By Tim Leighton 

Long odds stare at an official before he or she even takes that first step onto a court, field or sheet of ice. New officials face a journey filled with criticism and angst that, ultimately, lead most to quickly and defiantly blow the final whistle on the avocation.

The rewards of officiating aren’t immediately realized in the face of sportsmanship issues that have created an exodus of officials that is at an alarming rate.

National surveys reveal an average of about only two out of every 10 officials return for their third year of officiating. The low return rate is paving the way to a nationwide shortage of officials that has high school administrators scrambling to cover games. It is also prompting high school associations across the country to formulate creative ways to retain the officials they have rostered.

“Year 3 is when we cross our fingers,” said Mark Uyl, an assistant director with the Michigan High School Athletic Association. “It is like the freshman year in college. It is a make-or-break kind of year. Every state association in the country is feeling the effects of an officials’ shortage. It is getting harder and harder, not only to recruit new officials, but to retain them for years to come. That is the challenge that confronts us.”

Solutions can’t come soon enough for Matt Percival, the activities director at Eastview High School in Apple Valley, Minnesota, in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul. With game-time looming, it is common for Percival to be scrambling, moving quickly to fill officiating vacancies, primarily at the sub-varsity levels.

Percival said moving games to different days of the week has been implemented, and this travel may continue to ensure that games will be staffed with officials.

“The problem isn’t new,” he said. “It’s gotten progressively worse over the years. One of the most stressful things for an AD is when officials aren’t assigned or don’t show up. When that happens, no one benefits.”

Programs to combat the challenges of recruiting and retaining officials are popping up throughout the country by state associations.

The Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) has offered discounted registration fees to new officials, as well as reduced rates when they return for their second and third seasons of officiating. In 2015, the MSHSL launched a “Thank A Ref” campaign encouraging its member schools to show support for officials.

Schools responded with public-address announcements during games, news releases to newspapers and on-court recognitions. Establishing and strengthening existing mentorship programs with Minnesota officials’ associations is ongoing.

The MHSAA website is dotted with photos of officials posing with mentees and sharing their purpose statements.

The South Dakota High School Activities Association advertises the need for officials with a classified adstype section on its website, identifying games that need officials.

“We are losing officials because of sportsmanship issues from participants, coaches and fans,” said Pete Vrieze, commissioner of the Middle Border Conference in northwestern Wisconsin. “We certainly lose officials to other things as well, but for the most part, on-court issues are driving newer and younger officials away. They say ‘the heck with it’ and aren’t interested in spending their free time in oftentimes volatile situations.”

Veteran officials and officiating administrators agree that establishing strong mentorship programs are vital to helping new and younger officials cope with negative on-court situations. Those relationships
help provide stability to a new or younger official and provide a sounding board to help get through troublesome times.

“When things go south for an official, you’ve got to have that sounding board, someone that knows and understands what they are going through,” Uyl said. “The biggest thing you do as a mentor is listen and then reinforce all of the positives of officiating. Ninety- to 95-percent of the officiating avocation is a great, great thing.”

Vrieze oversees the mentorship program as the director of basketball operations for the Minneapolis Officials Association, a pioneer organization in Minnesota that for decades has provided football and basketball officials for the MSHSL.

“As officials, if we don’t get a pat on the back once in awhile, it can be a discouraging thing,” Vrieze said. “We need mentors with passion, someone that wants to help others. We aren’t interested in veteran officials that are worried about losing their assignments to new and younger officials. We need officials to have the mentality that I need to train officials not to replace me, but to work with me.”

Not advancing through the officiating ranks quickly enough is also contributing to the avocation’s struggles to maintain a strong roster of officials.

“We are in the ‘I’ generation and them asking why I wasn’t there yesterday,” said Harry Kitts, a retired Minnesota educator who officiated and was an assignor for more than four decades.

Kitts officiated for four years in Iowa before beginning his officiating journey in Minnesota in the 1969-70 school year. Most of the officials in that era were educators who would work games following the school day. If officials weren’t available, coaches would be recruited to work games.

Working a doubleheader was commonplace, too. There was no such thing as just a varsity assignment as is the case now. If you were a varsity-caliber official, you were also required to work the B-squad game prior. Kitts said officials accepted all and any assignments given to them, unlike today when officials present specific criteria of the games they will work to their assignor.

Despite his experience in Iowa, Kitts was not assigned a varsity game in his first season in Minnesota. His first varsity game would not come until his second season. He credits working with a veteran official who gave him his chance to show his skills. Kitts would move on to work 20 MSHSL state tournaments.

“Officials are too anxious these days to sprint right to the top and to do a state championship game right away,” Kitts said. “Officials need training. They must learn and work their way up, just like anything else. When officials don’t feel like they are climbing the ladder quickly enough, they often quit out of frustration.”

State association administrators remain focused and diligent that the campaigns to recruit and retain officials will be a success.

“Our success and experience in officiating give us the confidence moving forward,” Uyl said.

New Blocking, Kicking Rules Address Risk Minimization in High School Football

By NFHS 

New rules on blindside blocking are the most recent steps taken by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Football Rules Committee in minimizing the risks associated with the sport.

The establishment of a new definition of a blindside block in Rule 2-3-10 and the addition of Rule 9-4-3n prohibiting a blindside block were two of 11 rules changes recommended by the NFHS Football Rules Committee at its January 20-22 meeting in Indianapolis. All rules changes were subsequently approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.

“The NFHS Football Rules Committee’s actions this year once again addressed risk minimization, officiating, competitive balance and game administration,” said Bob Colgate, director of sports and sports medicine at the NFHS and staff liaison for football.

The definition of a blindside block established by the committee is “a block against an opponent other than the runner, who does not see the blocker approaching,” and now results in a 15-yard penalty.

The committee stated that the blindside block “involves contact by a blocker against an opponent who, because of physical positioning and focus of concentration, is vulnerable to injury. Unless initiated with open hands, it is a foul for excessive and unnecessary contact when the block is forceful and outside of the free-blocking zone.”

“As has been the case for many years, the NFHS Football Rules Committee continued to place their main emphasis on risk minimization,” said Todd Tharp, chair of the NFHS Football Rules Committee and assistant director of the Iowa High School Athletic Association. “With this new definition of a blindside block and the penalty to be assessed, the committee stresses the importance of proper coaching techniques under the rules and accurate enforcement by the game officials.”

Another significant risk-minimization change was elimination of a pop-up kick in new Rule 6-1-11. A new definition of a pop-up kick in Rule 2-24-10 is defined as “a free kick in which the kicker drives the ball immediately to the ground, the ball strikes the ground once and goes into the air in the manner of a ball kicked directly off the tee.”

The committee implemented this change in an effort to reduce risk of injury due to the increased use of the pop-up kick on onside kickoffs. Such kicks will be penalized as a dead-ball free-kick infraction, as noted with new Rule 6-1-11 PENALTY.

The NFHS Football Rules Committee also expanded Rule 2-32-16 regarding a defenseless player by adding specific examples of a defenseless player. Those examples include, but are not limited to:

a)      A player in the act of or just after throwing a pass;

b)      A receiver attempting to catch a pass who has not had time to clearly become a runner;

c)      The intended receiver of a pass in the action during and immediately following an interception or potential interception;

d)      A runner already in the grasp of a tackler and whose forward progress has been stopped;

e)      A kickoff or punt returner attempting to catch or recover a kick, or one who has completed a catch or recovery and has not had time to protect himself or has not clearly become a ball carrier;

f)       A player on the ground including a ball carrier who has obviously given himself up and is sliding feet-first;

g)      A player obviously out of the play or not in the immediate vicinity of the runner; and

h)      A player who received a blindside block with forceful contact not initiated with open hands.

“A great deal of time was spent by the committee creating specific criteria to define exactly what a defenseless player is,” Tharp said. “Coaches can use these examples to focus on the proper mechanics of blocking and tackling, and game officials now are able to use this expanded definition to focus on continued risk minimization of the players.”

Changes to Rule 7-1-6 expand on the situations required for encroachment to occur after the ready-for-play and after the snapper has placed his hand(s) on the ball. The rule previously stated that encroachment occurred if “any other player breaks the plane of the neutral zone.” In addition, now defensive players are restricted from contacting the ball prior to the end of the snap or making contact with the snapper’s hand(s) or arm(s) until the snapper has released the ball.

The remaining changes approved by the NFHS Football Rules Committee touched on a new ball specification (1-3-1h), uniforms [(1-5-1b(3)], game officials (1-5-4), post-scrimmage kick fouls (2-16-2h), penalty time clock management (3-4-7), prosthetic limbs (4-2-2l) and forward-pass interference (7-5-10), in which the previous foul for non-contact face guarding was eliminated as forward-pass interference.

Regarding the uniform change in Rule 1-5-1b(3), effective with the 2021 season, “the jerseys of the home team shall be a dark color that clearly contrasts to white.”

“The committee revised the rule to provide schools and manufacturers more clarification regarding the game’s current trend of utilizing lighter gray shades,” Colgate said. “The requirement for teams to wear contrasting colors to white is not a new rule, and it is the committee’s expectation that this new clarification will allow changes to be made during normal replacement cycles.”

A complete listing of all rules changes will be available soon on the NFHS website at www.nfhs.org. Click on “Activities & Sports” at the top of the home page, and select “Football.”

According to the 2015-16 NFHS High School Athletics Participation Survey, football is the most popular sport for boys at the high school level with 1,083,308 participants in 11-player football. Another combined 28,943 boys participated in 6-, 8- and 9-player football. In addition, 2,140 girls participated in one of the four football offerings during the 2015 season.

Rule of the Day - Does This Ever Happen?

SIX IN GAME SITUATION: With Team A leading 51 to 50, a held ball is ruled. A6 ­properly reports and enters the game. A time-out request is granted to Team B. The clock shows two seconds remaining in the game. After play is resumed by a throw-in, the officials: (a) recognize that A has six players competing, but cannot get the clock stopped; or (b) do not notice Team A has six players on the court. Following the throw-in, time expires. Team B now reports to the officials that Team A had six players on the court. RULING? In (a), since one of the officials had knowledge that Team A had six players participating simultaneously and this was detected prior to time expiring, a technical foul is assessed against Team A. In (b), since it was not recognized by either official, but was called to their attention after time had expired, it is too late to assess any penalty. OUT OF TIME-OUTS SITUATION: A1 requests and Team A is granted a time-out late in the fourth quarter. Team A had already used its three 60-second time-outs and its two 30-second time-outs. RULING? Team A is granted the time-out and is charged with a technical foul. No indirect foul is charged to the head coach.

There will be very few changes for the 2016 season.  I thought you'd like to have a preview:

1. Mouth pieces may now be white or clear.
2. Gloves have to meet the 2016 standard.
3. Clipping has been eliminated from the free blocking zone.  It is not illegal to clip an opponent any time, anywhere.
   

NFHS Rule Changes - 2016

Football Rule Change Article - 2016

Jim

State lawmakers say Missouri needs more high schools referees

October 29, 2015 by Alisa Nelson

A state House committee has suggested the Missouri State High School Activities Association work to recruit more referees, and see that they get more training. The association’s Executive Director Kerwin Urhahn understands the need for more refs, but he said recruitment is difficult.

House committee reviewing MSHSAA

“People are not willing to become an official because they get harassed, yelled and screamed at. They can do no right,” said Urhahn. “We see that revolving door. The thing is, we try to talk to our schools about the fact that if they run off the officials they can’t play games. They have to recruit young folks to try and do this. They have to support the officials, not yell and scream at them.”

Representative Paul Fitzwater, a ref himself, says proper training of referees is important. “You can’t train someone to become a good official. It’s called experience. You have to referee. You have to get out there and do it. It doesn’t happen overnight,” said Fitzwater. “I think one of the real problems is we have Athletic Directors that don’t have officials. If you’ve got a license, a heartbeat and a shirt, you’re good to go.”

MSHSAA Executive Director Kerwin Urhahn

Urhahn said the Association will work on the quality and number of refs it employs.

“All of our officials are not perfect. They’re human beings. I hope for my sake, they all try and do the very best they can,” said Urhahn. “That’s what I expect of them, is to give their very best effort every time they walk out there. Those kids who are playing have worked hard to get to that point. They want to give their very best.”

Urhahn said the shortage of referees is statewide. He said soccer referees are needed most.

The committee continues meeting today discussing whether MSHSAA has followed the recommendations of a 2007 committee, most of which focused on student safety and compliance with Missouri’s open records and meetings law.

Several SLOA members contributed to this article covering NASO and Officiate Missouri Day. Here is the Link

Congratulations to Bruce Hook for being inducted to the St. Louis Metro Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.  The induction ceremony and banquet was this past Monday and it is quite an honor for an official to be recognized with such high distinction by the coaching community. Thanks to Bruce for his accomplishments on and off the field for the betterment of the sport of high school football and of its student athletes.  He is in very good company with the following other SLOA members who have been previously inducted to the SLMFCA HAll of Fame:

Earl Jansen

Ed Tschannen

Gene Barth

Frank Hauff

Claire Houston

Cliff Kruse

Bob  Hantak

John Horton

John McArthur

Leo Hylla

Also of note, John Schell was awarded The Larry Kinbom PMA award by the same coaches association for his 63 years of service to the high school sporting community.

Congratulations to Bruce and John on this well deserved honor and recognition.

Officials,

We, Metro Area Officials Committee, come to you today simply as a point of information as we head toward the 2015-2016 school year. The Metro Area Officials Association is made up of members from the following conferences...

• Suburban Conference 
• Gateway Athletic Conference 
• Metro Catholic 
• Metro League 
• Metro Womens Athletic Association 
• Archdiocese Athletic Association 
• Jefferson County Athletic 
• Public High League 
• South Conference Athletic Association 
• Independents

There is a lot of ambiguity regarding how assignors and assigning associations have conducted business in the past and how it impacts officials. We, the Metro Area Officials Committee, met with all assignors and assigning associations on March 16th at Westminster Christian Academy to go over the attached documents.  

The information and guidelines set forth for all assignors and assigning associations were derived from MSHSAA expectations and several months of meetings from our committee members.  

The committee feels strongly that these guidelines protect the member schools, assignors, associations, and officials.

There will be two informational meetings put on by the committee to help answer any questions or concerns officials might have regarding the attached documents and how it might impact you. The first meeting is April 16th at Francis Howell Central at 7:00 pm. The second meeting is April 21st at MICDS at 7:00 pm.  

I am going to list the items below that are most pertinent to you, the officials, as we move forward (entire list of requirements is attached). We feel that most of these changes will have no impact on officials directly, except potentially more money in your pocket and the ability to work for multiple assignors.

• Officials must be registered with MSHSAA to officiate any contest. 
• Officials must have a contract between yourself and the home school. The assignors will take care of this but wanted to make you aware. Those assignors using arbiter or similar type of assigning system will have the contracts created and signed for electronically. 
• Officials are to receive the full game fee/stipend per the fee structure established by the Metro Area Officials Committee. NO PORTION OR PERCENTAGE IS TO BE TAKEN OUT BY THE ASSIGNOR OR ASSIGNING ASSOCIATION. 
• Officials cannot be intimidated or discouraged from accepting assignments from other assignors OR SCHOOLS. Schools can contract their own officials if they choose to do so. 
• Officials cannot be required to pay membership to an organization to be considered for assignments.

Brian Kessler
Activities Director

Link to Guidelines PDF