Michigan high schools are seeing a shortage of athletic officials and referees.
The Grand Rapids Press reports that the Michigan High School Athletic Association has seen the number of registered officials drop from 12,400 to about 10,000 in the past decade. Good economic conditions means there's less people looking to officiate games for the extra paycheck.
Jim Haskins is the president of the Ottawa-Kent Conference, which has almost 50 schools across Grand Rapids and Muskegon. He says there's a shortage of officials in all sports.
There are almost 100 officials associations in the state and many are working aggressively to recruit new officials.
Mark Bauer is the president of the Midland Athletic Officials Association. He says the association has approached Northwood University students and area high school students about becoming officials.
