The shortage of high school football officials statewide is like a runaway train.

“It’s going downhill faster than we can stop it,” said Dothan’s Kevin Hawkins, who serves as the district director in this part of the state.

“Right now, they say that statewide, we’re looking anywhere from five or six years where we’re not going to have officials for any of the sports because we just can’t get officials,” he adds of the worst-case scenario.

Hawkins, an on-the-field official for 16 years and in his first year as a director, oversees three associations comprised of around 200 officials throughout the Wiregrass: Tri-County (Enterprise), Southeast (Dothan) and South Central (Troy).

Like is the case throughout the state, attracting new officials in this area and holding on to them is getting tougher and tougher.

“This district used to be between 300 and 400 officials, but over the years we’ve have lost officials either by passing away, or retirement, or just quitting and unfortunately (numbers) keep declining,” Hawkins said. “I think statewide this year alone, we’re over 1,000 short.”

It’s meant some games having to be switched to Thursday night because of the shortage, a trend that will become more commonplace.

“We’re asking all schools starting next year to schedule in at least two Thursday night games a year,” Hawkins said. “If they don’t, then we’re going to find out that we’re going to have Friday nights that we don’t have officials.

“I see possibly us having to do something similar to what Montgomery and Birmingham does and that’s possibly going to Saturday games for some of our venues for the fact that we are low on some of our numbers. “

Why the mass exodus?

“On the field stuff we can deal with,” Hawkins said. “It’s when you get off the field and going to the car and you’ve got fans following you out and screaming at you, throwing stuff at you … that’s what gets to you and makes you say, ‘Is this really worth it?’”

Attaining, attracting

According to Hawkins, the average age of those working the games now in this area is around 48 years old.

While the veteran officials are more equipped to handle the difficult calls on the field, keeping up physically becomes tougher with each passing year.

“You’ve got kids who are bigger and stronger than they used to be,” Hawkins said. “What we’ve done to make up for that is I get on conference calls a lot with other officials from the college ranks and I have some friends in the NFL, and I speak to them about some of their training techniques that they use, because they have some older officials as well.

“What we’ve learned is the further away you are from the play, the more you can see. Sometimes you have to get a little bit further away to keep up with the speed of the game … so the kids don’t get up on you so fast and you’re not in the way.”

While veteran officials are cherished, finding, younger officials is the biggest challenge.

“They’d rather stay home and play (video) games or go do something else with their time,” Hawkins said. “That’s what our biggest problem is – not being able to get the younger adults out there to help us.”

Once someone steps on the field and gives it a try, keeping the good ones is the next challenge

“A lot of them that get out there and do it for the love of the game, they stick around,” said Hawkins, whose son, Jacob, is among the young officials. “But then there are others that just do it for the money. The ones that just do it for the money … they’re not going to stay. Once the aggravation gets more than what’s the money is worth, they’ll leave.

“So you’ve got to find the ones that want to do it for the love of the game, and those are the ones that are hard to find. We’ll probably get 10 to 15 new guys a year and out of those, we might get four to stay, because those four really want to do it and the rest of them are just there for the money.”

Hawkins said simply talking to current high school players is one recruiting method. Some schools even offer classes on officiating and allow officials to come in and talk to students.

“The biggest way to talk to the kids is on the football field,” Hawkins said. “Tell them, ‘Hey, when you get done, we can always use officials.’”

The training

Weekly meetings begin in July to start learning the rules book and by August veteran and rookie officials are put on the field in game-like situations though scrimmages different schools organize.

“They’ll come out there on a Saturday and put a scrimmage together and we’ll put officials out there … the newer ones less than five years … and we’ll have the older officials out there training them,” Hawkins said.

Introducing required film study is something Hawkins initiated this year.

“You watch the team that you’re going to have the week coming up,” Hawkins said. “You learn what their tendencies are; you learn what offense they run, what defense they run, how their coaches call plays.

“That way, you’re better prepared when you get in that game to know they’re in this set-up, I need to be deeper or I need to be shallower so I know what I’m looking for. Where do I need to be when that ball is snapped?”

Hawkins acknowledges a flag could be thrown on virtually every play, which isn’t what he wants.

“We’re trying to teach common sense officiating,” Hawkins said. “If the play is going to the left, there’s no sense in throwing a flag on right side of the play because that may have nothing to do with that play.

“Now, if it’s offsides, false start, facemask – something that everybody in the stands saw, then we have to call it. If it’s a hold on the tackle on the right side and the play is going to the left side and that doesn’t mess with the play, then we don’t need to be flagging that.”

The rewards

“In a given football season you can make anything from $1,000 to $2,000 just calling Friday night football,” Hawkins said. “Now if you also call JV and you call Pee Wee and stuff like that, you can make more. Once you get into it for a while and go into the college ranks, it can go from $500 a game to $3,000 a game. So there’s money to be made if you put the time and effort into it.”

But there is more to it than just the payout.

“To be out on that football field when the bands come on the field and all that pre-game stuff … that right there really gets your blood flowing, you get those butterflies,” Hawkins said. “If somebody wants to get back in the game and get that feeling back, officiating is the best way to do it. And if you want to give back to the game and be an inspiration to kids, officiating can be that way.”

Final word

Hawkins said social media has made it tougher on officials, with those with disagreements letting their feelings be known in that way.

“We just need patience from the coaches and the fans to understand we are in a struggle right now with officials and we are human beings and we’re trying to do the best job that we can out there,” Hawkins said. “We’re not doing it to get rich; we’re not out there for one team or the other.

“We’re out there to make it as fair as we can. We don’t care who wins or loses. That’s what they need to understand.”

Of course, Hawkins is always looking for some help.

“The biggest thing I like to do when coaches start complaining about calls is to tell them, ‘We’re hiring every day,’” Hawkins said.