Official shortage reaches Northeast Kansas

TOPEKA ( KSNT ) – An “official” shortage is taking over Kansas, and schools, right in our area, are being affected by it. This shortage started in western Kansas, but over time has made its way further east.

While there’s a need for officials in all sports in Kansas, the highest number of them needed is for basketball, football and volleyball. With the current shortage, sometimes it makes the want more needed.

According to KSHSAA Director of Officials, Scott Goodheart, one reason for the shortage is due to teams having to play too early in the day. Those times don’t always work for some people’s schedules. On top of that, many of the current officials are aging out.

“Shortage of officials is becoming at a time where our officials are getting older,” Goodheart said. “A lot of them are aging out. So, we’re trying to replenish that number of officials coming in.”

But, there’s even more to the story according to one athletic director. She says money can also be a problem.

“We compete with the larger cities who have a tendency to pay officials slightly more,” Shawnee Heights Middle School Athletic Director, Erin Unruh said. “We kind of set our rates based on league. Schools will agree on upon certain rates. We’ll lose officials that will go to larger cities to receive more pay.”

In fact, just this past week, Shawnee Heights Middle School had a scare of its own as no one was available to officiate a volleyball game. Lucky for them, Goodheart came to the rescue.

“We needed still another official even with him officiating and there just wasn’t anyone available to step up and assist him so he ended up officiating his floor alone and we were appreciative of that,” Unruh said.

“You know, we said we’ll make it work, we want the kids to have an experience,” Goodheart said.

Without that experience, there’s one less opportunity for students outside of the classroom.

“The saying is ‘without officials it’s either recess or practice,'” Goodheart said. “So, we want to provide those opportunities for kids to have a great experience being an extension of the classroom on the court, the pitch, the mat, the fields.”

Goodheart tells 27 News that KSHSAA works with a group called “Ref Reps”.
From 1A to 6A, it teaches younger kids how to officiate and growing their pool of refs for the future.

If you’re interested in being a ref for fall sports, there’s still time. KSHSAA extended the deadline to apply to September 25.

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