Lack of officials could affect fall sports
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Beth-Center coach Joe Kuhns shares a laugh with an official during a Bulldogs game.
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Albert Gallatin coach Drew Dindl confers with an official during a game against Laurel Highlands at Albert Gallatin on Aug. 31, 2018.
With the majority of the state being reopened Friday despite the coronavirus pandemic threat, there is hope and hesitation in the hearts of most people.
The hope is that everything works out fine and some semblance of a normal day returns to their lives. The hesitation comes about with worries that this is happening too quickly and that we will be chased back into our houses in the near future.
But for the optimists, this can be a time to dream about going to the shore in summer and returning to school in the fall.
For athletic directors, the hope is that the fall sports season gets underway, not only to provide an athletic outlet but to generate revenues to cover the cost of the sports year, especially officials.
Even if that happens, there might not be enough officials to handle the large load of contests throughout the football season. The number of officials to work athletic events in the school district has fallen each year for quite some time now. Add a pandemic to the equation, and you get an even more dire situation.
How dire?
Starting with football, it would not be a surprise to see varsity games played on three nights out of the week simply because there aren’t enough officials to work all the games on the schedule for that night.
“The ranks have been falling,” said the 77-year-old Don Woodward, assigner for the Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Football Officials. “This (virus) is a life-changing situation. Do I think it will hurt sports? Yes I do. I talked to one group and they told me they don’t expect to have high school football this year. I book the Tri-County South football and there are something like 60 games. I’m still six games short. It’s not a pretty picture.”
No one is quite sure what will happen with this pandemic in the fall but concerns swirl about the basketball season, where officials are probably most at risk in a confined, fan-filled area.
“The Federation has come out with some new rules about the proximity of equipment,” said Sam Puglisi, coordinator of officials for Washington and Greene counties. “It has been mainly safety-oriented issues. I think they’re coming out with some national rules about where officials can congregate, where they can dress and things like that all to limit exposure to the players and other people.
“Basketball is going to be the hardest because it’s so confined. There can be 25, 30 people during a game who touch the basketball. I haven’t seen anything come out on that just yet, probably because it’s a winter sport and everyone is concerned with the fall.”
Another issue is the expiration of background clearances.
“This is a big year for us because this is the anniversary of the background clearances,” Puglisi said. “When we got the clearances, they were for five years, so the 2020 season is the first time we have to renew those clearances. That’s going to be the biggest thing for our officials. And you’re going to have some who may shy away because of the virus. The average age of our officials is pretty high.”
Officials are independent contractors and schools districts are not under any obligation to pay officials if contests are not held. However, one school, Jeannette, is providing half pay to the officials in its only spring sports, baseball and softball. The decision by Jeannette business manager Paul Sroka was as generous as it was unique.
“Our solicitor thought that was fair. So we’re going to pay them half by the end of May, or the beginning of June,” said Sroka.
“We had an 11 percent fund balance and we were on track to have a pretty good year, and that was even with full pay for the spring officials.”