There’s something about Friday nights and high school football that seem just so darn American. The air that gets cooler and more crisp as the season rolls along, the marching bands and cheerleaders, and trees changing colors to provide a great backdrop. What’s not to love about it?

But make no mistake, Friday nights on the gridiron are disappearing, and sooner than anyone really wants to talk about.  

How is this possible? Because it’s getting harder and harder to find men and women who are willing to wear the black and white striped shirts of an official.

And it gets worse. It’s not just football refs; there’s a growing shortage of officials in all sports, not just in out little corner of the world, but across the nation.

Seriously, why would anyone want to take on that job?

“There’s no doubt you’ve got to have some thick skin,” former volleyball and basketball official Kirk Robinson of Akron said. “You have to be willing to put in your time and get the experience.”

If it were just yelling, that could be handled. But whether it’s just the mental picture people have of referees needing a police escort or the reality of incidents involving officials and basically everyone else in the crowd when a call goes against a favorite team, there’s a certain perception out there.

I’ve been to junior high athletic events where the refs are expected to take big-league abuse. The thing is, just as the players are starting out learning to play a new sport, the refs are learning it takes more than a fan’s knowledge of the game to be effective.

Robinson did say that a few isolated incidents, regardless of the publicity they get, shouldn’t sway someone from becoming a referee.

“Some of the young, aspiring officials go to a game where everything’s perfect, or they go to another game where there’s poor sportsmanship; not just coaches, but fans, everything,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the good stuff that happens doesn’t always make it into the newspaper or on T.V.; it’s the bad stuff that gets covered. There’s plenty of good to outweigh the bad that ever happens in a high school contest. But it does happen; there’s going to be isolated incidents that get talked about.

“The IHSAA has worked very hard on sportsmanship over many years, and I think they’ve been successful. But they can’t control isolated instances.”

At least not until it’s over. Remember the aftermath of Warsaw’s double overtime boys basketball regional win over East Chicago Central? ECC coach Pete Trgovich said some, ahem, very unsportsmanlike things after the game and in the press.

Yes, the IHSAA stepped in, and yes, Trgovich resigned. But a fat lot of good it did while the incident was taking place.

*****

So, let’s get back to Friday nights, and the lack of refs for football.

In addition to what the National Federation of High Schools calls “a culture of abuse aimed at officials across all sports,” the organization cites the aging of the current referees, the increase of travel teams and clubs that are looking for refs, lack of pay, and “a dramatic shift in time constraints on younger men and women who used to gravitate to the avocation.”

In other words, people feel like they have better things to do with their time. And that’s been an issue in all kinds of industries for a while now.

One athletic director, outside of the Times-Union coverage area and in a casual conversation, said he spent a part of his summer booking football officials for the 2022 season. He said that, especially with older refs, once they’ve given their word that they’ll work a game, they’ll do everything they can to keep it.

So why not just move a few football games to Saturdays? Because those who love to officiate often have a college game to work.

So before fans vent their angst toward the folks in the stripes, maybe they ought to consider how Tuesday Night Lights sound? Or homecoming on a Monday night.  Or taking 13 weeks to play a nine-game season.

At this point, all the options are on the table. Because sooner than we’d like to think, we’ll be looking at Friday night football as a treat.

This column appears periodically. The author’s views don’t necessarily reflect those of the Times-Union.