do you enjoy sports? Are you looking for a part-time job? Want more exercise?
Interested in becoming a high school sports umpire in Tucson? Earn $85 plus miles per game when you work at a college basketball, football or soccer game. That’s about $100 for 2 hours of work.
you are needed Your hometown high school needs your help.
Due to a historic shortage of high school personnel in Tucson, the staff responsible for varsity basketball games will also be required to play junior varsity games two hours early. That’s another $50. Get a part-time job at Chipotle or Subway and earn that much.
Due to the absence of officials, high school basketball and soccer games for 2022-23 are now typically played Friday through Saturday and even Monday.
“We are struggling,” says Dave Watton, Tucson-area commissioner for the Arizona Interscholastic Association. “From the middle of the football season, I had to find three or he four officials each week from outside the Tucson area to help officiate our games. It was to use new officers who were not qualified to do so.
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“Sometimes it brings discomfort and a real lack of sportsmanship out of the stands.”
A few days ago, Watton held his annual basketball tip-off meeting with Southern Arizona officials. There were 136 referees.
“We need about 180 people,” he says. “The numbers are really, really bad.”
Looking up a list of 15 certified soccer umpires in Southern Arizona (each with 5 referees), Bill Carson, Jerry Gastelum, Boyd Morse, Bob Bertagnoli, BJ Fogletans, Jim • Names of highly skilled officers such as Purdy, Chris Shagel, etc. come to mind. I don’t think anything has changed in Tucson’s historic prominence in high school sports umpires.
But times change. Fewer and fewer young officials are entering the system. Watton says more than half of Tucson’s employees are over his 55s.
Tucson Final Four basketball referee Chris Rastatter, newly appointed coordinator of all NCAA men’s basketball officials, said the culture surrounding the AIA and high school sports had changed due to the abusive behavior of parents and fans. I’m here.
“It’s alienating young officials,” says Rastatter, who grew up in Tucson’s high school games and is still the director of the Tucson Youth Referee Program. “The number of new recruits is declining.”
If soccer referee numbers are bad, they’re going to be even worse when high school soccer and basketball start next month.
“There won’t be enough officials to cover JV and national team games in these sports,” says Whatton. “In about 80% of the football games that were scheduled last year, he was forced to use a crew of two referees instead of a crew of three. This is happening statewide.”
This is a dramatic shift from past decades, when notable Tucson athletes such as Major League Baseball players Terry Francona and Ed Vosberg began making their way through the refereeing system.
“We all wanted more work, more games,” says Whatton, a Flowing Wells High School graduate who began refereeing 30 years ago. “At the time, I was happy to work two games a week, and so were people like Terry Francona. The need is very important.”
The two-year downsizing and closure of the game due to COVID-19 was a big part of the problem. For some reason, after 2019 and his 2020 high school season, numerous Tucson officials did not rejoin his AIA system.
Tucson has maintained its umpires of excellence for nearly 100 years. A list of notable Tucson officers was made in 1926 when he was named UA quarterback Button. It started when I was alone.
The deal includes Bud Grainger, Gordon Overstreet, Don Moore, Dean Metz, Jim Marquardt, Pat Flood, Ed Hotchuri, Bobby Lau, Boyd Baker, Jim Fogletens, Bob Sco Field, Rastatter and more caused an impressive march for the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame.
Tucson seemed forever blessed as one of America’s premier cities for high school athletes.
And then it all fell apart.
“Another problem is that new hires are rushed to college assignments,” says Watton. “Usually it takes at least two years after playing a freshman and JV game before being able to play in a national team game. And we’re pushing too many new officials into the national team situation, and the sport itself is suffering.”
Watton and the AIA are busy recruiting young staff. His website at AIA has a page labeled “Become an Official” that explains the process. There is no registration fee for high school graduates. Locally, Amphitheater High School’s Athletic Director David Humpreys recently recruited 16 former Panthers players to the rookie board.
“What I tell young officials is that you can make more money in less time as an officer than at Starbucks or McDonald’s,” Watton said. “My feeling is that if I can get them for three years, they’re going crazy.”
Contact sports columnist Greg Hansen at 520-573-4362 or ghansen@tucson.com. Twitter: @ghansen711
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