OSAA says pandemic has led to shortage of officials for high school sports

(Update: adding video, new information, comments from OSAA)

Numbers are down 30% for all Season 2 sports

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- High school sports have kicked off, but officials with the Oregon School Activities Association said they now face a new challenge -- a shortage of officials.

"Without officials, it's just recess,” OSAA Assistant Executive Director Brad Garrett told NewsChannel 21 Wednesday.

Last year, OSAA said, 1,535 refs registered for football, volleyball and soccer. This year, there are 1,078 registered refs, a drop of 30%, which is more than the nationwide average of 20%.

OSAA said the pandemic is largely responsible. The median age for football officials in Oregon is 46, and hundreds of them are in the higher-risk category for COVID-19.

So they chose not to register.

"I think we can make the assumption that there's some different considerations for folks that are age 65 certainly and above,” Garrett said. “We respect those decisions, by the way, and understand them."

That's forced schools to get creative with scheduling. For example, Mountain View’s first football game this season was on a Saturday because of the officials shortage.

In some cases, other sports teams are playing several times on the same day.

Garrett says he doesn't see this problem getting resolved any time soon.

"We're going to continue to have the same issues,” he said. “We're not anticipating we're going to flip a switch and everything's going to go back to normal."

In fact, when schools fully reopen by mid-April, Garrett said even more issues may arise.

Interested in learning about how to become an OSAA official? Check here.