The regional high school varsity girls lacrosse team is 4-4 and was looking forward to a home game Tuesday against Saint John Paul II. But at the end of practice Monday, athletic director Mark McCarthy told the team the game would be canceled due to lack of referees.

The rest of the season is also in jeopardy.

“It’s a problem all across the state, lack of referees, nationwide in fact,” Mr. McCarthy said on Tuesday. “And girls lacrosse is being hit the hardest.”

The team has nine games remaining and referee coverage for only three of those games. A home game on Thursday with Sturgis West remains questionable.

“I’m still working on it,” Mr. McCarthy said.

Head coach Lacey Dinning is frustrated.

“It’s really unfortunate,” she said. “I understand there is a lack of refs but they should have done something about this before our season started, not in the middle of the season.”

According to Mr. McCarthy, all sports are facing a shortage as older officials retire, but because girls lacrosse is a more recent sport, there isn’t as big a pool of alumni stepping up to fill the spots.

“You don’t have that deep a number of people who have played the sport, and only a small per cent of players end up becoming referees,” Mr. McCarthy said.

The boys lacrosse season is not affected thus far, Mr. McCarthy confirmed.

“They are completely different games, with different rules, and so a boys lacrosse official can’t work a girls game,” he said.

No girls lacrosse referees live on the Island.

“Referees for spring sports are paid $93 for a varsity game and $69 for a junior varsity game,” Mr. McCarthy said. “We usually have two officials come over and each do two games to make it worthwhile. But because they are in such high demand, a referee coming from New Bedford could more easily do a game in Old Rochester just down the road.”

The answer for Mr. McCarthy has been to work the phones with other athletic directors in the league to try and maximize the off-Island game opportunities, and aim for weekend games on-Island which are more likely to attract a potential referee.

“I’m on the phone every day trying to make this work,” he said. “But we have SATs this Saturday so that is out for a home game, and in two weeks it’s prom so that is out.”

When asked if there would be Title IX issues if the season were to be canceled, Mr. McCarthy said he didn’t think so.

“We are all doing everything we can,” he said. “And if May 27 rolls around and there are still teams who haven’t been able to complete their seasons, the state will have to figure out what to do.”

In the meantime the players are the ones who suffer, Coach Dinning said.

“It is really upsetting that it seems like most of our games from now on will be played off-Island,” she said. “It’s hard to travel a lot for games and I’m worried they will get burned out with all the end of year school work and all the away games. Hopefully, they can figure out a way to accommodate everyone.”