SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — In just a little over a month high school football teams from all over San Diego will kick the season off with the goal of winning a CIF championship.
However, there is one inconvenience teams will have to deal with a lack of referees to officiate games.
"It's been like this for years," says Joe Greene who is on the board of directors for the San Diego County Football Officials Association. "We are trending downwards, and trending in the wrong direction every year. It's just harder and harder to recruit new officials, or retain the experienced ones that we have."
So while high school football is a lot of fun, why is there a lack of officials, and why are the numbers trending down? Well as Greene says, verbal abuse can take its toll.
"Fans, coaches, and even players are pretty tough on officials nowadays. When you are just starting out as an official, you haven't developed your tough skin yet."
Throw in a paycheck that is slightly under $100 a game, and the CIF San Diego Section finds itself down about 35 officials or seven crews.
"At our peak we were at 36 crews, and that has slowly declined. We were requested 32 crews for this season and we came up with 25, although we do have two swing crews," says Greene.
Which means it won't always be Friday Night Lights.
"Schools are scrambling around to move games, especially on the busier weeks where they have more games than crews. They are going to have to move those games to either Wednesday, Thursday, or Saturday."
So what is the pitch to get new officials out on the field? Greene says a little extra cash in the wallet and plenty of exercise.
"It's physically demanding to work these games, and you are going to get plenty of exercise. As for the extra money, I mean you are not going to get rich but you can make some extra money by working multiple nights a week."
For anyone interested in becoming a high school football official, meetings will be held on Wednesday night's at Mira Mesa High School for the next two weeks. There is also a non-profit program called 'Battlefields to Ballfields', which encourages active members of the military, as well as veterans, to get trained to become high school football officials.
