INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Indians hosted its last home game of the season Sunday night.
While most fans were focused on the players on the field, one organization at the game was focused on helping a nationwide shortage of workers on the field.
Right now, there is a national umpire and referee shortage.
The average age of sports officials is 57 years old, and many of them are leaving because of poor treatment from fans and parents.
RefReps, a Zionsville-based company, is working to bridge the gap. It provides instruction to high school and college students on what it takes to be a sports official.
"Once people can learn more about officials they can begin to empathize with them more," RefReps founder Kyle Armstrong said. "That's just going to help respect them more and give them a break when they're at sporting events, but then the other side of it is we use point-of-view video, we literally will show you the game through the eyes of the officials. We'll show you how difficult it is."
The organization works with nonprofit Sports Tech HQ to advance the sports tech industry and provides curriculum to hundreds of schools across the country to teach sports officiating as a class.