Officials are treated as independent contractors. They're not employees of any one school or the OHSAA. To get into it, you need to pay out money first for your uniform and to get the right accreditation to officiate. And even then you're usually stuck doing Junior High, Freshman or JV games to start. Usually with really difficult start times for many workers.
The days of an 8-4 or 9-5 job are gone. Most people work some type of service level job where hours are afternoons and weekends. Most of the games to start officiating are in the late afternoon/early evening or early Saturday. That's difficult from most in the 20-40 age range. One big gripe I've seen from officials is that whatever chapter or assignor for your area (depending on how the state association handles things), you may be given the worst possible games that no one wants while favoritism goes to those who have been there the longest. Regardless of their actual ability in advancing years.
So, it's really hard to get fresh blood into the ranks. I'm in my 40s now, and it's rare for me to see someone younger than me officiating a game. I'm sure some are, but it's not a young man's thing to do. What I have noticed is young women have gotten involved. I've seen several 20-or-30 somethings doing high school games as either some 'love of the game' or 'women can do this too' statement to get them into it.
The biggest gripe I've heard by officials, regardless of state, is the money. And not just the game pay. It's the cost to get to and from games. Many crews will carpool as much as they can. But there's usually rules, written or an honor system, of not doing the same team more than a few times a year. To avoid favoritism. Also, you will never be assigned, usually, the school closest to you.
Gas costs have soared in the past decade or so. Every state does it different. But even Texas, which pays their officials pretty well including a mileage pay, is having trouble attracting new officials into the ranks.
In Texas, the bare minimum pay is $115 for games less than 31 miles away (mileage is based on chapter center point to the game contest). As the gate receipt for a game goes up, so too does the pay. As well as the distance to travel. Minimum for up to 91mi one way travel is $145. That's for games with less than $4000 gate receipts. For games with $20,500 gate receipts, the pay is $165 for less than 31 miles and $195 for less than 91 miles. For every $5000 of gate receipts above $20,500, each official earns an additional $40.
And if an official travels further than 91 miles, there's a per mile basis calculation based on number of vehicles taken (full for 1 vehicle, 75% for 2 vehicles, 60% for 3 vehicles. Unless it's a 7 man crew, then the amount drops more).
And despite that, Texas still has trouble finding officials. That's why you see so many Thursday night games outside the major cities where it's more venue availability than just official availability.
But, going from finances. The other with quality of the officiating is that we use mostly 5-man crews. That's a lot of field to cover with just ten eyes. In PA, they're toying with the idea of going to a 4-man crew due to the shortage of officials. Though, thankfully, coaches and schools would much rather face Thursday or Saturday games than to have all games officiated by just four guys.
And though you may think they 'miss' something, each official has a set checklist they follow each play. Where to look based on how the play is unfolding. That holding call is probably happening where no one is currently looking because it's not in their immediate zone. Being on the sideline, I've talked to many officials about how they conduct their games. And they've always told me that missed calls are usually just something happens at an angle they can't see, or in a spot where they're not currently looking. Five guys have to cover 22 players. With many of them having to be more focused near the ball than away from the ball.
It's not that easy. I'm always impressed by it and only a few times in my thousand-plus games have I ever felt an official or the crew were playing favorites or were just negligent in their efforts.
Seeing that most of the games I go to is as a neutral fan, I always find it humorous how often fans decry 'home cooking' or 'favoritism' when it's really not. It's just you see it when you're negatively impacted. But you never see those same blowhards call out when their team benefits from the same 'favoritism'.
And as someone else said... if you think you can do better, they're always looking for new officials.
