2024
OFFICIALS NEEDED FOR HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
“We are aging out,” stated Trinity Valley Volleyball Official Association (TVVOA) president Michele Bradshaw. This simple statement describes the status of game officials throughout scholastic sports.
What Bradshaw went on to describe was a majority of officials in the 50+ age bracket. Counterbalancing this is a second age bracket of youthful officials – mostly college students or recent graduates.
“We are overjoyed at the young people joining the officiating ranks,” Bradshaw commented, “but what we find is that after college, when the normal pressures of life arise and folks begin to raise families, that the officiating often falls by the wayside.”
Volleyball fans will see a familiar face this year in area matches. Shylah Kratzmeyer, Mineola class of ‘23, has joined the ranks of the officials and begun calling matches.
Kratzmeyer represents one of those young officials who are leveraging their knowledge and experience in high school sports to earn a stipend while attending college, and to give back to a sport that they love.
Bradshaw offered enthusiastic support for Kratzmeyer joining the fellowship. “Shylah is an absolute delight to bring into the group. It took only a minute to speak with her to know that she would be an excellent official.”
If scholastic sports continue to flourish in sports‑rich East Texas, it will, in the long run, be thanks to the willingness of people like Kratzmeyer who step‑up to call games.
A look at some numbers may be beneficial. The TVVOA provides officials for 35 schools in a large district which stretches from Lone Oak to Oakwood (just shy of Buffalo). The chapter dispatches 65 officials to cover this area.
“We are a small chapter,” Bradshaw stated, “large officiating chapters, in metro areas, may have hundreds of officials on their roster.”
