CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Youth sports across the state and the Charlotte area are seeing a shortage of referees to officiate games.
Perry Robinson, president of the Metrolina Football Officials Association, said it’s an issue that’s been creeping up for the last four or five years, even before the pandemic.
“We’re still seeing a shortage,” Robinson said. “Quite frankly, we’re looking at it from both ends. One from a retention perspective, as well as a recruiting perspective. We’re seeing challenges on both sides.”
Robinson said referees have left for various reasons, including a change in priorities, a loss of passion, verbal abuse from parents or fans, and more.
He said the association has more than 200 sports officials currently, but it would like to be closer to 270 to 300 to staff all the games it aims to serve across the Charlotte region.
“We’re not doing it for the pay,” Robinson said. “It’s about the passion and drive and wanting to understand the game a little bit more.”
Youth baseball is also seeing a shortage of umpires.
Tom Bowman is the owner of 20/20 Umpires, which provides umpires for seven different associations around central and southern Charlotte, as well as some tournaments.
Bowman said last year coming out of the pandemic was tough on umpires as demand for youth sports picked back up.
“We had quite a few games last year where we just didn’t have enough for the second guy, so we were spread real thin," Bowman said. "We didn’t miss very many games where we didn’t have anybody... This year, I don’t think we’ve missed any.”
Bowman said he would still like to bring on 10 more umpires to be able to staff the games.
He even started recruiting and hiring umpires as young as 15 years old and offering certain incentives.
“What we did, is the last time we raised the prices, we gave the entire raise to the plate umpires just to encourage them to get more guys willing to do that,” Bowman said.
In recent years, videos have gone viral of parents and fans acting out at youth sporting events, oftentimes involving the referee.
Officially Human is an organization that states its mission is to restore respect to the game officials and recognize them as authorities on the fields and courts.
According to a 2020 survey of 19,000 sports officials by Officially Human, verbal abuse from parents or fans is cited as the top reason why officials leave.
“These umpires, officials, they are people,” Brenda Hilton, CEO and founder of Officially Human, said. “They are missing their own child’s game to be there to officiate our games, and we’ve just lost that. We’ve lost sight of that.”
Hilton said that for every 100 officials that are recruited and trained today, in two to three years, there will only be 20 to 30 of them left.
“These people are missing their own family parties, their own graduation parties, their own -- whatever it is, to be there for your kids,” Hilton said. “Thank them. Just thank an official the next time you go to a game.”
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) is making it a priority to recruit and retain sports officials.
“It is, I call, a pandemic; it is across the nation,” Cecil Mock, assistant commissioner and supervisor of officials for NCHSAA, said. “We’re not the only ones, but we only can be concerned with what’s in our backyard.”
Mock said NCHSAA will be enforcing more of the rules that are in place to keep sporting officials and everyone safe at games.
“There were no roadblocks to prevent this behavior," Mock said. "We do have the roadblocks... and we’re going to be enforcing that more to help this situation. That is one of the barriers of how we got to this point.”
Those interested in becoming a football official with the Metrolina Football Officials Association can register online. Those interested in becoming an umpire with 20/20 Umpires can email 2020umpires@gmail.com.
Contact Kendall Morris at kmorris2@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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