Prep sports having trouble holding onto referees
Staff writer
Due to a statewide referee shortage, Centre High School was forced to swap a couple of Friday Night Lights for Thursday Night Lights in the upcoming football season.
The Cougars will play Altoona-Midway on Sept. 17 and Elyria Christian on Oct. 22. Kickoff for both is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Centre.
Lack of referees, particularly in football and basketball, has been exacerbated by a need for referees with Kansas State High School Activities Association’s addition of girls’ flag football as a sanctioned sport this year.
Treatment of referees also is a factor, multiple sources say.
“Being an official or referee is hard,” Centre principal Daniel Ackland said. “People don’t always respect them the way they should, and that leads to a shortage of people willing to put up with that kind of stuff.”
Longtime KSHSAA referee Joe Sechrist of Hillsboro agreed.
Sechrist started officiating while in high school, refereeing little league football Saturday mornings after playing the night before. He took it more seriously in 2000 and has since officiated games from the middle school to collegiate levels, including the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championship game in 2023.
“There’s a lot less younger officials who want to do it because of the crowd noise,” he said. “It kind of turns young kids off wanting to do that job, because nobody wants to show up at their job and get yelled at.”
Ackland has noted a referee shortage since 2021. In general, Sechrist said the number of referees has declined since he became licensed 26 years ago.
“There are a lot of white-haired officials out there now,” Sechrist said, “and I’m getting to be one of them.”
The number of referees has grown nationally since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a 2025 National Federation of State High School Associations survey. But Kansas has seen big hits to its referee count during football season and basketball season, KSHSAA director of officials Scott Goodheart said.
It’s a two-to-three month commitment officiating games in the fall for football. Referees have lives outside of the playing field, and sometimes their schedules don’t line up.
Since he started refereeing football, Sechrist has been away for up to eight hours a night, three nights a week on top of being a school counselor in Wichita.
Mondays are spent at middle school games. Thursdays are junior varsity. On Fridays, he’s refereeing eight-player or 11-player varsity contests. Sometimes he’ll pick up a college game on Saturday.
Basketball, on the other hand, is “probably the hardest on the officials,” because of how many and how often games occur, Goodheart said.
“Football and basketball, they’re the most highly anticipated ones, just from our state’s stature,” he said, “but also the state of the games where everybody feels like they’re the expert. There’s the most criticism with it.”
KSHSAA now requires background checks for potential officials. Goodheart said that steers some people away.
Pay is another concern. Referees can make $1,000 a football season, and up to a quarter of that is spent on dues and equipment — uniform, shoes, whistles.
“We don’t just do it for the money,” Sechrist said. “But more money would be a benefit and I think would encourage other people to do it.”
A five-referee crew is typical for varsity football games. Four referees are allowable for eight- and six-player contests.
“You can use four without hesitation,” Goodheart said. “But that fifth one’s big, just with how the game has changed, with having a back judge and the style of play.”
Spread and air-raid offenses have forced defenses to keep up. Referees have to keep pace, too.
“Even … in six-player, you almost think that if there are 12 players and there are five officials that seems kind of silly,” Goodheart said. “At the same time, if you’ve been to a six-player game, you can see those are kind of track meets, too.”
Each league is on its own getting referees. More often than not, they come from different counties to ensure fairness for both sides. Most car pool from an hour away.
It’s no different at Centre, Ackland said.
Centre had the option to schedule its Thursday games for Friday afternoon or Saturday evening. Ackland said Centre chose Thursday because he thought it will allow for players’ families and the community to attend games.
“Neither solution is great,” Ackland said. “But I think putting it later in the evening allows for more of our families and community members to get here. That way they don’t take off from work or things like that.”
KSHSAA has begun combating the referee shortage with programs aimed at getting younger people involved in officiating.
Partnering with RefReps, high school-aged students can take classes and get hands-on training with officials across the state. Students are limited to non-varsity contests, however.
“It’s giving them the tools to be successful,” Goodheart said. “Also, they’re giving them life skills that they can utilize — if it’s not in high school, down the road, too. We’re kind of planting the seed with that next generation of officials.”
Kansas State University also offers a coaching and officiating course in the fall and spring.
“There’s a lot of good people who are officials and just want to do it for the right reasons,” Sechrist said. “I don’t know too many that are doing it for the wrong reasons. People who generally do it are good people and want to give their time back and make the game better.”