WACO, Texas (KXXV) — To most, referees are usually just seen as people who blow a whistle—but they're vitally important to almost any sports competition.
You may not know there's a referee shortage in Central Texas, and recruiting younger officials to keep up with the demanding nature of high school sports is getting harder.
"They come to football games, and they say I don't want to get yelled at, or I don't want to get booed, or I don't want to get treated the way you guys get treated," Rodney Simms said. "And I don't want to invest all the time it takes because, like everybody says, it's a full-time, part-time job."
Simms has been a referee for over 20 years and officiates football, basketball, and baseball.
"There's new schools, there's new sports, there's new teams, so they gotta get those covered as well," Gatesville head football coach and assistant athletic director Aaron Hunter said.
"You know, when I first got into coaching, I don't think we ever talked about having to change games or move games because of official shortages. And now it's constantly in the narrative, just trying to discuss what we can do and how to improve things?" Hunter said.
A lack of referees has been an issue for years. But if Central Texas sports continues to grow and the number of referees stays the same—what's going to happen down the line?
"That's a scary thought. You look at it like this — if we have 10 officials retire, we're replacing them with three or four. We're not replacing them with 10. It affects us. It's gonna get worse. And I predict in five years, it will be bad," Simms said
It's not just football. Simms referees multiple sports, and he sees it across the other athletics.
"Football has a big shortage," Simms said. "Basketball has a shortage, but it's not as bad as football. Baseball also has a shortage because that's another animal. But right now, football has the biggest shortage because it has the biggest demand," Simms said.
Referees are a big part of the game. Hopefully, we will see more hit the field for Friday football down the line.
