Shortage of referees forces changes to football schedules in Montgomery County.

by Cara Farr ‘27

Last year, MCPS struggled to have the proper number of five to seven referees for varsity football games, and occasionally as few as three refs officiated a game. In order to combat the referee shortage throughout the county, MCPS required each high school this season to host one football game on a Thursday night.

According to Athletic Director Jason Woodward, each high school had to choose one game to be played on a Thursday night. He said that due to a combination of different factors such as opening night, the homecoming game, and senior night, Sherwood selected to host a nearby rival, Magruder, for their Thursday night home game on September 19.

However, the Warriors ended up having a Thursday night game on four different weeks this season. Two of these occurred in the second and eighth week of the season, due to Paint Branch and Walter Johnson choosing to host Sherwood for their Thursday night home games. Sherwood also had to play a Thursday night game against Damascus on October 10 due to the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur beginning on that Friday, October 11.

Since Paint Branch and Walter Johnson chose their home games against Sherwood for their Thursday night games, The Warriors had one less practice and prep day before those two weeks. Sherwood ended up losing 21-20 against Paint Branch on Thursday, September 12. “We also have a choice to play on Saturday afternoons instead of Thursday nights but that adds more stress to the players and coaching staff to plan for the following week since you would lose a practice and prep day,” said Woodward.

However, there are similar disadvantages to playing on Thursday nights. “It’s definitely harder to come fully prepared for a game when we can’t have our four practices that week,” explained senior captain Brendan Heyer, who explained that the football team has to use time more efficiently in practices because they have to fit four practice plans into only three days.

Heyer mentioned that the increased number of Thursday night games is not ideal for the students and for the players. After some of the games, fans and players might not get home until past eleven and possibly even later depending on where the game had taken place, and the traffic after the games. “It sucks having to wake up early the next morning all bruised up and having to limp around the halls from the game the night before,” he said.

Unfortunately for students, staff, and athletes, Thursday night games are something they can expect in Montgomery County, and even across the state for the foreseeable future. ‘Thursday Night Lights’ will be a part of high school football unless counties are able to secure more officials.