What is leading to a shortage of youth sports referees?

Nationally, youth athletics faces a referee shortage. According to a 2022 NFHS survey of state high school athletic associations, about 50,000 people stopped officiating since the 2018-19 season, which was the last unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

David Wilensky, vice president of the Syracuse Chapter of Football Officials, has been a referee for decades.

“You’re here to officiate a game, not to listen to a parent screaming at you, or even a coach,” Wilensky said.

The number of working referees for some sports has dropped by almost 50%, according to Nick Lore, secretary/treasurer for the Syracuse chapter of the New York State Association of Certified Football Officials.

“We had 130 members. The roster I sent in January to the state had 76 members,” Lore said.

Some referees say adults’ behavior improves as the level of sport rises.

“At the varsity level, it’s awesome,” said NYSACFO Supervisor of Officials Dan Pastuf. “Our coaches in Section 3, for the most part, are really good. They keep their fans in line. Down in the modified level, youth level, parents are right behind the benches, so you definitely hear it more there.”

“We’ve got modified baseball and softball games that hardly ever have an umpire,” said NYSPHSAA Seection 3 Executive Director Jason Czarny. “The treatment of officials probably at games doesn’t help.”

Officials who spoke with Spectrum News 1 say that parent behavior is not the only cause for a shortage of referees.

“We lose guys because of injury. We lose guys because of age. You’re pretty beat up after doing maybe 30 games,” Pastuf said. “I get older every year and the kids stay the same age. And they get bigger and faster and everything else. Some kids are pushing to 250-300 pounds, and if they’re coming at you, you know, they hit you and it’s an experience.”

Those officials added that societal priorities have changed, and younger people have a lot of family commitments that keep them away from refereeing. A possible solution they suggested was for the early arrival before games be reduced to help attract more people to officiating.

“And it’s hard to try to motivate somebody to want to come in and be an official when they’re getting attacked and abused and being called out for every single thing they do,” Czarny said. “I think that if you look around and you’re the only one screaming, yelling, look in the mirror and say ‘do I need to be doing this? Is this helping anybody?’ “