Tip your cap to a referee during Officials Appreciation Week

By Kyle Schmidt

Missouri has a growing number of officials despite the nation facing a shortage, and it is time to celebrate them.

According to theNational Federation of State High School Associations, “approximately 50,000 individuals have discontinued their service as high school officials since the 2018-19 season.”

Toni Hill, associate executive director of the Missouri State High School Activities Association, said Missouri celebrates National Federation Officials Appreciation Week starting Oct. 7.

“That gives an opportunity for our fall sports officials to be appreciated by our schools,” Hill said. “We have lots of schools throughout the state that do different things to show their appreciation for our officials during that week.”

She said Missouri has not seen a decline like other states and are in fact in line, if not, growing, in the last few years.

Despite the love-hate relationship with fans, Hill spoke about the importance of them at the game.

“Without those officials, we can’t have games or contests,” she said. “So our schools are very cognizant of that.”

This stands true for any sport and MSHSAA has back up plans if emergency situation appear. Hill described the back up plan as a list of people they can put in the game to fill a missing referee to allow the match to play out.

In St. Joseph, one local official began 19 years ago when his playing days were over.

“In order to stay in the game, I knew a couple other my friends who were already officiating basketball,” Brett King said. “I wanted to stay in the game and see if I can become an official.”

King described the official crew as a team effort and their are three teams on the court. Home team, away team and the officials.

“There’s plenty of times after a big call has been made or a big penalty has been made we talk about it,” King said. “To make sure if that happens again we get it right.”

It can be in the form of a whistle, a flag or even a punch out, most calls will get a reaction. Fans are known to be aggressive at times but being a veteran referee, King said it is more internal.

“You’re your own worst scrutinizer. Any more you can get online and you can see the game and you can see the calls and see what your interaction is with the players,” he said. “It’s self scouting … You go back and look and learn from it.”

The third team wants to avoid interfering with the game as much as the fans do and officials like King make sure to officiate to the best of their ability.

“If we are one of the better teams on the floor,” King said. “Then the games are going to go smoothly.”