, we don’t have that opportunity anymore.”

Kelly Lyell reports on CSU, high school and other local sports and topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, follow him on Twitter @KellyLyell and find him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado sports officials shortage spurred by low pay and abuse