Prep football notes: Fixing a shortage by tapping Sacramento-area players to be referees
News and notes, including: recruiting ex-high school players to officiate games, farewell old friend, Mike Ray, and welcome back to Oak Park, Justin Reber:
Referee shortage and idea
High school football is on hold until the winter and spring months with hopes of a kickoff in January, provided the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t prevent students from attending class on campus.
If the seasons do play out, they will be crunched in with other sports, meaning an already short supply or referees will be all the more taxed. The Northern California Officials Association remains open for business, designed and dedicated to recruiting and training officials for a number of sports.
And those at the NCOA have a grand idea on where to find football and basketball officials, or for any sport: former players. People who are not ready to leave the action.
“What better way to find new officials than people who played the sport,” said Jim Jorgensen of Jorgensen Sports Service, which helps work with officials and assign them to games. “Players know the game, love the game. We want to reach out to area high school football coaches who might recommend a player who isn’t playing in college, or might be out of college, who still wants to be part of the action. We train. It pays pretty well (up to $100 per game, with a number of games available per week). It’d be good for them and good for the sport.”
The concerns for those officiating at the youth and high school level is often the rabid reactions of fans, which has led to a dramatic decline in officials across the country, retired NFL official Mike Pereira has told The Bee. He is a local resident working with officials to ramp up their craft.
According to the National Association of Sports Officials that polled nearly 17,500 officials recently, 75 percent walk away citing “adult behavior.” Studies also show there are more officials who are 60 and older than there are 30 and younger, making for a considerable age gap to fill in the outgoing referees.
Those wanting to become referees or officials can reach out to Jorgensen: jimjorgensensports@gmail.com and those interested in officiating at the youth level can contact Bill Kruse at williamkruse42@gmail.com
Mike Ray leaves Placer County
Mike Ray is leaving Placer County, retiring the notepad, to be a full-on grandparent with wife Cyndi. They are moving to the central part of the state, where their son Nate and his wife Shannon have three children, ages 6-10.
Ray has been a staple of local sports journalism for 50 years, be it the Colfax Record, the Grass Valley Union, the Auburn Journal or anything under the Gold Country Media umbrella. He is a member of the Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame for his decades of media impact more than being named Colfax High’s Athlete of the Year in 1969.
And what a treasure. When Colfax football hosted a small-school CIF State championship in 2018, Ray reported the biggest events besides the football game in Colfax included: “President Herbert Hoover’s visit in 1932, the opening of Colfax High in 1959, the Olympic torch passing through town on the way to the 1960 Winter Games in Squaw Valley and Ronald McDonald visiting town to open a McDonald’s in 2002.”
He added, “Not bad for a little town that still doesn’t have a traffic signal.”
Ray’s favorite students to talk about or report on at Colfax were sons Nate, Kyle and Tory. His non-sports stories are captivating, including his long-ago wedding, recalling amid laughter with Cyndi nodding, “I got the bad beer and we splurged on Old Milwaukee, in Lake of the Pines, then started our honeymoon with a Giants doubleheader, in a motor home.”
Cheers to the good life, Mike.
Reber back at Sac
Justin Reber has been hired as Sacramento High’s athletic director and football coach, making it a full-circle return to Oak Park.
The much-traveled, yet immensely talented Reber was Sac High’s coach in 2016 when the Dragons halted Folsom’s 48-game regular-season winning streak and area-record 52-game winning streak against section competition. He’s had stops at El Dorado, Rio Linda and Bella Vista. As AD, Reber is already working the phones. He needs new volleyball and soccer coaches, both genders, and vows to settle in for a long haul.