For years, high school athletic directors, town lacrosse program administrators and the heads of club programs refused to believe how bad the referee shortage would be because, come game time, there would always be referees to do the games.
That hasn’t been automatic this season, when the effects of the officiating shortage throughout New England and the country have started to feel real.
You know things have gotten bad when Trevor Noah is making jokes about the referee shortage on “The Daily Show,” which he did on April 26, but maybe you don’t know why they are so bad or the impact they will have next.
The National Federation of State High School Associations estimates that 50,000 high school referees — roughly 20 percent of the total pool — quit between 2018 and 2021, and the impact is much greater than that because many of those officials worked multiple sports. Meaning that one retirement could contribute to the shortages in, say, lacrosse, basketball and soccer at the same time.
