SALEM, Va. – There’s nothing quite like Friday nights in Southwest Virginia when high school football fans pack stadiums across the commonwealth.
However, the whole premise of Friday night football could be changed for some teams during certain weeks this upcoming season because of a lack of referees in the area.
The referee shortage in Virginia is still prominent throughout the state, especially in the southwest portion of the state.
The Western Virginia Football Officials Association (WVFOA) makes up for most of the referees in the 10 News viewing area.
Dakota Tomlin is the president of the board of directors for the referee group. He expected to be about 30-40 referees short of what they would like to have for the upcoming season. The goal is to have a seven-man crew for each game and some games may need to switch days and times to make it work.
“The entire aura of high school football is Friday nights. If we don’t have enough coverage, now games are getting bumped to Saturday’s at 2 p.m. or back to Thursday nights. That can affect the ability for fans to come out and enjoy a typical Friday night game,” Tomlin said.
The decline in officials started during the pandemic and has progressively gotten better.
“It’s a commitment. It takes a lot of commitment to say that I’m going to head out possibly at 3:30 on a Friday afternoon to get to a game site to work a 7 pm game. Work a 2 ½ hour game and then drive back home,” Tomlin said.
However, there’s still a push to get younger referees trained and ready for the season.
“Without us, these games don’t happen. At the end of the day, this is an opportunity to give back to a game that has given so much to many of us. Most of us played the game. That’s the message we’re trying to take to high school seniors and to kids in college. If you played in high school sports, if they had a big impact on your life, here’s your chance to give it back to the kids coming up behind you,” Tomlin said.
WVFOA is still recruiting people to become a referee if you like to join. You can click here to reach out to the group on Facebook. You can also learn about becoming a referee through the VHSL website and you want to make sure to put WVFOA as the group you’re wanting to join.
The group is willing to work with your schedule to make something work.