Are you ready for Thursday night football in San Mateo County?

So how do you feel about Thursday night football at the high school level? Because it’s coming to the Peninsula Athletic League this season.

A problem that has been festering for the last several years has finally reached a critical point and if things don’t change, what many see as rare will soon become the new normal.

During the Peninsula Athletic League’s football coaches’ meeting, coaches were informed that because of a lack of officials, three PAL games would have to be moved to Thursday.

“It’s a real dilemma this year,” said Mike Adam, chairman of the board for the Silicon Valley Sports Officials Association, the organization that supplies referee crews for PAL frosh-soph and varsity football games.

Adam said his pool of officials shrunk by three more this season, including a recent death. He has been saying for several years now that the shrinking number of people wanting to become officials has impacted games. Several games every season are already understaffed and that issue has now been compounded.

Adam said officials’ organizations around the Bay Area and state are experiencing similar issues and the groups have been working together as much as they can. Adam said he is sending three crews to the South Bay to help out down there, but the reciprocation has not been the same.

As such, there were three dates on the PAL schedule — Sept. 3, Oct. 8 and Oct. 22 — during which the SVSOA simple could not cover the number of games on a Friday night. The solution was to move one game per week to Thursday.

As you might imagine, there was some grumbling among the assembled coaches.

To make things as equitable as possible, PAL commissioner Terry Stogner planned to simply draw cards with school’s names on it to determine which game would be moved to Thursday.

In the end, it did not come down to the luck of the draw. In a magnanimous move, M-A head coach Chris Saunders and Terra Nova head man Jason Piccolotti, following a brief conversation, volunteered to move their Friday, Oct. 22 game to Thursday, Oct. 21.

Both of those coaches should be commended for stepping up and doing something no one else wanted to do.

Everyone got a reprieve on Oct. 8 with South City announcing it was dropping its varsity program this season, thus allowing the SVSOA to cover the remaining six Friday games that week.

And in the final move, after a discussion about travel distances and out-of-area teams, it was decided El Camino and Capuchino’s Sept. 3 game would move to Sept. 2.

While that may address the issue of game coverage this season, I don’t think this is going to be one-off situation unless more people become involved in officiating. And don’t think it’s just a football problem. All sports are facing a shortage of officials.

To be more specific, these organizations are facing a shortage of new, younger officials. Take a look at the referees and umpires calling games. They are not spring chickens. These guys and gals can’t do this forever and unless new blood starts entering the officiating ranks, the situation will continue to get worse.

So to all those bleacher referees: how about grabbing a whistle, buying a zebra uniform and get in the game? Don’t worry, you won’t get embarrassed. The SVSOA, for example, does provide training and you won’t automatically be put on a crew that is going to officiate the Menlo-Atherton-Sacred Heart Prep football game.

But the training needs to start now so that you’re ready to do the big games in a couple of years. If it wasn’t my job covering games as a reporter, I would seriously consider becoming a football official. It gives you even greater insight into the game and you get to be in the middle of the action, literally.

If you’re at all interested in trying to help out and want to give back to the local athletic community, go to www.svsoa.org to find out how to get involved.

And if you’re reading this outside the San Francisco Peninsula, look up your local officials’ organization because this is not a localized problem.

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A reader recently asked about fans’ attendance at high school sporting events this season. If you remember in the spring, only people from the same household were allowed to watch events.

I called PAL commissioner Terry Stogner to see if this was a league issue, section issue, school district issue — all or none of the above?

Stogner said in his conversations with the Central Coast Section, the decision of fan attendance will be left up to each individual school.

While Stogner doesn’t know how the 18 schools in the PAL will respond to fans in the stands, he said he has not heard of any high school district making any blanket plans.

“I haven’t heard anything from any of my districts that they are setting standards that would limit spectators,” Stogner said.

Stogner said it helps that most of the fall sports — football, tennis, golf, cross country and water polo — are all played outside, which makes fans a lot more likely.

Volleyball is the lone indoor sport and players are coaches are already mandated to wear masks. I would assume that would extend to fans in attendance, as well.

But all in all, it sounds like fans will be welcomed back in a few weeks.

“My feeling is we’re going ahead until someone [stops] us,” Stogner said.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: Nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 650-344-5200 ext. 117. Results and statistics can be emailed to: sports@smdailyjournal.com.