The West Linn Lions host the Tualatin Timberwolves in the OSAA Class 6A Football State Championship Semifinals Nov. 26, 2021, at Hillsboro Stadium in Hillsboro.

Oregon’s Class 6A football state champion West Linn Lions will open their title defense season on Aug. 31. A Thursday.

Such is the new reality as organizations across Oregon work to replenish an ongoing referee shortage across all sports — a trend shared nationwide.

Thursday Night Lights is not a new occurrence. In fact, West Linn’s season-opener against Nelson is one of several scheduled midweek football games in the 2023 season.

The good news: Organizations such as the Portland Football Officials Association (PFOA) are making a concerted effort to ramp up recruitment efforts. Early returns have been fruitful. So while this fall is set to play out similarly to last — when a host of sporting events were rescheduled, including eight football games in Week 1 alone — strategies are being implemented to restock the pipeline of new officials.

Rob Fuller is the chair of the PFOA’s recruitment committee. His primary focus over the past year has been to construct a framework to keep both prospective and current referees engaged during the offseason.

“A big question that we asked ourselves — a challenge that we had to address — was, ‘what do we do with people that inquire too late in the season, or early in the offseason?’” he said.

Fuller helped implement bi-monthly meet and greets throughout the offseason, providing an opportunity for prospective officials to get face-to-face interactions, meet longtime officials and receive answers to any questions they may have.

The PFOA team also began offering digital offseason training which leads to swifter acclimatization of officials.

“You have to strike while the iron is hot,” he said.

Fuller said they’ve seen a 200-300% increase in the number of both new, and lead, football officials. It’s a welcomed bump after the organization reported last year that it was down roughly one-third of its officials since 2019.

Jack Folliard, the Executive Director of the Oregon Athletic Officials Association said they recorded an 8% overall bump in new officials across all sports last season, although 2023 data won’t be available until after the beginning of the fall season, when numbers are finalized.

Aiding in the recruitment efforts of officials throughout all states are across-the-board pay bumps. In October 2022, the OSAA approved raises that increased the game fees of all officials in each of the next two seasons. Varsity football officials working 6A, 5A, and 4A games will make $90 per event in 2023-24 — not including any reimbursements for commute mileage — and $100 in 2024-25. Officials in other fall sports, such as volleyball, will see a raise of $76 to $84.25, and soccer $80 to $88.75.

“I think our state is doing a good job of trying to recruit people,” said West Linn football coach Jon Eagle, “But I think all of us have to take some responsibility and understand that coaches in all sports (hold some of the blame) for our predicament… If it was good for (officials), we’d have plenty of numbers.”

In hopes of cultivating more positive relationships between officials and the coaches, players and parents at games which they work, the OSAA implemented the “One Voice” rule last year.

The practice requires each team to select a single person to speak when voicing any concerns.

Added Eagle: “I always say you can be one of four things. You can be a player, a coach, a ref, or a fan. You pick. But when you try to do two, you’re wrong.”

Officials say they’ve seen vast improvement in the wake of the rule’s adoption last season.

“I’ve been involved in officiating all over the United States in my career,” Folliard said, “And Oregon I think is great in terms of leading the way and doing the best they can to keep the sideline abuse to a minimum.