WACO, Texas (KXXV) — In 2025 I did a story on the shortage of officials in Central Texas. To see if any changes have been made, I went to MCC where a class of Intro to Football is held for new officials.
Watch the full story here:
The class is led by the Vice President of Training out of the Waco chapter, Steve Wenzel. I asked him — why bring it back?
"A number of things. One is that we probably should have never really stopped. The second thing is that we just continually have a shortage of officials. It's not getting any better. We just need to continually keep the funnel full of new officials," Wenzel said.
"We thought that by bringing this class back we might attract more officials," he said.
The classes are held every Monday and it gives the new officials a foundation in the mechanics of football officiating.
"We're basically focusing on where to be on the field, what to be looking at, rather than the rules itself. That's what a lot of new officials are having a problem with is that there's not a retention when it comes to the second season," Wenzel said.
Steve tells me that there still is a shortage of referees across all sports.
These new officials will get first hand experience during scrimmages and that's what he is most looking forward to.
"I really want to see how these guys really use what they've learned in the class when the scrimmages first start and how they progress during the season," he said.
"We'll know more about that when we see them in action, and we hear how they're doing, you know, when we have the weekly meetings during the actual season," Wenzel added.
The Waco Chapter also wants to introduce for the first time ever, an Intro to Basketball officiating class.
