While baseball might be the sport Dade Manley stars in at Midlothian High, his passion for football wouldn’t allow him to stay off the gridiron. So, he found his way on as an official.

“I started officiating last August.” Manley, an incoming senior, said. “I love football and have been surrounded by it for a long time.”

His lifelong exposure to football had a significant impact on his decision to attempt officiating in the first place.

Dade Manley's father, Durwood Manley, has worked as a sports official for more than 30 years. The elder Manley worked with the NFL for five years as a replay official after officiating other sports like basketball and football.

“At Lubbock Christian University, I had a professor who was a college official,” Durwood said. “After that, I gave it a try and 32 seasons later I’m still doing it.”

Even if the Manley family has a strong enthusiasm for football and sports officiating, that doesn’t seem to be the case around Texas.

According to the Texas Association of Sports Officials, from 2017 to 2021, the association lost 12 percent of its officials, or roughly 2,000 members.

Sports officials leave for a wide variety of reasons. Many of them decided not to return after the pandemic in 2020. But that was then. What about now?

“There’s a lot of reasons why officials leave the profession and it’s gotten worse over the last 10 years.” Durwood said. “There are more officials over the age of 50, many of them age out. Then the population has been growing, which means new schools and more kids, but not enough officials to cover these new schools.”

A 2017 study done by the National Association of Sports Officials showed that 57 percent of people believe that treatment of sports officials is getting worse.

This year, measures have been taken to protect officials and make an effort to get more people back into the profession.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 2484 on June 13, 2023, which prohibits any behavior that would threaten the safety of a sports official or referee.

Verbal abuse of sports officials has been going on for years. And there have been precautions taken to support our sports officials. But the real question is what do people need to know before getting into the profession and how do we bring people back to it?

The age demographic for Texas sports officials is typically around 50. According to TASO, about 10 percent of football officials are under 30. A younger generation of officials is needed now more than ever. TASO has been attempting to reach more young officials like Dade through their START (Students Today are Referees Tomorrow) program.

“I did not work through the program because I was recruited by my dad,” Dade said. “But it’s a great program where kids with interest in becoming officials can submit their names and TASO will contact them with information on local chapters that can help them get started. It’s a great way for players to stay involved with the game.”

“Not only is it a great way for kids who stop playing but love football to stay connected to the game, but also to make a little bit of money,” Durwood said.

If you do decide to give it a try, be patient.

“More people need to be patient with the process of moving up.” Durwood said. “It takes time, and some people get frustrated because they don’t advance in the profession as quickly as they would like. But we do need people. If people don’t get frustrated with the process and if they can control their game environment, they will do fine. They just have to fight through hard stuff and be mentally prepared for the job.”