Riding a three-game winning streak and beginning to hit its stride under first-year coach Dave Merrick, the Gahanna Lincoln girls soccer team was dealt some disappointing news Sept. 29.

The Lions found out early that afternoon that their OCC-Ohio Division game scheduled for that evening against Westerville Central, which was off to an 8-2-2 start, would have to be rescheduled because there weren’t enough officials available.

“It does affect us, because a lot of us try to mentally prepare during school, especially against good teams,” Gahanna junior left back Kya Jordan said. “When our game is canceled, then you’re kind of bummed and it sets us back a little bit because we were so ready for that game.”

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Area programs in all sports became practiced at being flexible during the COVID-19 pandemic, when games regularly were shifted to other days or canceled, but the shortage of officials had been an issue on the radar of the OHSAA and its member schools before that.

With most games able to be played this fall, the situation seemingly came to a head, particularly in soccer.

The Ready girls soccer team had what would have been its final CCL game against Hartley canceled Oct. 13 because of a lack of officials. The Silver Knights begin play next season in the new Central Buckeye League.

The Ready boys soccer team had three games postponed or canceled for the same reason.

Those are among the many examples of what could be in store in numerous sports if more people don’t become certified as high school officials over the coming years.

According to Beau Rugg, who has been the OHSAA’s director of officiating and sports management since 2017, “bad behavior” at events by those in attendance and financial compensation have been among the biggest reasons for the lack of growth in the pool of officials.

“In the COVID years, there were enough schools canceling that we didn’t see (games getting canceled) because of lack of officials,” Rugg said. “Now that (contests are) back on full strength, we’re seeing it more.”

Will there be issues this winter?

Shortly before the football season began, Columbus City Schools moved many of the games involving its 15 programs to Thursday nights and in some cases to Saturday afternoons.

Since Thursday traditionally is a busy night for soccer, many of those games were shifted to other days.

“There were a number of factors (in shifting the football games from Friday nights),” said Vincent Clarno, director of student activities for the City League. “Officiating played a role. … Definitely there’s some benefits (to having games on Thursday nights) in that you get the spotlight and the opportunity for the community to come out, but we had some Fridays and Saturdays mixed in.

“Some of the (City League) soccer games moved, more so because of us moving some of the (football) games. Is there a soccer officiating shortage? Yes, but it wasn’t necessarily what created our shift. Soccer is one of those sports where you can play multiple games in a week, so the reality comes from where if you’re playing on a non-traditional night, there’s more available officials because (all central Ohio programs are) pulling from the same group of people.”

In the OCC, according to commissioner Ken Baker, 11 people are assigned to schedule officials.

This winter, there will be separate assigners for each sport. They will attempt to balance the number of officials who are needed with those who are available on a given night.

“It’s quite a machine how it works,” Baker said. “Schools enter their games on (Arbiterlive.com) and on a particular day there will be X-number of contests. There’s one person who assigns all the games so that you don’t have a lot of overlap.”

According to Rugg, the OHSAA didn’t have many officiating shortage issues throughout the fall postseason because fewer teams were involved by that time.

No football regular-season games involving central Ohio programs were canceled or postponed specifically because of officiating shortages, although games in other parts of the state were moved for that reason.

Another piece of good news is that there likely won’t be many issues with boys and girls basketball games this winter.

“Basketball is where we have the most officials,” Rugg said. “In the big metropolitan areas, basketball and football isn’t as tough as some of the other sports, but in the lower levels is where you worry about it. I was talking with someone who had three officials and wanted to have four but couldn’t get it done for their freshman-junior varsity doubleheader (in football). The lower levels can be a challenge.”

Hope for the future

On Aug. 31, the OHSAA announced it is offering prospective officials training on the virtual platform “RefPrep” and asked member schools to offer the online officiating curriculum during the school day for students to begin the process of becoming a licensed official.

Those interested can create a profile on the OHSAA’s website.

“A licensed official can begin working games and earning money almost right away, and there are many other benefits of being an official, such as staying involved in sports, staying physically active and being a part of a team,” OHSAA executive director Doug Ute said in the release announcing the online platform.

According to Watterson girls soccer coach Scott Dempsey, his team had only two games all season in which there weren’t at least three officials assigned and none were postponed. Still, Dempsey, a coach of more than three decades at the prep level, said he talked to several officials who had been considering not returning this fall until they were asked to reconsider.

Officials in football make $70-100 per game, an increase of about 25% compared to a year ago, according to Rugg.

In other sports, the pay is about $10-15 less per game.

“Coaching is teaching, and it’s an opportunity to help young people learn the sport,” Dempsey said. “(Officials are) part of the learning experience as well. I think that’s a really important consideration to make before going into officiating. If it’s about the money or being a part of the show, then they’re doing it for the wrong reasons.”

The hope of all involved is that creating an online path to become an official, combined with educating about the need for additional officials, will help increase the pool of those certified over the coming years.

Dublin Coffman athletics director Duane Sheldon believes the future will see smaller crews in sports like soccer, where three officials typically are on the field, and in baseball and softball, where there typically are two umpires.

“Knock on wood, football and basketball from what they tell us are OK, but in sports like volleyball, we’re getting a little thin,” Sheldon said. “It’s progressively getting more challenging. We’ve had to reschedule some games in soccer, but I think there’s going to be a number of different sports (that officiating shortages will affect) in the next five years or so. The future at least in high school sports is less officials on the field.”

julrey@thisweeknews.com

@UlreyThisWeek

This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: OHSAA hopes to increase number of high school sports officials