At a recent boys high school soccer game between Brewer and Waterville, Brewer Coach Mike Jeffrey had words with an official who, Jeffrey believed, was unable or unwilling to cover the ground necessary to officiate the game.

“I said to him, `you’re not working out there,’ ” Jeffrey recalled.

During a schoolboy football game involving Rockland and Maine Central Institute last weekend, a Rockland ballcarrier got around the corner only to find his path blocked by a portly official who was trying to get out of the way of the play. The official couldn’t. The ballcarrier was forced to cut to avoid a collision.

Isolated instances? Part of the game? Or are a significant number of the officials who oversee Maine’s interscholastic athletic contests letting themselves go physically to the point where their lack of conditioning is affecting play?

“Some people are in really horrible shape,” answered Jeffrey, speaking from the soccer perspective. “They’re just lazy and don’t do much work. They’re making calls from 70 yards away. Others are very fit… You’d rather have the others, but it doesn’t work out that way.”

Former Old Town High School football coach Jim Walsh said the physical condition of officials is a legitimate concern.

“We never lost a game because of the physical condition of an official, but there were times I felt people made calls when they were out of position and their conditioning might have played a role in that,” said Walsh.

“There’s always someone who could stand to lose a few pounds,” admitted Tom Roberts, secretary of the Bangor Chapter of the Maine Association of Football Officials. “That is true. But being overweight doesn’t make someone a bad official. Sometimes there’s the perception a guy who is overweight is out of position and he’s not.”

It is a delicate subject. High school officials don’t work games for a living. They are, in general, doing it out of love for the sport while supplementing their main incomes with $40 to $50 game checks plus another $10, $15, or $20 in mileage money.

It’s enough money for coaches and players to expect officials to know the rules. But is it enough to expect officials to conform to higher standards of physical fitness and appearance than, say, the average fan?

“That’s a tough question,” summarized Peter Webb, commissistate’s basketball officials. “These officials aren’t pros. At the same time, what they do is important to the kids and the community, so they have to be aware of the image they present.”

Kids and community members who see an official with a jiggly waistline and wonder what standards of physical fitness, if any, must be met in order to work interscholastic games should know such standards do exist. But only in some sports. The standards vary, and they are generally not enforced.

Soccer

Bryan Artes, 44, is in his 19th year of officiating boys and girls high school soccer in Eastern Maine. Based at Penobscot Valley High School in Howland, he is the rules interpreter for the Eastern Maine Board of Soccer Officials.

Artes points out there are physical standards a soccer official is supposed to meet. These include:

-Running 12 minutes and covering a specified minimum distance based on age.

-Completing a 50-yard dash in between 7.5 and 8.5 seconds, depending on age.

-Completing a 25-yard staggered run in an alotted time, again, depending on age.

“They have to take the physical fitness test, but it’s not in the constitution they have to pass it,” said Artes, pointing out the flaw in the system. “It’s because of legalities. We were told at one time if something happened to someone while they were taking the test, we could be sued.”

Lack of teeth in the standards is exactly what gripes Jeffrey, leading him to believe some officials who don’t work hard enough physically have been allowed to slide through the system. The Brewer coach spent 12 years as a soccer official before switching jobs. He believes that gives him a unique insight on the situation.

“A few years ago they were passing everyone. There were people I lapped five times on the (distance run) test. That’s a problem,” said Jeffrey.

Artes said one reason that some out-of-shape individuals are officiating boils down to the need for enough officials to work all of the varsity high school games in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties.

“We still need good, quality officials. Our numbers are slowly increasing, but it takes awhile to move to the high school varsity level. It takes a lot of games and hard work,” said Artes, noting there are approximately 55 officials on his board to work varsity games. Younger officials must work junior varsity and junior high games before moving up.

Artes stressed that carrying a few extra pounds is not enough reason to assume an official is inadequate.

“There may be some officials who are not in as good of shape as other officials, but they can make up for it in field positioning,” he said. “Experience on the field counts for a lot.”

Football

At age 45, Tom Roberts has 20 years of football officiating under his belt. Unlike soccer, Roberts said there are no physical tests a football official must take in order to work.

There is, however, a system that football officials use to rate each other that incorporates “hustle” and “appearance.” Roberts said those attributes can directly affect the level and number of games an official works.

“Appearance and hustle go hand in hand,” said Roberts, one of 36 officials in the Bangor chapter. “Say there are six games on a particular day. That means there are 36 officials going for 24 spots. If someone is getting a bad rating, they don’t work.”

This may work in theory. But Roberts said with the increasing prevalence of Friday night games, more and more of those 36 officials are being pressed into service.

“Ideally, we need a couple of more good officials,” said Roberts. “Not just bodies. They can get you into trouble. You need good officials who know the rules.”

Roberts said knowing the rules can make up for physical shortcomings, especially since there is less running involved in officiating a football game than many fans or even coaches may believe.

“Each member of the (four-man) crew has a zone to cover. The referee has to go from sideline to sideline. The umpire from hashmark to hashmark. The line judge and lineman have to be in pretty good shape to run down field on passing plays. But in high school the average pass play is 10 to 20 yards,” Roberts said.

Still, extra weight can be a hindrance to a football official. Andy Constantine, 38, has been working high school games for 19 years. When he broke in, he weighed 260 pounds. He has since lost nearly 40 pounds.

“I think you’re more effective the better condition you’re in,” said Constantine, who works for the Bangor Daily News advertising department. “You feel you can run faster and jump higher. We stress the fact an official should be in both good physical and mental condition. Although it’s an avocation, coaches and kids rely on us to be in position to do the job.”

Basketball

As state commissioner of basketball and an official himself for 32 years, Peter Webb has worked with or seen many of the 500 active officials in Maine.

Webb can’t state for sure that there are no officials who might be either overweight or aging to the extent it affects their performance. But he believes basketball has done a superior job of upholding physical standards for its officials.

“We have a rating system where those types of things are going to surface,” said Webb. “If the official doesn’t make the required effort, it’s going to affect their work schedule.”

The rating system to which Webb refers is self-administered annually and includes a five-point physical fitness section that calls for:

-A physical exam by a doctor.

-Filling out a health questionnaire.

-Listing preseason conditioning efforts.

-A timed 1 1/2-mile run.

-A vision exam.

Individual officials can choose not to complete the section. But if they “Nine out of 10 would have it reflected in their work assignments,” said Webb.

Fitness of officials seems to be of less concern to basketball coaches than those in other sports.

“I don’t see it as an issue,” said John Bapst coach and athletic director Bob Cimbollek. “Personally, I’d rather have an older official who knows the game and might be a little slower physically than an official in great shape who doesn’t know the game.”

Despite such attitudes, Webb said basketball officials remai Despite such attitudes, Webb said basketball officials remain conscious of the way they are perceived by the fans and participants.

“We have enough problems officiating with the public,” said Webb. “We talk about removing all the irritants we can. We are conscious of long hair, beards and an out-of-shape body. But you can’t tell officials in this day and age `you can’t do that.’ It’s something they have to find out for themselves.”