No referee shortage in Mississippi

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, only two out of every ten game officials return for a third year of officiating.
That stat has many states experiencing a shortage of refs for their games, but the Mississippi High School Activities Association says they aren’t affected.
Executive Director Don Hinton says the MHSAA has over 3,500 referees and officials they use for the league’s 17 sports. The association relies on eight district secretaries throughout the state for recruiting and retaining those officials.
Hinton says it also comes down to incentives and how they’re treated. “I think one thing for people to remember is they’re not professionals and high school officials don’t get instant replay. For us there are a lot of different things there that we think we can continue to do in promoting. We continue to increase the pay. We continue to try to work with, again, our schools, on trying to manage the game events to protect our officials.”
When it comes to pay, Hinton says a ref can make $100 for a football game and that number can go up come playoff time.