Becoming a sports referee looks like a thankless job.

Emotions during a high school basketball game or football contest can run pretty high, and there is never any shortage of sideline second-guessers who — for at least a short time on a Friday or Saturday night — suddenly become experts on the rules and regulation of a particular sport. Those self-proclaimed experts are never hesitant to let the men and women in the stripes know it either.

Yet, high school and middle school sports are the lifeblood of many small communities across rural Eastern Oregon. Each game represents a minor gathering of the tribe where parents and relatives can convene to watch their son or daughter or grandson or granddaughter or cousin compete against other youth.

For those games to continue, for that traditional part of our life to prosper, we need men and women who will officiate those contests.

Right now, that’s a problem.

In a recent story by our sister publication, George Gillette, the Blue Mountain Basketball Officials Association commissioner, indicated there has been a decade-long drop in the number of basketball officials, and the shortage is beginning to make an impact.

Gillette’s association can usually expect 45-50 basketball officials to work games across the region, but last spring the number dropped below 20. That meant games were rescheduled or even canceled.

Lack of sports officials may not seem like an urgent news story to rival a Middle Eastern war or the federal budget, but for those of us who live in the small towns across Eastern Oregon, the absence of the men and women in the stripes is sort of important.

Sure, all kinds of arguments can be made about whether the proper emphasis for high school youth should be shifted from sports to academics, and there is plenty of room for debate. Yet that isn’t the issue at hand.

High school sports play a big role in our lives, whether we know it or not, and to know that games could be canceled this season because there are not enough officials is troubling.

It may be a difficult job with low pay but we need men and women in our area to step up and get involved. And we need to remember as we watch those games and hear the calls of the officials that they are us, men and women from our region who are essentially donating time to help.