SAN DIEGO COUNTY FOOTBALL OFFICIALS ASSOCIATION - THE WEEKLY BULL – October 18, 2023
No Meeting This Week – Prepare each day this week. Review a rule for your crew. Study the Instructional Video and this Bull. Stay fit and healthy. Scout your teams and organize yourself and the crew for all logistics.
Next Week’s In-Person Meeting – Wednesday, October 25th at 7:00 pm at Mira Mesa High School. This will be our last regular meeting of the season. It will be a little bit different in that we need to meet our 5 candidates who are running for the Board so here is the agenda and meeting locations: 1st and 2nd Year officials will meet at 7:00 pm in their respective classrooms as usual. All certified officials will meet in the Library at 7:00 pm to hear from the five candidates. All Crew Chiefs and Instructors will meet in the Library at 6:00 pm for our regular Crew Chief Meeting. After the certified officials hear from the candidates, we will adjourn to our regular classrooms for our instructional meeting to include The Bull; Calibration; and Instructional Video.
Voting for Board Members – The voting for Board Members will be conducted electronically by Ed Zapolski our Executive Secretary. The email announcement for voting will be sent out on Thursday, October 26th. Only Certified Officials vote for the Board of Directors. The window to cast your electronic vote will be open through October 30th. If you don’t get an email announcement make sure to contact Ed directly.
Banquet Stories – Our Banquet will be on November 1st, and we need stories. See Bob Hood or email him your video or story of our fun-loving mistakes from the 2023 season. Also, remember to attend as you’ve already paid for your dinner when you paid your dues! The banquet will start at 6:00pm and will again be at the Admiral Baker Golf Course, 2400 Admiral Baker Road in Mission Valley.
It’s Game Check Weekend! - Game Check Weekend, this weekend! Take one or two of your game checks from Thursday-Saturday and contribute to our Fund which is our nonprofit to assist the officiating community. You can donate as a crew, crew chiefs can collect and make one online contribution at SDYFF.org, or crew chiefs can collect payments from crew and deliver to Mike Downing or Mike Gunzelman at our meeting a week from Wednesday (10/25). Crew that raises the most gets free dinner, up to $30/man, that following Friday. Not on a crew, new, etc. you can donate at SDYFF.org, any amount is accepted. Thanks to all and have good games this weekend!
Golf Tournament - Sign up now! SDYFF.org is the sign-up hub. We are at, or near our maximum number, so sign up at the latest this upcoming weekend as we must have numbers and will close it out. Raffle prizes are needed, think about getting something to donate to raffle. The golf tournament raffle is separate from the Banquet raffle, so we always want everyone to leave the golf tournament with a memento. If you can donate something, please bring to tourney, or let Mike Downing know at docdowning@aol.com or 619-888-6430. Thanks.
Wireless Microphone Systems – We currently have 10 of our 25 Crew Chiefs using a wireless microphone during games for announcements. Although we are in our infancy in our use of this electronic equipment, and some stadiums are a challenge to get quality sound and no static, we have had some outstanding experiences with their use. Something as challenging as adjusting the game clock becomes so simple. The coaches and fans quickly understand the unusual ruling on the field that just occurred. In an effort to expand our use, we have secured sponsorship from some of our membership to double the number of crews with this equipment. Next year we expect that every crew that wants to use this equipment will have it available to them!
Wireless Systems at Schools – We are also seeing an uptick in the number of schools that have a stadium wireless system available for our use. Some schools have them available and don’t even know we can use them at their games and have our referees make game announcements! We expect the number of schools with these systems to greatly increase in the near future. It is far better for a school to have control over the system than to have our referees bring equipment and hook it up.
Counting Every Down - No one disputes the importance of counting players EVERY down. But let’s take it to the next level, count EARLY EVERY down. Those that Referee at the college level count and signal while offense is in huddle or asap if they are using a “no huddle” offense. This allows both the R and U to move on thru there pre snap routine and prepare for the next snap. Same in the 4-man game, LJ and Umpire count the defense early. Many Umpires will then also count the offense, but the key is an early count and signal.
Line Judge and the Game Clock - Last week towards the end of a JV game the scoreboard, for whatever reason, went blank and one of the crew reported it over radio. Yes, radio in a JV game! Next thing we hear is a response from our second year Line Judge, “I got it, 45 seconds left”. Moments later the scoreboard came back on and our second-year line judge was right on! Outstanding!!!!!
Finals Crews Have Been Notified – Those officials who will be working the Championship games this year have been selected (by our President, Matt Starr, President Elect, Bob Flavin, and our Assignor, Tom Ables). The emails went out over the weekend and congratulations to all who will be working one of the eight (8) championship games. Semifinals Crews will be needed as well and those will be announced soon as well.
7-Person Mechanics Meeting – If you are one of those selected to work a championship or semifinal game, you will be working 7-Person Mechanics. All officials working a championship or semifinal shall attend a special 7-Person Mechanics Meeting on Wednesday November 15th at 7:00 pm at the Mira Mesa High School Library. Chain crews and timers are not to attend this meeting. You will receive credentials, game information, and then break out into position meetings. The Position Coaches are: Referee – Mike Carey Umpire – Bill Bishop & Mike Weseloh LOS – Zack Marble & Steve Coover Deeps and BJ – Jace Carlson and Don Carey
