For 50 years, Roger Stevens has been officiating on a high school football field in Virginia.
Stevens says, "50 years, time is a good milestone, time to probably hang it up, and let some of the younger guys come in."
But the younger crowd isn't showing up in Virginia or Tennessee, and often the ones that do, leave after just a few years.
"They’ll come, maybe stay a year, maybe two years and then they just bail out. We’re probably 60-75% older officials," says Stevens.
The issue leading to referee shortages in both states.
Appalachian Football Officials Association assigner Christopher Davis says, "we just haven’t had the numbers of young people come out, versus the number of 25-30 year veterans step away from the game."
Davis is entering is his first year assigning officials for Virginia High School League (Appalachian Region), which he says has been a tall task. Pay for referees which ranges around $100 in both Virginia and Tennessee, and ridicule from fans can push some away according to officials.
Davis said, "when you put all of those together, I think a lot of people question is this something I want to get into?"
Matt Gillespie with the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association says the referee shortage has been a growing issue, leading to gameday changes.
"Almost every single school was basically told they were going to have a game on Thursday," said Gillespie.
While the VHSL did not do that, many teams in Virginia have had to shift to play Thursday games due to not having enough refs some weeks.
Davis says, "we have 85 officials signed up, week five we have 17 games on the slate, so that's 85 officials, and then you have 7-10 blocked out on that date."
At the end of the day, referees like Roger hope more people will put on the stripes to help keep the lights on Friday, and not Thursday.
"Do it for the schools and kids," says Stevens.
If you would like more information on how to become a referee for the TSSAA or VHSL, visit their websites.