Referees, officials and umpires are all different terms for a person whose job is to make decisions and implement rules during a sporting event.
Officials control the game, and because of that, no matter at what level, they experience criticism from parents, coaches and players. Because of this, the number of officials is decreasing.
“A couple years ago the State Athlete Association decided that they were short (on) officials, and we have an official shortage across most schools,” Assistant Athletic Director Tony Harris said. “So one way is to get kids interested in officiating at a younger age.”
As a result of the official shortage, SHS has implemented a new course available for students, an officiating class called Elective Physical Education.
According to Harris, Principal Amy Boone received her monthly email from the IHSAA discussing the class. She brought it to the athletic department and everyone was on board.
“We wanted to go and get it started. We knew it was kind of going to be a cluster to start, (but) we were okay with that,” Harris said. “But we also didn’t want to screw up everyone’s schedule and make life crazy for the guidance department.”
SHS received a grant for the second semester of this school year and the next school year to be able to teach this class. While it was unexpected, Harris wanted to hit the ground running.
The class for this semester was only offered for junior and senior student-athletes to test out and see if they were interested, but over time SHS plans to open the course to all students.
Physical education teacher Jacob Harrell was approached by Boone and Assistant Principal Joe Horvath to teach this class. Harrell says they chose him because of the flexibility in his schedule.
Currently, the course is being taught during third and seventh period in the Cardinal’s Nest. Harrell is just introducing the students to the curriculum, going through the basics and the rules.
“We got everything going, and then the company that runs it wasn’t quite ready for us,” Harris said. “We have the class, Mr. Harrell’s teaching it, and we have kids in the class, but we’re not actually doing it yet because the programming wasn’t ready.”
The plan is that for next school year, when the course officially starts, they will use a curriculum called RefReps, which is an online officiating education system that provides referee courses and videos.
Next July, the class will operate with students completing an online portion of the curriculum and also having in-person work. 
“They get about four or five weeks where it’s just straight playing games and just officiating, which is a lot of fun,” Harrell said.
Ultimately, the goal is to interest students in the world of officiating, whether they decide to become a referee or not. Harrell thinks this class can be a way for student-athletes to understand officials and not react negatively toward them.
Harris says his son took the class through RefReps in high school and thought it was very beneficial. Not only did he get his licenses in basketball, soccer and volleyball, but he also learned more about those sports.
“We want you to be an IHSAA official long term, but that’s not necessarily what has to happen. You can take this class just to learn the rules of the sport … ,” Harris said. “There (are) a lot of different, quote-unquote ‘goals’ that you could manage out of it.”
Senior Braylon Koenig is one of the students who is taking the class right now. He says he wanted to take the class because he fell in love with reffing after helping officiate Little League flag football last year.
“I feel like it’s going to be a pretty fun class,” Koenig said. “(I want) just a little side job to make … money on the side, (and) just have a little fun hobby.”
Students who take this course will be able to get licensed for up to three different sports each semester. Even though a student can earn a license for the sport, they are not able to officiate at the varsity level.
“You’re not licensed to the IHSAA, but you have a licensure, and it gets you ready for the test for the IHSAA,” Harris said. “But you can start doing youth league and stuff like that.”
While the opportunity arose quickly for the class to start, staff was ready and wanted to get it going to give student-athletes a new look at officiating.
“I’m excited to actually see them officiate because a lot of times as players, they hate officials, and they think officials are the worst,” Harrell said. “But then once you actually start officiating you’re like, ‘Oh, it a lot harder than it seems.’”
