The Marietta High School football game originally scheduled for November 1 has been
changed to Thursday, October 31. The event, which was scheduled to be played at
McClain Stadium, and to include Senior Night festivities, will still host Marlow and honor
seniors – it’ll just happen a day earlier. On Halloween.
Although scheduling conflicts sometimes arise and games must be changed, the reason
for this change isn’t something that frequently happens: no available officials.
“Rescheduling the Marlow game is completely out of our control,” said Athletic Director
Tanica Anderson. “There is an extreme shortage of officials, and we had no choice. It
was either reschedule the game or cancel it altogether.”
Officials for sporting events in Oklahoma and across the nation are in short supply.
Many officials who have been covering baseball, basketball, football, and other
secondary sports, have been doing so for years and they’re retiring, and there aren’t
enough younger people going into the field to make up for the numbers who are leaving.
Cited as the main reason why nobody wants to be the guy/girl wearing the black and
white striped shirt: abuse. Yelling, cursing, and threats from fans – a great many of them
parents – are a regular occurrence, and most people do not believe that the pay is
worth putting up with that kind of behavior.
Coaches and athletic directors across the state report that scheduling officials has
become increasingly difficult, if not impossible. And as the demand for officials has
remained constant, if not increased, and the supply is dwindling, that means plenty of
rescheduled or cancelled games.
It’s a problem that no one likes, but no one seems to have a solution for. And it’s a
problem that resulted in Marietta’s Halloween game.
“Obviously, it’s not ideal,” admitted Anderson, “but both teams still want to play, so we
will make the best of it. Hopefully we will still have the community support that we’ve
always had.”
Little Indians will definitely need to schedule their Trick-or-Treating early, so they’ll have
plenty of time to get to the stadium before kickoff.