Mike Krueger has plenty of issues to tackle in his first year as CHSAA commissioner.

But the first item on the docket is far from anything new — a shortage of high school sports officials that’s reached crisis levels throughout Colorado and the rest of the country.

According to Michael Book, CHSAA’s assistant commissioner in charge of officials, the Denver metro area is stretched so thin schedulers had to bump 60 football games from Friday nights to Thursdays and Saturdays just to cover everything this fall.

“We don’t have many options at this point,” Book said. “We just have way too many games and not enough officials.”

As it stands entering the 2022 season, Book said there are just 19 crews in the Denver area available to officiate games, which is not enough to accommodate a continually growing high school football calendar.

It’s a story that’s all too common for high school sports associations across the country — and across all seasons.

Approximately 50,000 officials have left the high school ranks nationally since the 2018-19 school year, according to a survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations. That decline is only exacerbated by the increasing number of games and schools.

“The officials shortage has been around for a long time,” Book said, “but with adding teams every year, adding schools every year, losing officials, that gap has just gotten so much bigger. We’re just at the point where we’ve got to do something different.”

In his opening address at CHSAA media day Monday morning at Empower Field, Commissioner Krueger said he’s doing “anything and everything” to recruit more officials to cover games.

Among the specific items his association wants to address: officials’ pay, fan and coach behavior, and how schools host officials.

The pay at the high school level is often cited as an obstacle to retaining officials. And anyone who regularly attends high school sporting events knows how toxic things can get over the course of a highly competitive game. “How can we get crowds to be all-in for their team and not against the other team and not against the officials?” Book said. “That’s a big one.”

The last item — how schools treat officials — is a recent point of emphasis. The idea is to make officials feel welcome when they show up to schools for a game. Given that they often spend several hours on site, small things like providing something to drink or a meal, can go a long way, according to Book.

“We appreciate the cooperation from schools, because we have had schools cooperate, but we need more of that,” he said. “And it’s going to happen in every sport and every season and continue until we get something turned around.”

State football at Empower Field. The Class 4A and 5A state championship football games drew 16,152 spectators to Empower Field last fall, but it remains to be seen whether those games will continue to be played at the Broncos’ home after this season.

The Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, which partners with CHSAA on the event and donates all proceeds to youth sports groups across the state, is down to the final year on a nine-year contract to host the big school title games at Mile High.

It had previously offered the association a new contract to keep the games there through the 2024 season, but no agreement had been reached as of this past week.

New assistant commissioner John Sullivan, who oversees football, wrestling and baseball, said CHSAA is trying to work out something that “works for everybody.”

“The biggest thing is doing what’s best for the kids,” Sullivan said.

The Broncos are “very open” about wanting the games to stay where they’ve been for 16 of the past 17 years (the pandemic year being the lone exception), Sullivan added, with the new Walton-Penner ownership group indicating its support.

Flag football tryout. CHSAA is partnering with the Broncos to start a flag football program this fall that could eventually become a sanctioned sport for the association.

There are already girls who compete in tackle football in Colorado, including Vista Peak Prep senior linebacker/fullback Leilani Caamal, who recently won a national title with the Mile High Blaze. But flag football is an opportunity to connect with even more athletes, Commissioner Krueger said.

The plan is to run it through the piloting process for 2-3 years before eventually making it a sanctioned sport.

More information on officiating for CHSAA can be found here.