HIGH SCHOOL

Number of officials fails to add up, with age a concern

Stephen Haynes
The Journal News

Simon Kaufman remembers that day back in the 1980s, when he officiated a scholastic basketball game alongside a referee who was more than 70 years old.

Suzanne Gunn from Washingtonville officiates a girls lacrosse game between Wappingers and Arlington on April 26, 2017 at Arlington High School in Lagrangeville.

His partner struggled to keep up with the players. When Kaufman got home, he chuckled while telling his wife, "Can you imagine someone still being a referee in their 70s? That'll never be me!"

It was, though. More than a decade ago. The Hopewell Junction resident is 86 now and is in his 59th year as a high school sports official in the Hudson Valley.

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But lingering back pain has kept him from officiating a high school game since March and, if his health doesn't improve, Kaufman said he might give in to his wife's goading and retire.

For area high school organizations struggling to find enough officials to staff hundreds of scholastic competitions each week, Kaufman is emblematic of a growing problem.

The number of athletes participating is growing, while the number of new officials each year is dwindling. Organizations are not only losing longtime officials to retirement, but recruiting has proven difficult and nearly 80 percent of those who take up the profession leave within three years, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations, one of the national organizations seeking to solve the problem.

Simon Kaufman, an 86-year-old scholastic sports official

"We're hurting," said Kaufman, a former elementary school principal. "A lot of us old folks are getting out, and we're not getting enough young people in. If this continues, it'll be a big problem."

In 2014, there were 2,456 scholastic officials in New York. This year, that number is down to 2,296, according to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association's Officials Coordinating Federation. Not a precipitous decline, but it's been enough to affect scheduling and raise the eyebrows of those involved.

Already, there are instances at the lower scholastic levels in which games have been postponed or cancelled due to a lack of available officials, coaches have had to referee their own teams, and some games have been played without an official at all. As well, there are lower-level referees who admit they cannot keep up with the speed of varsity play, but are still asked to officiate these games out of necessity. These instances will become more frequent as the pool of officials declines, area coaches, athletic directors and officials concurred.

NYSPHSAA divides competition into regional sections; Section 1 incorporates schools in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and parts of Dutchess County. Section 9 spans parts of Dutchess, Ulster, Orange and Sullivan counties. Because of proximity, some of the officiating boards assign officials to both sections.

Approximately 55,000 kids played on 3,268 teams in Section 1 in the 2000-01 school year, according to NYSPHSAA. That number has grown to more than 71,000 kids on 3,643 teams. In Section 9, more than 27,000 kids played on 1,564 teams 16 years ago, compared to 31,500 on 1,824 teams now.

Since 1971-72, the number of high school athletes nationally has doubled, from four to eight million, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations, while the number of high school game officials in the country is around 350,000.

Kaufman is one of the oldest officials in the area, but he is among several over 70 for whom retirement will soon become a reality. And that's a frightening specter for these organizations.

Scott Caruthers of Poughkeepsie officiates a girls lacrosse game between Wappingers and Arlington on April 26, 2017 at Arlington High School in LaGrangeville.

The expansion of scholastic sports is partially to blame, said Dennis Burkett, chairman of the Officials Coordinating Federation. While the number of officials has dipped, there has been "a rise in teams and sports in the last 15 years," he said. Lacrosse is quickly growing in New York, more schools have established modified and junior varsity programs, and there has been an "explosion in the participation of girls sports" since the 1980s.

Perhaps more troubling is the declining rate at which new officials are being added statewide, OCF vice-chair Louis Stellato said. During the 2013-14 school year, 242 new officials joined. Only 168 have been added this year.

"When you add new programs in a school, you tend to assume that you'll bring in new athletes," Burkett said. "But the reality is you're often drawing from your existing pool of athletes. I think it's the same thing with officials."

New York State Public High School Athletic Association recruiting ad in a state basketball championship pamphlet

NYSPHSAA ran a full-page ad in its winter sports state tournament program in March. The bold headline read: "OFFICIALS NEEDED. High school sports in New York State are facing a problem — A SHORTAGE OF OFFICIALS!" The ad urged interested parties to contact the state's officiating boards.

As well, the National Federation of State High School Associations embarked on a “National Officials Recruitment Campaign” last month.

Hundreds of games 

Some days, the numbers don't add up.

The Westchester County Baseball Umpires Association, which also serves Putnam County, has 145 members, “which is down from five years ago,” association president Ray Sarcone said. There are 90 softball umpires available for Westchester and Putnam. In Section 9, there are 195 baseball officials, 153 for softball and 147 total for girls and boys lacrosse.

But on a given weekday in the spring, there are hundreds of games to be covered and most call for more than one official. On April 24, for example, there were 241 events in Section 1 and 153 in Section 9.

As well, not all those officials are active members. Some, like Kaufman, are inactive with injuries, while others have scheduling conflicts that preclude them from working for some stretches. The Westchester County Baseball Umpires Association, for example, has 25 inactive members this season. A sick day or an unforeseen occurrence can cause a scramble to find officials able to "double up" and cover multiple games or travel long distances, Section 9 athletic coordinator Chris Mayo said.

Last fall, there were half a dozen sporting events in Section 9 for which there wasn't a referee available, Mayo said. The schools are informed and have the option to play without an official or, more likely, postpone the contest. Those games last fall were modified — the level in scholastic sports beneath junior varsity.

Jim Areno, president of Mid-Hudson Valley Baseball Umpires Association, said five years ago the organization had 66 active umpires, now they’re down to 53.

Anthony Pironti, who heads the Westchester and Putnam field hockey officials, said his group has about 65 referees, which "is not an adequate number." As well, he said, the number of male officials almost doubles that of the women. His organization has struggled to recruit young females.

Suzanne Gunn, a veteran soccer, basketball and lacrosse official, said it’s something she has noticed.

“A lot of women don't remain officials,” the Washingtonville native said. "They join, but many of them don't stay with it. Some of them feel the environment is overly aggressive, in terms of the fans or coaches."

Aging problem

The age of the officials — rather, its effect — is a source of frustration for some parents and coaches.

"They're not able to keep up," said Denise Castagnozzi, the mother of Millbrook High School lacrosse player Matt Castagnozzi. "Stuff is going on at one end of the field and they're out of position and miss a call. In a physical sport, that can be dangerous."

Kaufman said he gave up officiating varsity basketball games five years ago for that reason. With the athletes moving faster than he can keep up, he said, “it wouldn’t be fair to the kids.”

Local Boys Basketball Officials Board 114, which assigns referees for games in the Mid-Hudson Valley, has reached out to local colleges in hopes of recruiting recent graduates. Coaches and administrators have been helpful, board interpreter Terry Walsh said, but it hasn’t yielded many results yet.

A difficulty in recruiting young officials is scheduling, with most weekday games starting in the afternoon. For many people in their 20s and 30s, the priority is getting established in their careers, and a typical 9-to-5 job will overlap most high school games, which begin around 4:30 p.m.

"Who has a job where you can drop everything and leave at 3 (p.m.) for a game?" Burkett said. "That alone means you're going to have a lot of retirees in your pool of officials."

And older people with flexible jobs schedules who no longer are raising children. Walsh, 57, works in real estate and longtime soccer, baseball and lacrosse official Scott Caruthers, a 55-year-old Poughkeepsie resident, is a high school social worker. Chris Knittell, a soccer and basketball official, said he is among the youngest of his peers at 42.

Kaufman, who was inducted into the Dutchess County Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in November, began officiating when he was 27, not long after leaving the army. But his job as an elementary school teacher offered a schedule that accommodated his side gig.

“We’re getting grayer and grayer,” said Areno. “I noticed the decline about five years ago, when a lot of the old guys retired and others moved, and we didn’t have much of a pipeline for replacements.”

Solutions have been discussed and ideas pitched, of course. Section 9 responded to the expansion of lacrosse in the Hudson Valley — with more schools adding it and establishing junior varsity programs — by having its schedule spread more evenly throughout each week. Initially, Mayo said, most of the games were concentrated on two days but that’s no longer feasible with a shortage of officials.

Denise Castagnozzi suggested the start times for games, for schools with field lights, be moved to 5:30 or 6 p.m. on weekdays to help accommodate potential recruits. Caruthers was hesitant, though, warning that it might be unfair to have student-athletes extend their school day more than an hour.

Knittell, who is a member of the executive board for soccer officials, said his organization soon will form a "recruitment committee" to explore ideas and formulate new strategies.

"I think the first step is informing people of the situation," he said. "I think a lot of people have never given thought to the state of officiating... We have to do something because it can't continue like this."

Stephen Haynes: shaynes@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-437-4826, Twitter: @StephenHaynes4