TRAVERSE CITY — High school and youth sports officials have been faced with increasingly tough decisions since sports were first put on hold on March 13. 

Thousands were left without jobs or side gigs for months on end and were unsure if sports would make a comeback this fall. 

Now, six months after the statewide sports shutdown, the number officials across the state and region have continued to decline, with more exiting because of uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

Worries over health issues, immunocompromised family members, mask mandates, scheduling and travel have caused more referees to step away from the game this season and it has wreaked havoc on fall sports. 

“We’ve lost probably five full football crews due to the virus,” said Bill Parker, President of the Northern Sports Officials Association. “Unfortunately our official ranks are getting up there in age and with the virus many of them can’t work or go out without a lot of precautions in place.” 

Schools have been forced to reschedule games because of the lack of available referees, compressing the workload onto fewer and fewer people. Many factors have come into play for officials who are deciding if they want to be out on the field most nights of the week. For referees like Tom Coatoam, the financial need plays a large role in his desire to get back to work. 

“Losing all of the games in March, April, May and June was really hard on the pocketbook,” Coatoam said. “They are not sanctioning any tournaments through the end of October so I’ve lost all my money from them.” 

Tournaments that would allow officials to work dozens of matches during a weekend are now obsolete and have relegated most assignments to single games or Saturday double-headers. 

Local referee Jeremy Barrett has felt the pressure to take more assignments because for financial reasons.

“Financially there is a bit of a challenge there because I can’t turn down these assignments even if I feel like I am going to a place that unsafe because that would disqualify me for unemployment,” Barrett said. 

Barrett collects unemployment as a gig-worker whose business has been halted during the pandemic, with officiating normally being a secondary income. He worries about the health and safety of his family, many of which are immunocompromised, and has quit accepting offers for games in other regions of the state to limit his travel within MDHHS Region 6. 

The low numbers have forced many officiating crews to drop from seven to five members for football and sometimes even fewer for other sports. Scheduling and assigning officials has become a nightmare according to Parker, who said a process that usually takes eight months was pressed into a weekend when they found out sports would resume. 

Many officials like Coatoam had to make the trip north into Region 6 to referee games prior to the latest Executive Order that allowed sports across Michigan. 

The coronavirus pandemic has offered other challenges that referees have never faced before and has made a few other situations more tense for officials. 

The mask mandate that is in place for athletes is not to be enforced by referees but many of them have received the brunt of the attacks from parents and coaches. 

“The kids and coaches want us to enforce it and the fans even want us to enforce it,” local referee Tom Spencer said. “It puts us in a more awkward position because the officials are not required to wear them.”

Assistant Director of the Michigan High School Athletic Association Cody Inglis said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Executive Order was specific in its language about athletes but not about officials and the MHSAA was worried if they made referees wear masks it may further drain the officials pool. 

“The average age of officials is 54-years-old and that is a challenge when those people are more at risk with coronavirus and we know that has impacted our numbers,” Inglis said. “Our signups are not nearly where they normally are yearly registration wise. We didn’t even know if the season was going to happen for a while so I think some of that has to do with the challenges.”

Spencer and fellow referee Eddie O’Brien, each who are in their 60s, said they would have to quit officiating if they were forced to wear a mask and said officials are able to maintain social distancing unlike the athletes during matches. 

While abuse from spectators is still the main reason the numbers of officials continues to fall according to Coatoam, who is also an assigner for the northeastern part of Michigan, the worries over the coronavirus pandemic have dropped the numbers further. 

“Officiating numbers have been down but this spearheaded losing a big number of officials really quickly,” said Parker, who is responsible for scheduling about 275 officials in northern Michigan. “I think this will have a negative effect. I’m afraid that we are losing some that we probably won’t get back.” 

The MHSAA has relaxed recertification protocols for the 2021 season and allowing anyone who is already registered retain their certifications for next year. New officials will also have a truncated training course that will be mostly available online while the pandemic continues to make challenges for the MHSAA.

Follow Jake on Twitter @JakeAtnip