High school football referee shortage could threaten Friday night lights in Northern Va.

WASHINGTON, DC (7News) — It's just about that time of the year.

Friday night lights and high school football will be returning to the DMV region. 7News will once again be On Your Sideline every Friday night -- but one critical question has now emerged: will the referees be there, too?

7News On Your Sideline: Covering more games with more highlights than anyone in the DMV

Filling out this year's schedule though has been problematic for many of the schools. There is a referee shortage in every sport. It's a national problem that's starting to impact our area, especially in Northern Virginia.

Larry Kendrick, commissioner of the Northern Virginia Football Officials Association, told 7News sports anchor Scott Abraham that when he took over in 2019 he had 165 field officials for football. Since the pandemic, he has lost 60 officials and is now down to about 110 refs for a Friday night in the fall.

That's simply not enough.

"I had to inform 14 schools that we were going to renew contracts with, in order for us to officiate those games, they would have to either move to Thursday or Saturday because I just don't have the people," Kendrick told Abraham. "I'm under contract for 22 games every Friday. Last year, I had as many as 31 games on a Friday night. We usually have five officials per game, but last year, almost every week we had to use four officials for a varsity football game on a Friday night. With the spread offenses and the run and shoot offenses, it's very difficult for four officials to handle that game."

The big question: how do you attract new, younger officials?

Kendrick says it's not easy. Poor sportsmanship from players, coaches and fans is a primary reason why individuals show no interest in becoming an official.

The pay is not great, but many officials aren't in it for the money. According to Kendrick, Northern Virginia association crews receive between $400 and $500 a game. That money though is split between the five officials working the game. Do the math, that's not a lot of cash in the pocket.

"We've been recruiting every season, we do it through social media, we do it through word of mouth," Kendrick said. "We're not a young association, we've been trying to get younger officials, we haven't been as successful as we like. We get paid what I call, "ok" for what we do because it's not a full time job, it's more of a hobby. We also don't want to gouge these schools because they are on a budget, too."

That Friday night football game is sacred to so many schools in our region. The revenue from the ticket sales is a huge help to a school's athletic budget, which in turn helps all of the other athletic teams.

READ MORE: Referee shortage threatens soccer games; fan abuse deterring younger people from role

And let's not forget about the impact a big Friday night game has on the community. It brings people together; the school together. The bands, the cheerleaders and the raucous student sections create a special energy and atmosphere.

"It's a fall ritual to go to a football game on a Friday night. The kids love it," said Gar-Field Director of Student Activities Michael Payne. "You try to promote the best case scenario because we want to provide a student-athlete experience that they're going to be enjoying throughout their high school career and without officials we can't play the game."

Some Northern Virginia high schools have had to move a game or two to a Thursday or Saturday for this upcoming football season. Or they've tried a different route, branching out to other referee associations in the area to see if they can help on a Friday night game.

"This has been the most difficult year in finalizing our schedule. We just finished it over the last couple of weeks. It's a headache, but it's just one of those things that you navigate the best way you possible can," Payne told Abraham. "All of the schools, we need to be about the action and the action is, let's engage in the marketing, the advertising and the promoting and have a successful event so we can that we can corral the good ones and retain them. It can be scary, it can be alarming, but with every negative, you have to be able to bring a solution to the table."

Another issue is our growing population in the region. Counties continue to expand, adding new high schools. The referee associations are expected to take on those new schools. Kendrick said that they need six new referees with every high school that is added and they are just not able to keep up with their dwindling number of officials on the roster.

"There's going to be more Thursday or Saturday ball games. It's inevitable, it's going to happen," Kendrick said. "I'd like to see all the schools in the Northern Virginia area get together and go over just to see how bad it is and understand each team might have to give up a Friday night for a Thursday or Saturday. But if they promote it right, it might still draw enough people. I just know it's coming, it's been coming. It's come to the point that the shortage is there and even more so today and each year as we progress."

If you have any interest in becoming an official, you can go to their website for all of the information.