Dan Murphy said he's been recruiting referees for high school football in southwest Missouri for a long time, but no year has been more difficult than this one.
The need for officials has gotten to the point where the Southwest Missouri Football Officials' Association and Joplin Football Officials Association have asked some teams to move games from Friday to Saturday nights due to a lack of officials.
Lamar and Springfield Catholic won't start their season under the Friday night lights. They're going to have to wait another 24 hours to play on Saturday.
"I've done this for about 15 years," Murphy said in a phone interview with the News-Leader.