With fall sports around the corner, where does Missouri stand when it comes to having enough officials for games

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – Videos of sporting officials being attacked or quitting in the middle of a game are easy to find on social media. With the high school sports season right around the corner, when it comes to officials, where does Missouri stand when it comes to those who call the games?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the United States, the national estimate for Umpires, Referees, and other sports officials is 14,840. In Missouri, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there to be 1,020 sports officials.

Those numbers put Missouri in the Top five when it comes to employment and the highest concentration of jobs.

Andrew Kauffman with the Missouri State High School Activities Association says that when it comes to MSHSAA, the officials are independent contractors, and last year MSHSAA had 5,949 officials for all sports registered to the school year for 12 different sports, which is up from the previous year of 5809.

“Quite a few officials, that have gone through our certification process, but to see that many folks out there trying to help our high school athletes and doing their best to stay in the game. Not everyone can continue playing sports forever, but you can always be a referee,” said Kauffman.

The Friday night lights shine bright in Missouri in the fall, with around 300 schools playing 11-man football in the state. That means, on average, there are around 150 games per week that need officials. That doesn’t include Junior Varsity games and other fall sports at the Middle and Junior High levels.

“They can officiate, they can kind of balance their own schedule, they’re all independent contractors, so they’re not actually MSHSAA employees. They’re independent contractors. They can work it out with the schools. Schools are the ones to determine the pay during the regular season on what each official gets. So, it’s kind of up to them how much they want to do, if they want to do one game, they can do more than one game, they can do multiple sports as long as they go to the proper training,” says Kauffman.

For more information about becoming a sports official in the state of Missouri you can visit the MSHSAA website by clicking here.

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