Vince Kristosik got his start in refereeing with the Southern Nevada Officials Association as a freshman at UNLV. He signed up for a one-credit officials class, with many of the top high school referees in Las Vegas serving as guest instructors.
A former athlete, Kristosik was hooked on joining the association’s ranks partially so he could stay in the game. Kristosik got started by working local freshmen football games. About five years later, he earned his stripes and received the promotion to the varsity level. He recalls the excitement of finally being under the Friday night lights.
“Most officials aren’t going to get rich off officiating. We have to love what we do,” says Kristosik, now the association’s president. “I love being on the field, still love being on the field.”
Green Valley students Alijah Vitale, left, and Richard Aiono work as the chain crew during the Henderson Bowl.
The officials who join Kristosik on Friday nights—and during the week calling volleyball and soccer matches—are now taking a much different, and quicker, path. One person reached out on a Monday night seeking to get started with the association and was working as a varsity football line judge a few days later.
That’s because, the association says, the pandemic has gutted its roster of officials and such game-day staff as clock operators and the chain crew, shrinking from a rotation of 292 in 2019—the last football season before COVID-19— to 180 working September 24. The group needs about 300 to be fully staffed on Friday nights, when games are called at various levels throughout the region.
Reasons officials don’t return vary, Kristosik says. Some are retirees, unwilling to risk exposure to the coronavirus for a few extra dollars. Others have taken new jobs and can’t break away by game time. And some embraced other forms of recreation during the 18-month sports shutdown.
The shortage has gotten so bad that the association has been using parents and student volunteers to run chain crews, and has had to place folks with little experience onto the big, Friday-night stage.
For football, games require five officials on the field, three on the chain crew and two on the clock. In soccer, which usually has a three-referee crew, some lower -level games are being staffed by one official. The association’s staff juggling act of all games has become so dire that Kristosik sends out this message to local residents: “We need officials to make sure games are played.”
The good news? Becoming a referee is a relatively easy process.
First, one needs to register as an official with the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, the governing body of prep sports here. There’s a $42.50 fee to register, payable by debit or credit card. A Clark County criminal background check must be passed. And then it’s time to purchase a uniform and whistle, grab a rule book and begin becoming intimate with the regulations. Referees serve as independent contractors.
“Once that background check clears, we’ll start assigning them games,” Kristosik says. “We are so short, they are on the field right now with little or no training.”
Thomas Donoff, who started working with the association last month, previously served as a college football official in California. But he had been out of the industry for nearly a decade, only returning to the field to help the association with its staffing issues.
“That first game, I had butterflies just like a rookie,” Donoff says. “But after the first quarter, and after I got my first foul in, it all came back.”
The association usually meets on Sundays for field training at Durango High School, but those sessions have moved to video conference because of the pandemic. Attendees review video of calls from the previous week’s games, discussing everything from where to stand during a play to the specifics of a holding penalty.
Those get-togethers also represent a chance to socialize with fellow officials. After all, most aren’t calling games for the modest fee—$71.50 as the lead official for varsity football, as little as $27 to work the clock.
Rather, it’s all about the love of the game, Kristosik stresses. “It’s not a bad way to spend a Friday night,” he says.
Want to referee? Start by filling out an interest form at snoaofficials.com.
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