FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OCT. 3, 2023

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association introduced the newest addition to its staff on Tuesday with the hiring of Supervisor of Officials Licensing Scott Bottoms.

"Scott Bottoms brings an abundance of experiences to this newly created position within the Association" said KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett. "He excelled on the courts, and frankly, in the business world, but more importantly, he brings the right demeanor and enthusiasm to the position.

"He will be vital in advancing our implementation of several new initiatives to help garner more officials and retain many of those having second thoughts about continuing with today's contest environment," Tackett said. "And though the KHSAA does not employ officials or supervise their game-by-game activities, we will be able to use his expertise to streamline processes and make a concerted effort to ensure no contests fail to be played due to a lack of officials. This move will pay near immediate dividends."

The Supervisor of Officials Licensing is a new position added to the KHSAA staff, created to oversee the officials licensing process that manages the records of nearly 4,000 contest officials and nearly 80 assigners across the Commonwealth. In addition, Bottoms will be charged with the final implementation strategy for the introduction of RefReps into Kentucky schools and colleges, a turnkey product to integrate officiating education into the curriculum and help bolster the Associations' roster of officials. He will also be available to work with assigning secretaries, policy boards, officials and school administrators.

For complete details, visit: https://khsaa.org/10-03-23-khsaa-hires-longtime-official-scott-bottoms-as-supervisor-of-officials-licensing/

How does this hire help officiating numbers and quality over all the KHSAA sanctioned sports? 

1 hour ago, Breds82 said:

How does this hire help officiating numbers and quality over all the KHSAA sanctioned sports? 

Scott is one of the most respected referees in Kentucky. He’s been the assigning secretary for the 12th Region for several years, a region that has quite a good mix of older, medium, and younger officials. I don’t know if he can improve numbers across the board but there’s no one I’d rather have doing the job than him. 

They need to increase the pay and support for officials. Until they do that numbers are going to continue to decline.