In less than 50 days the sweet sounds of high school football will be back echoing through Southwest Florida. Players and coaches are gearing up for another great season of Friday night lights. However, FNL is in jeopardy of a rebrand.

High school football is experiencing a referee shortage all across Florida and the entire country. Southwest Florida is not immune. The South Gulf Football Officials Association (SGFOA) doesn’t have enough referees for the upcoming season.

The SGFOA is expecting about 75-80 people to sign up to officiate games. However, they need over 100 in order to fulfill all of their games as presently scheduled.

“We need anybody who’s out there watching to come out and help us out,” SFGOA president Adam Weissberger said. “Get into our training classes and learn how to be an official.”

If the group does not get enough officials, Friday night lights might be rebranded to Thursday night lights. Due to the lack of officials, some games might be forced to Thursday nights.

“We want to try to put as many games on Friday night as we possibly can,” Weissberger said. “To do that we need some help.”

Moving the games isn’t ideal and the officials and schools plan on exhausting all options, but in the end, there may not be any other choice.

“It hurts those kids because you don’t get that full effect of the town buying in and supporting you like you would on a Friday night,” second-year referee Ryan Caudill said. “They call it Friday night lights for a reason.”

If you are interested in learning more or signing up to be a referee, you can check out the SGFOA website here.

“If you’re hesitant thinking about doing something like this, I would suggest at least trying it,” Caudill said. “You never know, you might fall in love with it.”

The SGFOA will be holding training classes at the North Fort Myers Rec Center throughout the summer leading up to the first opening kickoff on August 17.