Seeing Need, New SE Officials Work to Fill It
October 26, 2018
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
TEMPERANCE – Clyde Canales says his life experiences have prepared him for this. Bryant Moore says his new role as a football referee has taught him a new respect for the game. And Herb Bertz says he signed up to stay part of a game that has meant so much to his family the last several years.
The three southeast Michigan men are among new high school football officiating recruits for the Michigan High School Athletic Association. And they are a welcome addition to the ranks.
More and more, the lack of high school officials is starting to take its toll, forcing game times to be shifted and leaving athletic directors scrambling to fill crews for sub-varsity and even varsity games.
The shortage has hit southeast Michigan particularly hard. Earlier this season, multiple Tri-County Conference and Lenawee County Athletic Association games were moved from the traditional Friday night under lights start time to Saturday morning. There are several reasons contributing to this shortage – among them officials retiring, some leagues moving toward seven-man crews instead of five and the lack of sportsmanship being shown by adults.
Bertz has watched his sons play the last several years for Ottawa Lake Whiteford. He’s been on the chain gang for much of that time, volunteering his time and getting an on-the-field view of the games. He became a referee just this year.
“I wasn’t ready to give up the game,” he said. “I love football.”
Bertz said he’s worked about 40 games this fall, at all levels, and is already putting together a schedule for next year with a crew made up of all second-year officials. He said his experience has been great. The players, he said, are for the most part very respectful of officials. If the adults are yelling from the stands, he says, he’s able to tune them out.
“I don’t let any of that bother me; I just don’t,” Bertz said. “If you understand that football is an emotional game and emotions are going to run high out there, you won’t let that stuff bother you. Some people are rude, sure, but that doesn’t bother me. If it does bother you, you probably shouldn’t be a ref.”
Two years ago, Moore was a two-way starter for the Sand Creek football team. The only time he worried about the referees was when he’d spot a yellow flag on the field. Now, he’s carrying the flag around and throwing it when necessary.
“Most of the experience has been good,” he said. “Coaches for the most part are supportive, but they’ll let you know when you screw up. You have to be thick-skinned, that’s for sure. It gives you a new perspective and respect for the referee. As a player, you think it would be easy to step into their shoes. It’s not easy being a referee.”
The shortage, he said, is real. He has received text messages and calls on game days asking if he is available. Most of his weeks are filled with football nights, something he is juggling around attending Adrian College. The money he’s earned helps pay the bills, he said, and he’s learned a lot about the sport and interacting with others.
“The more you go out there and do it, the more comfortable you get,” he said. “I’ve been busy every week. They definitely need us.”
Canales was a member of Erie Mason’s 1987 Class C championship football team. He’s worked several jobs since then, from being in the restaurant business to probation officer. He signed up to be an official this year for the first time. He’s working games almost every day of the week, from youth games to varsity competition. And, he said, it’s been an eye-opening ride.
“The first few times, I felt bad taking their money,” Canales said. “I felt like I was out there to give back and these organizations needed the money. After a while, though, for all you have to go through, I don’t mind taking the money.”
For the most part, Canales said, it’s been a positive experience becoming a registered MHSAA official. He researched the rules, took online tests and went through a training period. He had the idea to become a referee because of a shortage of officials that has hit the region, state and, really, the country.
“This is my first year, so it’s good to have a lot of things thrown at me,” said Canales, 49. “Everyone thinks they can make the right call from the stands. It’s not that easy. But, I’m doing this now. I’m enjoying it. I think I’ve made it through the rough times.”
If he and the others do continue being a referee, that’s good news to the MHSAA. Once a referee has been working games for three years, officials say, they tend to stay with it.
The reasons officials cite most when they leave the sport is they are getting older and don’t feel they can continue to perform at the level they want, work or family changes and adult sportsmanship.
The MHSAA held an in-service for athletic directors this month and one of the topics was the situation with officials.
“In 2006-07, there were 12,000 officials; today there are 10,000,” said Whiteford athletic director Jason Mensing. “The numbers are going down. If we want to continue playing games, we need to have people that are willing to step up and do those jobs.”
Mensing said new guys like Canales, Bertz and Moore need to be welcomed.
“Our goal as an athletic department is to show them more gratitude if we can,” he said. “We’ll continue to work with our coaches and our community to make sure we are showing them great respect. They aren’t making a lot of money, but they are giving back to the game. It’s something we should be appreciative of.”
The MHSAA has a new executive director and director of officials. They have worked on initiatives to bring attention to the issue and recruit more officials to the avocation, while also developing strategies to retain those currently taking part.
Blissfield athletic director Steve Babbitt cautioned it’s not just football affected by the high school officials shortage. He’s had soccer matches this year forced to go with two instead of three referees.
“There is still a shortage in all sports,” he said. “We had three scheduled for one of our soccer matches, but due to a shortage one was pulled to fill in another match. This is not just a Michigan issue, as there are stories across the country about the same issue.”
Babbitt said if everyone showed a little more respect for the game and officials, the situation likely would improve.
“Officiating is one of the few professions where you are expected to be perfect on day one,” he said, “and get better from there.”
The MHSAA and National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) encourage all interested to consider becoming an official. Click to check out MHSAA resources and the NASO's "Say Yes to Officiating" website.
PHOTO: Clyde Canales officiates a game this season. (Photo by Cari Hayes.)
Gooding & King Work to Fill SW Michigan's Officiating Ranks, Schedules
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
December 12, 2023
KALAMAZOO – Cheer them or boo them, without officials, there are no games. That’s just a fact in the sports world.
Two area men are tasked with supplying those officials for Southwest Michigan schools, and it is not always as easy as it seems.
Portage’s Todd Gooding is in charge of assigning football referees for 70 schools across eight leagues, with 500 officials on his staff.
Vicksburg’s Rob King assigns officials for girls and boys basketball in five leagues and has 290 men and women on his roster to work 1,100 games throughout the hoops season.
“We have six females on staff,” King said. “We’re looking to add more. I think the girls who are playing enjoy having a female ref on the court with them, plus it shows them they can do this, too.”
Although totals were dropping a few percentage points every year, the MHSAA still registered an average of 10,317 officials annually during the decade ending in 2019-20. But the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that spring played a large part in a decrease in registered officials by 12 percent for 2020-21, down to 8,090.
The last two school years saw a bounce-back of four percent, and recruiting and retaining efforts continue. But Gooding and King – also veteran officials themselves, Gooding for 25 years and King for 24 – and their assigning colleagues across the state have the closest look at the effects of fewer officials as they work to schedule at the local level and make sure everything is covered.
Doing so gets even harder with unforeseen roadblocks.
One of those challenges for Gooding came in August when extreme heat forced most schools to reschedule or delay their football games.
“Everyone was trying to get their games in,” he said. “We were moving start times back, then we were moving days. Football is a little different than basketball or baseball because you can only play within so many days, so we were really squeezed against the schedule.
“I had a school or two reach out on Monday or Tuesday (before the Friday night game), so they looked ahead at the heat. Some of them waited, waited, waited, and then in some cases, it posed some big challenges because most of those crews had been spoken for.”
For a typical football Friday, Gooding staffs 30 or 35 games, “which is really difficult because everybody wants to play Friday night.”
Some referees in both football and basketball “double dip” by officiating games at freshman or junior varsity levels on nights other than Friday.
Gooding said at one time he hoped to go to seven officials for a football game, but with a shortage of officials, “Right now we’re just lucky to staff five in the games we have, and we’re still very short.
“Parents are a key component to a shortage of officials. A lot of it is more at the youth level, but everyone has to remember the sportsmanship aspect. Without officials there are no games, and sometimes we lose track of that, and that’s one reason there’s a shortage.”
Still, King noted that officiating provides more advantages than disadvantages.
“Everyone hears about the bad stuff, getting yelled at by fans and coaches, but those are so small,” he said.
“After a season of doing this, you learn to block out that stuff and realize it’s just part of the game. Fifty percent of people are mad at you every time you blow the whistle, so you get used to that.”
Pay raises in some leagues enticed many of those who “retired” to return, King said, but both he and Gooding agree the camaraderie developed while officiating is what makes it most special.
“It’s more about the time you spend on the floor with guys, in the locker room, driving to games, grabbing something to eat after the games, just talking about life, just building friendships,” King said. “That’s the part you remember.”
Gooding added some games stick in his memory more than others.
“My first varsity game (refereeing) was Lawton playing Saugatuck,” he said. “I show up and Channel 3 was there. I wondered what’s going on.
“Both schools were 0-8, both senior classes were 0-35. Somebody had to win, and it was my first varsity game. I think Saugatuck won, and it was close to 25 years ago.”
Another memory came as he officiated a basketball game.
“A girl from Benton Harbor (Kysre Gondrezick in 2016) had 72 points,” he said. “It’s in the record books. and you’re just one small part of that and you remember them.”
Officiating is not only for adults. Even teenagers still in high school can become referees as part of the MHSAA Legacy Program.
King recently hosted an officiating summit at Paw Paw for high school athletes.
“There are nine schools in the Wolverine Conference and six of them brought 10 to 15 kids,” he said. “Myself and another official presented on basketball. They also did something on other sports.
“We got the kids up blowing the whistles and doing some of the signals. Three reached out wanting to get involved.”
King said officiating is a great way to earn money, especially while in college.
“You’ll work maybe two or three hours at the most and make $150 to $300 depending on the level,” he said. “Your friends will have to work six-, seven-, eight-hour days to make that much money.
“You can also block your schedule. We have a software with a calendar on it. If there are days you know you can’t work because you have classes or other things, you just block those days out, so you control your own schedule.”
With training, freshmen and sophomores can work junior high/middle school games, and juniors and seniors are able to officiate at the freshman and junior varsity levels.
“Usually what we do is get you a mentor,” King said, “and you work with that mentor and make some money.”
Those Legacy officials hopefully continue in the avocation, eventually becoming the next mentors.
Officiating, like school sports in general, is a cycle that’s constantly in motion – both when it comes to filling the ranks and filling the schedule to cover games ahead.
For example, although football season is over, “I don’t know if there really is an offseason,” Gooding said. “Leagues are going to start giving me their schedules. We’ll get those into an Arbiter system. Everything’s assigned by Arbiter, a computer system where officials get their assignments.
“I’ll start evaluating the crews, reach out to the crew chiefs. They’ll let me know any changes in their crew dynamics. I’ll evaluate the year gone by, how they performed and then start getting ready to work on getting those games staffed. That will start after the new year.”
For more information on officiating, including the Legacy Program, go to the Officials page of MHSAA.com.
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Todd Gooding, left and Rob King take a photo together while officiating the Division 4 Final at Ford Field in 2022. (Middle) Gooding signals during that contest between Goodrich and Grand Rapids South Christian. (Below) King officiates the 2019 Division 4 Boys Basketball Final at Breslin Center. (Photos courtesy of Gooding and King.)