By Rodney Haas 

605 Sports 

When a friend needed help, Matt Clark answered the call. 

One Monday night in the middle of the basketball season, Clark agreed he and his crew would officiate a high school basketball game more than 200 miles away in Dupree. 

For Clark, it was a favor to Dupree’s athletic director Christian Christianson, as the school resides in the remote north-central part of South Dakota.  

“He reached out and asked if I could come out a couple of Mondays and help him out to fill a couple of dates,” Clark said. “Me not being smart to say no, we jumped into the vehicles and the way we went.”

Clark and his crew would spend nearly seven hours on the road that day before arriving back home to Huron around 2 a.m. before having to be back for his full-time job at Creative Printing at 6 a.m. 

“I was trying to find a place to take a nap," Clark said jokingly about how the next day at work went. “The sad part of it is, I think I went out Tuesday night and reffed again.”

When it comes to Clark, the routine has been the norm for him for more than 30-plus years. It’s a routine that follows the seasons — during the winter he said he averages around four nights a week officiating. Then when the season turns to spring and summer, Clark can be found behind the plate umpiring a baseball game across the state before turning his attention to the football field come fall. 

“I wasn’t the best athlete growing up but I enjoy being on the basketball court, the football field and the baseball diamond. I just enjoy it,” said Clark, who is set to turn 54 this week. “This is my way of giving back with all that sports gave me through high school.”

Clark added that he’s lost count on how many miles he puts on his vehicle traveling to and from games across the state, but while Clark has no intention of slowing down. For others, age, work and family have caused them to step away from officiating during a time when fewer people are getting into the profession. 

Because of this, it has caused a shortage across South Dakota causing athletic directors to scramble to find people to work games and in some cases forcing football games to be played on Thursday and Saturday nights.   

“It’s not a South Dakota issue we’re dealing with but it’s nationwide. It affects our schools, our student-athletes, our officials, the number of games they have to work,” said Justin Ingalls, statewide officials coordinator for the South Dakota High School Activities Association. “Football alone we have as many games as we do with officiating crews. Everyone is working and that’s not a bad thing.” 

However, the issue becomes what happens when one official needs time off. What happens to that game? 

Ingalls said that schools have been great when it becomes necessary to move a game to another night, but adds that more work is needed to recruit new officials and help retain and support the current officials. 

“I think the better we can equip and better we can support to handle situations, the more likely they are to find it rewarding and stick with it,” Ingalls said. “But it has become a national problem and in South Dakota in general, officiating is looked at as not being fun, we have a lot of people yelling at us. Some of that is true but if we work on it, it’s an absolutely rewarding experience to give back and a lot of officials have done that for many, many years and were not able to get the interest from the people that leave.” 

Ingalls added that the average age of officials is not getting any younger but getting older. 

“Matt (Clark) is one of those guys and there’s many more like Matt where it’s like ‘Hey I’m ready to get out of it and pass this torch. Let’s find someone to pass it to,’” Ingalls said. “We are just finding that there is a lot less interest on who that torch gets passed to.” 

For Clark, the reason for the lack of interest in picking up the referee whistle for the younger generations is simple. 

“A lot of that is sportsmanship,” he said. “It has gotten negative and the young people just don’t want to go out there and get yelled at.”

It’s a sentiment that is not only shared by Clark and Ingalls but with athletic directors as well. 

“Without officials, it’s just recess," said Mitchell High School Activities Director Cory Aadland. “They are a crucial part to what we are doing. It’s all of our jobs to try and help this. That goes from our players to our coaches to our administrators to our fans. 

“We’ve lost sight of the human element of who an official is. They are human and they are going to make mistakes but we have to do a better job treating them like humans.”

Matt Clark officiates Lower Brule vs Crazy Horse in an All Nations semifinal playoff game in November in Lower Brule. (Photo by Rodney Haas/ 605 Sports)
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Ingalls said the activities association has put in a “tremendous effort” to work with schools to help curb unsportsmanlike behavior including the reading of a code of conduct over the PA system before every sporting event. 

Hot Springs activities director Mike Deming said he’s on hand for a majority of home events and said while he’s had little issues with the student sections, it’s fans and parents that can “get a little crazy.” 

However, just being in the vicinity can help address problems when they come up. 

“To give you an example, in our last region volleyball game, one of my fans came down and addressed one of the officials. I went right over there and I’ve known this official for a very long time. I looked over at him and he looked at me and they go, ‘Get over here,’” Deming said. “The parent just looked at me and I told them they needed to leave. This is at the end of the game, the match is over and kids were done shaking hands and this parent was talking to the official.  

“I called the parent the next day and told them that under no circumstances will you ever do that again. ‘Well I was just going to ask them.’ No that’s not appropriate. ‘Well what if I have a question.’ Then figure something out because you are not going to talk to a referee after the game. It’s not going to happen.”

Aadland said it’s easy to Monday morning quarterback a game, but in reality the officials do the best they can and do it well and at a high level.

“The reality is the percentage of calls that officials get right is incredibly high. We always talk about the one or two that they might get wrong and in a lot of cases we think they got it wrong and they didn’t. They are still right,” Aadland said. 

Aadland has taken steps to address poor sportsmanship in Mitchell including talking with coaches and in some cases when MHS had difficulty finding officials for the sub-varsity level games, he sent out a letter to every basketball parent in the program telling them “Our behavior needs to be better.”  

“It really starts with the sub-varsity officials because if you are a brand new official and when you get into it, the game you will start at will be a middle school basketball game or youth basketball and the reality is those are the hardest games to work at. Because the level of basketball is not as good, it’s not as clean so it’s way harder. 

“It’s way harder to referee third and fourth-grade basketball than a college men’s basketball game. I’ve done them all. It’s way harder at the lower level and at the same time you have these parents who are so overly invested in what’s going on that they sit there and berate officials.”

Aadland recalled how he had one official refereeing a middle school game. He said this official came from an officiating family and he had worked three games and did a great job but had one bad experience with a seventh-grade coach and after the game he said ‘I’m done.’ 

“This is someone who came from an officiating family so I was optimistic we could get them into it and keep them in,” he said. “The big thing is what you permit is what you promote. If you are allowing people to berate officials then you're saying that’s okay and you're okay with it and that can’t be the case.

I think we need to do more as administrators. When we have this stuff going on we need to address it. I’ve done it. I’ve walked across the gym and told my parents to knock it off. It’s an uncomfortable situation. We just can’t tolerate the poor behavior by our fans.” 

For Clark, it was the sub-varsity and junior varsity basketball games in Colome and Gregory where he got his start and developed countless lifelong friendships in the process.

“The friendships you create are what makes it worthwhile to go,” he said. “We raze each other all the time and that makes us humble and allows us to want to go night after night after night and do what we do. If you’re going to spend four hours a night with these guys, you better enjoy the friendship one way or the other.”

Clark added that if anyone is interested in becoming an official, they should reach out as it’s a great way to continue to be a part of sports.

“This is a great way to give back,” Ingalls said of officiating. “Contact an official, contact the activities association, contact me, by all means I’ll help anybody if they want to do this. I don’t have the magic bullet (to solve the shortage), but I can tell you, if you are interested, there’s a whole group of us that will support you.”

Luke Andersen discusses a call with the scorer's table during the Lakota Nation Invitational at the Summit Arena in Rapid City in December 2021. (Photo by Rodney Haas / 605 Sports)
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Ingalls said everyone needs to get creative in recruiting new officials while continuing to advocate and make officiating desirable where it will attract people. 

In some parts of the state, this is already happening with an academic program at Elk Point-Jefferson, along with schools having access to an online training program with online simulations called RefReps. 

“There’s tools like that and there’s mentoring programs that we have,” Ingalls said. “I think that is the most underutilized and yet the most effective tool we have is a mentoring program.” 

Deming said he believes a multitiered approach is needed to attract younger people that includes support, education and training and being mentored by an adult official.  

“We did on-field training,” he said. “I would work with two guys and two guys would be on the field for baseball. They would work two innings and then they would get off and we would send the other two back on.” 

Before becoming the activities director in Mitchell, Aadland had officiated basketball and football for over 10 years and agrees it’s a great way for people to stay connected to sports long after their playing days are over. He added that he always looked at officiating as an individual sport where you can go to the highest level if you wanted, it all depends upon just how much work you are willing to put into it.   

When Luke Andersen was looking to get back involved with sports in the mid to late 2000s, he turned to his former high school basketball coach Gary Munsen for advice who suggested he become an official. 

“I laughed at him and thought ‘Really you’re saying that,’” Andersen said. “‘No, a lot of them are good guys.’ So that led me down that path to stay involved in high school athletics.”

Andersen will be entering his 15th season as a basketball referee, but was limited the last two years in games he could officiate after he took over the head coaching duties for the Deuel Cardinals when the school struggled to find a girls basketball coach. 

Andersen said you get a better understanding as a coach, how much time and effort is invested in the kids and at the end of the day he wants them to have every opportunity to compete and hopefully win a game.  

“I don’t know if it makes me officiate differently but it really makes you understand that maybe I did make a mistake on that one or I did make a mistake on that call and that coach is upset and I get it,” he said. “I might have to deal with him a little differently and be honest with him, ‘Hey coach yeah I missed that one.’ ”

At 43, Andersen, who lives in Clear Lake, said one way to get younger officials into the mix is for older officials to be welcoming and to become mentors. 

It’s that type of experience that helped Andersen first get started — having veterans take the time and point out things he needed to work on and then the next night being told he’s doing better in this area, but he needs to work on ‘this’ now.  

 “You always want to make sure you are giving the best effort for sure,” he said. “I was told (by an older official) that it doesn’t matter what game you are working on, that game that you are officiating is the most important game in that kid’s life at that time. It didn’t really register with me until I started coaching.

“It’s a really good progression and I think that is one thing that we as experienced officials can do. Just spend time and be a listening ear for them. A lot of us have seen and heard a lot of different things.”

Recently Andersen got a surprise of his own when his daughter Josie decided she wanted to become an official. 

Josie, who graduated from Deuel in the spring and is currently a freshman at South Dakota State, will officiate sub-varsity games this year and made her officiating debut on Friday, Dec. 6 in Watertown. 

“That would be awesome,” said Andersen of the prospect of officiating a game with his daughter one day. “It’s a pretty cool moment and hopefully I get to share that with her someday and hopefully she sticks with it. That would be a blast.” 

While officiating is a way to stay involved in the game, it can also become a career choice as in the case of Kelly Pfeifer of Mitchell and Pierre’s Brandon Cruse. 

Pfeifer, a graduate of Dakota Wesleyan, is currently in his 15th year as an NCAA Division I referee and has refereed many power conferences and some NCAA tournaments. 

“What Kelly has done is amazing,” Andersen said. “He’s always a phone call away. He’s more than willing to help out with the younger officials. He’s been great at giving back. I think the sky’s still the limit for him. There are some younger people who aspire to get there. Obviously, it takes the right kind of person to put in the work and Kelly did that. I think there are a few others around here that are going toward that path and I wish them best of luck for sure.”

Meanwhile, Cruse is currently working his third season as an umpire in the National Football League after moving up through the college ranks as a Big 12 referee where he officiated the 2021 FBS college football national championship game that featured Ohio State and Alabama. 

“It’s just fantastic opportunities,” Ingalls said of both Pfeifer and Cruse. “Starting early, there’s a lot of opportunities to learn, there’s a lot of people to help you learn and yes there’s an opportunity. Kelly is a fantastic person, has a fantastic career as an official and is still growing and wants to give back. Every chance he gets, he wants to give back to officials and to officiating."

Kelly Pfeifer of Mitchell gets ready to put the ball in play during a Nevada vs Drake NCAA basketball game in December 2023 at the Jack Jones Classic in Las Vegas. (Photo by Rodney Haas / 605 Sports)
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According to Aadland, the shortage is improving and pointed to a recent report from the National Federation of High Schools that showed that South Dakota was one of eight states with an increase in registered officials.  

“We are doing some good things, but the challenge is we were so far behind that there’s a lot to make up,” Aadland said.  “As we continue to work though, we still have an aging population of officials and we’re going to continue to lose those officials as they age out, so we’re going to have to keep replacing them. We’re making headway on it, but it’s still a constant battle.” 

For Clark and Andersen, the reason why they keep doing it year after year is very simple, it’s for the kids

“You’re trying to help kids and I look at officiating the same way,” Andersen said. “I’m not out there for mom and dad, I’m out there for the kids. I want the kids to have fun and enjoy an activity that I had a lot of fun when I was going through it.”

As for Clark, he said he has no plans to quit anytime soon.
“What I tell people is when I quit having fun, that’s when I’m going to get out,” he said of when the day comes he decides to hang up his referee whistle. “That’s my philosophy. When I stop having fun, that’s when it becomes a job. I’m going to go until my body gives out.”