WESTON, Mo. — Nationwide, and here in the Kansas City area, all levels of amateur sports are feeling the impacts of an ongoing problem that has been present since before the pandemic — a shortage of referees, umpires and officials.
"Nobody knows what's gonna go on, because it's day-to-day," said John Hatfield, who was umpiring a game in Weston, Missouri, on Tuesday.
The uncertainty of an available umpire is impacting every level of amateur sports, from youth, to travel, to high school games.
"I know assigners are scrambling to find officials, I know games are getting canceled," Hatfield said.
Hatfield serves on the MSHSAA Officials Advisory Committee. He gave a few reasons for the continuing problem.
"Veteran officials who have been in umpiring and refereeing for a long time are now getting to the age where they’re getting out," Hatfield said. "We did a really, really poor job recruiting the last couple years, so now that those veteran officials are getting out, we have no one to fill the void; younger officials are not getting into it."
He also cited fan behavior towards umpires, refs, and officials.
While those incidents are not routine, they do frequently catch attention and headlines for verbal and often physical abuse directed at those making calls.
"It's hard to sit in the stands sometimes because everyone's an umpire and it's like, you want to put them in the uniform and tell them to go do it," said Aubree Harsh, a parent of West Platte High School athletes.
Parents and coaches say that behavior impacts the game on and off the field.
"As a coach, I'm not perfect, I make calls that not every parent's going to agree with," said Bailee Giger, head coach for the West Platte softball team. "But I can see how that would be a hard career to get into when you see the behaviors that are spotlighted."
The pipeline is drying up nationwide across all sports. An NFHS survey released this year revealed a loss of more than 50,000 referees since the 2018-2019 school year.
"I have an eight-year-old, I wonder everyday when she's 16, are we even going to be play anymore, because are we even going to have the umpires?" Harsh said.
Hatfield has more than a decade of refereeing under his cap. He's not retiring just yet.
"Nobody's going to be perfect, but we are out here to help sports and because we love it," he said. "That's why referees are out here."
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