UGA-Florida game, Halloween cause referee shortage, uptick in Thursday games

A shortage of Georgia high school football referees available to work Friday night has caused a spike in Thursday night games this week.

Nearly 50 games, well above the typical range of 10-20, will kick off Thursday. That includes key region matchups in the final week of the regular season, like Westside-Augusta at West Laurens, Upson-Lee at LaGrange and Seckinger at Lanier.

The convergences of an unofficial Southern holiday and a national holiday have caused many referees to call out the Friday night the final week of the regular season.

The University of Georgia’s annual game against Florida means a trip to Jacksonville for many football fans in the state, including high school referees. Even more officials have called out this year with Halloween falling on Friday night.

“You hate to use the term perfect storm, but it probably is,” said Keith Hammond, president of the Lanier Football Officials Association.

Hammond is used to seeing referees call out for the Georgia-Florida game. Often referred to as the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, the SEC matchup always falls near the end of the Georgia high school football regular season, thinning out Hammond’s workforce more than the average week.

Hammond oversees around 80 on-field officials per week. He can usually expect 5%-10% to be unavailable on the average Friday night.

For Georgia-Florida weekend, though, that number stacks quicker than red solo cups in Jacksonville parking lots.

“You might be looking at 18-20% of your guys not being available,” Hammond said. “Georgia-Florida and high school football, all that’s been going on for years.”

Hammond is used to dealing with college football craze, but he’s facing another challenge this season. Halloween has made an even bigger dent in his referees available on Friday night.

“You’ve got young officials that have to already miss a lot of time on Thursdays with JV and Fridays with varsity and Monday with meetings,” Hammond said. “And now they’ve got to go home and tell their wives with young kids that I’m not going to be there for Halloween to go trick-or-treating.

“There’s a yield sign that pops up right there.”

Atlanta Peachstate Football Secretary Larry Hobgood has seen a similar decrease in available referees this week. Hobgood agreed Halloween has taken even more officials off his schedule than the average Georgia-Florida weekend.

Hobgood said he also believes Halloween has caused more unavailability this season than it has in past years when it fell on Friday night.

“Now, we use a lot more officials on the field,” he said. “The city of Atlanta and DeKalb County require a chain crew for all of them, and now, they’ve gone to a play clock, and that requires an extra official for each of the home games, and we have to supply that.

“Two or three things have kind of kicked in, and it adds a little more to it, it seems like every year as we keep growing.”

That growth has caused many schools to schedule their last game of the season for Thursday night. Plenty more have since moved Friday night games to Thursday because of the shortage.