Call goes out in Gorge for high school sports officials

Jamack is actively recruiting football and other sports officials for the upcoming season.

“In general, we’re still hurting,” he said. “Softball was bad. I had nine total umpires for softball (last spring) … For softball, to make sure we’re without any issues, I need about 15. I got lucky this year with scheduling.”

Hood River and The Dalles played in separate conferences this past spring and played many of their games on different days. “When they changed their leagues, it changed the days that they play,” Jamack said.

The Oregon School Activities Association approved increasing the pay for officials by as much as 20% over the next two years (see sidebar at right). A varsity football official calling a Class 5A contest will be paid $90 this season and $100 next fall — plus mileage.

People interested in officiated high school sporting events can register through the Oregon School Activities Association. On the OSAA’s website, www.osaa.gov, there is a click-through on an image of a whistle with the text “Become An Official” on the home page. That takes people to the registration page, which starts the process.

Those interested in officiating in the Gorge can put in their zip code and it links them to the area’s sport-specific commissioners, such as Jamack, the football, baseball, and softball commissioner.

“The best way is to go to the OSAA’s website,” Jamack said. “They put in which sport they’re interested in. It’s not a registration, but kind of a signup. It sends out a notification to the commissioner of that sport.”

Jamack said he will reach out to the people who are interested in officiating football and answer questions — and ask some himself.

“If someone says, ‘Yeah, I want to do it' … they’ll register under the OSAA and they’ll choose the Mid-Columbia Football Association,” he said. “They pay their initial fee, and we start training.”

Football official training begins this month, Jamack said. That training includes watching videos in group meetings. Then first-year football officials have a learn-by-doing, live-action training during the Hood River Valley annual Blue-Gold intersquad football scrimmage in late August. The controlled scrimmage enables rookie officials to work alongside veteran referees.

“They get that game feel but in a very, very controlled environment,” Jamack said. “They’ve got the veteran person there beside them, telling them what to watch for … where to move, how to move, what you’re looking for. We don’t just grab a newbie, throw ‘em a shirt and say ‘best of luck to you.’”

This will be Jamack’s 30th year as an official. He stopped calling basketball games in 2015 because of the wear and tear on his legs, but he still calls football and baseball games. Jamack has been commissioner of the Gorge football and baseball associations for the past six years.