The high school soccer season is scheduled to begin Dec. 1, but it's unclear who will officiate the games.
The San Diego Section announced yesterday that its members have failed to reach an agreement with the officials association, leaving conferences and schools to fend for themselves in lining up referees.
“You'll probably see me and others working out there,” said La Costa Canyon Athletic Director John Labeta. “It's going to be very difficult to find refs. We should have made a decision to postpone the start of the season until we get a better resolution.”
The High School Sports Officiating Coalition, which represents the schools, has offered to increase the officials' pay by $1 a game to $58 for varsity matches and $52 for JV and freshmen matches.
The Southern California Soccer Officials Association originally asked for a $5 per-game increase over the next three years and later reduced that to $3 a game.
“It really bothers us how the officials handled this whole situation, that they tried to hold high schools hostage to meet their rates,” said Jerry Schniepp, director of athletics for the Sweetwater district. “We're going to have games.”
Bob Patterson, president of the officials association, criticized the coalition for what he called a failure to negotiate. The coalition has not changed its position in the past 15 months, Patterson said in a statement.
Schniepp said South County schools will try to find referees from adult leagues and youth soccer leagues to work the high school games. He said the officials' rate demand would cost the Sweetwater district about $15,000. Schniepp said the soccer officials got the same offer officials in other sports received.
One proposal made this week called for officials to be paid $60 for varsity matches and $50 for JV and freshmen.
Patterson said officials approved as long as nonvarsity games were reduced from 80 to 60 minutes.
Dennis Ackerman, commissioner of the San Diego Section, said “a majority” of athletic directors and coaches did not accept the 60-minute proposal and preferred 70-minute games.
The coalition has expressed concern that meeting the demands of the soccer officials will open the floodgates for increases in other sports.
La Jolla Country Day boys soccer coach Jerry Fleischhacker criticized both sides for failing to resolve the issue.
“I don't understand why they waited until October if they knew that officials weren't going to accept it,” Fleischhacker said.
Bill Stout, president of the coalition, said he didn't expect the issue to drag on.
“We thought (the officials) would see it like we did,” Stout said. “We thought we had a fair proposal. We thought it would work out.”
Staff writer Chris Moran contributed to this report.
