By By BRUCE HIXON – Sports Editor
With the start of the season just over a month away, there are a lot more questions than answers as to what Escambia County schools will do for officials for the upcoming volleyball season.
Of course, Escambia County schools can avoid the lack of officials for home games problem by simply playing all road games and having the home team deal with finding officials.
Escambia County schools suddenly found themselves without any officials for the upcoming season when the North Baldwin Officials Association notified Escambia County schools it would not longer supply its officials.
Choosing another officials association is not a viable option. The closest associations to Escambia County besides North Baldwin are based out of Troy, Montgomery and Washington County. Officials from those associations would have even farther to travel than those from the North Baldwin Association.
Peacock is trying to form an officials association for Escambia County. The North Baldwin Association indicated in a letter to county schools it would provide training for officials who would like to work Escambia County games.
Peacock said prospective officials have to be at least age 17 to work middle school and junior varsity games and age 18 to work varsity games.
Peacock said an Escambia County Officials Association would probably need about 10 to 12 officials.
A prospective Escambia County Officials Association also needs a coordinator to organize scheduling and other miscellaneous matters.
Peacock is not concerned with the possibility of having first-year officials at all home games or other games played within the county.