Officials association never made aware of prep game
No officiating crew showed up for Friday’s season-opening high school football game between Canyon Springs and Spring Valley because the Southern Nevada Officials Association was never notified of the game’s existence, SNOA commissioner Marc Ratner said Wednesday.
The game was canceled around 7:45 p.m. Friday — about 45 minutes after the scheduled kickoff — with players in uniform and coaches unaware the SNOA had not assigned the game.
“It’s real simple; the game was never given to us to assign,” Ratner said.
Athletic administrators from both schools confirmed Wednesday that the game will not be rescheduled because neither team has an open date on its schedule.
Because the game was intended to be a Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association Hall of Fame Game, both schools will be reimbursed application fees, NIAA assistant director Donnie Nelson said. The home team (Spring Valley) was required to pay $500 and the visiting team (Canyon Springs) $250 to participate, with the money going toward NIAA funding.
It remains unclear how the communication breakdown originated that prevented the SNOA from being informed of the game’s existence.
However, the game was never listed on a schedule of Class 4A games within the Clark County School District found on the CCSD’s Web site.
The SNOA is typically notified of games to assign within Clark County by the school district, Ratner said.
The CCSD goes through three drafts of schedules with schools for each season, and the game was never posted, said Ray Mathis, the district’s executive director of athletics.
“There’s a number of possible things that could have happened, but the bottom line is we’re going over the procedures so it doesn’t happen again,” Mathis said.
With a combined 25 years of coaching experience, Spring Valley coach Kelly Murphy and Canyon Springs coach Chris Littmann said they have never encountered a game that was called off because officials failed to show.
“It upset me immensely,” Murphy said.
