A lack of referees had led to game dates being switched for all sports. Referees have been quitting due to verbal abuse from players and parents, or retiring of old age due to not being able to keep up with the needs of the sport.
The homecoming game was supposed to be on a Friday, but had to be switched to Thursday, Oct. 24. This wasn’t the only event that needed to be changed. For the past few years, there has been an increasing amount of referee shortages.
“Games have to be shifted around to different days for football,” athletic director Timothy Faulkner said. “Each school has to play either a Thursday game or a Saturday game because all the schools in the area cannot play on Fridays because of the lack of referees.”
Each school from the Sequoia Union High School District had to choose one game to switch due to the referee shortage. Since the homecoming dance was on a Saturday, the school decided to switch the football game to Thursday.
“It was our turn to switch to a Thursday,” Faulkner said. “We have not had to switch a game yet, all the other schools have had to, and we were the last ones and so it was our turn, unfortunately.”
This shift in scheduling reflects the growing demands and challenges faced by teams trying to navigate with fewer referees, according to Faulkner. Faulkner additionally shared how the team was fortunate to avoid changes up until the homecoming game
“We only have one game that was switched, well, we had a Sequoia game on a Saturday,” junior football player Jack Bouman said. “It just kind of throws off your whole routine because every practice you start at this time and you practice for this many days you kind of developed a routine.”
For players like Bouman, schedule changes can disrupt a carefully plotted routine that most players rely on. He explained the consistency of practice times and game days is crucial to maintaining both physical and mental readiness; even a seemingly small shift can have effects on both preparation and performance.
“Football games when it’s on a Thursday, I can never go and it makes it such a problem,” junior Katherine Jasinskyj said. “There are a lot of fall sports on Thursday, [and if] it’s a game day or practice and you can’t really go anywhere after since we have school the next day.”
Jasinskyj helps highlight a common frustration for many student-athletes: the challenge of balancing multiple commitments when game schedules overlap with Thursday, and thus becoming a crowded day for fall sports athletes. Finding themselves torn between supporting school teams and managing their own responsibility, student-athletes often have little room for social or personal time after practice when games are on weekdays.
“Friday games are usually fun because you actually get to go out,” Jasinskyi said. “You can’t do that on a Thursday.”
