PAL-SCVAL football merger impacts officials as well

The coaches of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League teams, which will play under the PAL umbrella beginning this season, were not included on the SVSOA list. The SCVAL teams fall under the auspices of the Bay Area Sports Officials organization.

Not only are two leagues joining forces, referees and officials from two different organizations will be working together, as well.

“Coaches had to check their home schedules are correct for referee assigning,” said Mike Adam, SVSOA chairman of the board and lead football official for the organization. Adam said he has been working on assigning crews for the fall 2022 season since April.

Adam needs extended lead time because he has quite the puzzle to solve. Because of the dearth of football officials, he has to constantly juggle crews — not only for game assignments but also the number of officials in each crew. Minimum is four and that seems to be the new normal.

The lack of officials across the country, in general, and on the Peninsula, specifically, means having to schedule more games on Thursday night and Saturday afternoons as many officials organizations simply no longer have the manpower to staff every Friday night game on the schedule.

Tom Gersey, who after a 45-year refereeing career is now part of the senior leadership group with BASO, is charged with helping recruit new members into the ranks of officiating. He said a recent study reported 15,000 officials across the country have left the various games they officiate.

Gersey said two seasons ago was the first time he had to tell the various leagues in Santa Clara County that some games would have to be moved off Friday nights. Like SVSOA, BASO is experiencing a lack of bodies to cover games.

“The pandemic started the mass migration of officials,” Gersey said.

BASO may have more officials than SVSOA, “But they have a ton more games to cover,” Adam said.

Gersey went on to say officials are getting out for several reasons — the biggest issue the continued graying of youth sports officials. Many of the officials that work in San Mateo County are of retirement age and are simply choosing to hang up their whistles.

The other reason for the exodus of officials, Gersey said, is members moving out of the area because they simply can no longer afford to live in the Bay Area.

Meanwhile, the two officiating groups are working together to supply referees to help cover shortage in either county, an arrangement that has been used for the last several years. Both Adam and Gersey said the biggest issue is during the non-league portion of the schedule, when teams traditionally play teams outside the area.

“It’s easier (to pull together crews) when they’re playing each other,” Gersey said.

The merger of the SCVAL and PAL teams should also help the refs since the number of non-league game against non-traditional teams will be lessened. With the merger, schools play five game division schedules. Also, one crossover game between teams from the two leagues will be played, along with the traditional rivalry game.

In the end, teams need to find only a couple of non-league games for their schedules — which was one of the key reasons for the merger in the first place.

And as far as scheduling games for other than Friday night? Adam said he tries to make it equitable for all teams involved.

“We try to make sure [teams] didn’t have more than one Friday game moved,” Adam said.

Until more people are willing to don the zebra stripes, football officiating crews will be skeleton and Thursday Night Football at the high school level will become a more regular occurrence.

If you are interested in becoming a football referee in San Mateo County, go to SVSOA.org for more information. If you’re interested in officiating in Santa Clara County, contact BASO at rrmore1026@yahoo.com.

If you’re in San Francisco, contact Dave Stamer of Northern California Football Officials Association at dstamer315@sbcglobal.net.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117. To report scores or tips, email sports@smdailyjournal.com.