Agenda – Attendance – Check your attendance and make sure it’s accurate! Weekly Bull – Instructional Video – Calibration Video – PPR Video if time permits - Mechanics Test
A) Full Uniform for 1st & 2nd and Transfers
B) Scrimmage – please observe for face paint, towels, adornment, pants, jerseys (lineman!) Back pads
C) No Meeting Next Week – So Film, Evaluate, and Scout
D) Run-Pass-Option RPO – We’re not very good … YET
E) PPR Slow Motion Video - click on settings wheel, choose speed .25, turn volume down
6:35 into video – Illegal Helmet contact – shows how HUDL can be limiting
7:11 into video – right arm restriction just prior to ball arriving – technically correct
7:51 into video - #1 initiates, takes aim and initiates contact to defenseless receiver
Update from 1st/2nd Year Instructors – We’ll get a quick update from our instructors on the mechanics taught in the 1st and 2nd year classes. We hope this information will help our youth referees as they provide leadership and instruction to their crew each Saturday.
Referees and Veterans Working With New Officials – Just a reminder to our veterans, please be positive and compassionate with our newest officials. Their development comes, in a great part, from mistakes. So, please, stay positive and constructive. Find some positives and compliment them on those things they’re doing well. Then blend in just a couple (maybe just two) things to work on. One of the very best things you can do is point out something to work on in the first game, and then be able to compliment them on their improvement in those specific areas!
Mechanics Test (3-Man, 4-Man & 5-Man) for Certified Officials – This test will be a return (maybe for one year?) of the older-type of mechanics test. It’s focus is on your knowing who has what responsibilities on each type of game situation (time out, measurement, penalty, free kick, scrimmage kick, etc.) I know you’ll “Kill” the exam. We all know that every official will miss 2 questions because you hurried or mis-read the question. 98% is like a perfect score! 100% means you’re a really good and careful test-taker! Our emphasis this year was to get all officials to read the newly published 2018-19 SDCFOA Mechanics & Philosophies Manual, vs working on a Summer Study Exam for mechanics. I hope you’ve all dug into the manual and are now familiar with its contents. Please use it as you need in your weekly preparations and pre-games.
2nd Year Officials – You will be taking the Mechanics Exam on 8/15, next week. This gives you another week of classroom instruction and study.
1st & 2nd Year Officials – You will get your first look at live action, this week, Thursday 8/9 at San Marcos High School. Your instructors will announce the time and other important info in your classroom this Wednesday. Please go directly to the field in your Scrimmage Uniform.
Scrimmage Uniform – The high school scrimmage uniform will be the same as for warm weather youth football including black socks. Bob Hood still has black socks and the supply should last us into 2030 and beyond!
Umpire and Back Judge Clinic – Wednesday 8/29, Bill Bishop (MWC) and Don Carey (former NFL) will be presenting on: Weekly Routines, Pre-Game, and SDCFOA mechanics for your position starting at 7:00 pm in Rooms B-13 and B-14 respectively. This should be a highly inter-active session touching on a wide-variety of topics related to preparing yourself to work effectively with your crew before and during the season! We will also be discussing run zone coverage in 5-man mechanics, proper positioning and vison patterns, dead ball and pre-snap mechanics. Bring your mechanics manual and your Pre-Game Check List! Equipment and Uniform Vendors – All of these vendors can be found on our webpage at www.sdcfoa.org.
US Veteran Patches – Bob Hood will be coming around to the classes to offer US Veteran patches to all who have served our country in the armed services. We proudly display the patch over the pocket and under the American Flag. Please limit your request to 3 per veteran (maybe 2 short sleeve shirts and 1 long sleeve shirt.) Again, thank you for your service!
Three More Suggestions for Great Communication – 1) Ask don’t order – this will always put you in a superior and more professional posture. It communicates respect to the player, coach or fan. 2) Don’t expect to have an objective conversation with a coach, player or fan! This can help eliminate the disappointment when you get a childish, disrespectful, or inappropriate response. Don’t let yourself expect a mature, reflective or objective response. 3) As a flank official, it is a real plus for you if you can provide information to your head coach that will help him and his team. Obviously time outs remaining, but what about time outs remaining for the opponents at the end of the game? Do you have enforcement info for him as he’s deciding whether to take the penalty? Info on players that are on the edge or a formation that is on the edge?
Out-of-Town Teams – When a team from out-of-town comes to San Diego to play, they are playing by the CIDSDS rules. That includes mandatory overtime. If a team were to refuse to play overtime it would simply be reported to me and I would inform CIF who would award a “win” to the SD team (I assume). Teams from out of CA may also be surprised that we have a Mercy Rule in CA and that a player who exhibits signs or symptoms consistent with a concussion is disqualified for the remainder of the game. Those are the 1- SD and 2 - CA possible differences. They may be included into your pre-game meeting with the coach.
New Rule on Fouls by K on Free & Scrimmage Kicks – “Rule 10-4-2 Exception The basic spot may, at the option of the offended team, be the succeeding spot for fouls by K during a free or scrimmage kick down (other than kick catch interference) when K will not be the next to put the ball in play.”
I’ve underlined “other than kick catch interference” to remind us that this new rule does not apply to KCI. KCI only gets KCI options 1) result of the play; 2) an awarded fair catch after enforcement of a 15 yard penalty from the spot of the foul, or 3) a 15 yard penalty from the previous spot and a replay of the down.
Food for Thought:
If a kick is in flight, and there is no fair catch signal by any R player, and while the ball is still in flight the kickers interfere with the receiver (KCI), then the ball is loose and picked up by another R player who advances for a TD. What options does the offended team have (receivers)?
If you quickly identify this as a KCI foul, then you will not consider the new rule’s options for a foul by K during a scrimmage or free kick down. So, just going with the KCI foul options, and knowing Rule 8-2-3 the foul occurred before the change of possession so there can be NO CARRYOVER ENFORCEMENT. R will have to decline the foul in order to get the TD.
This is just like a hold by the offense before the pass, followed by an interception and return for a TD. The foul CANNOT be enforced on the try or kick off as the foul occurred before the change of possession (8-2-3).
Video is Our Tool – In the “good old days” we’d leave the field and feel we worked a perfect game. Very little accountability and no tools to help us re-visit our calls to see if what we thought we saw really what happened! Now, we have HUDL. We have the amazing opportunity to view ourselves and to determine if what I saw as “big” really was “big”? If it is not as big as you remember, then you have a chance to re-calibrate your judgement. You have a “tool” at your disposal. Don’t take it lightly. And don’t feel the need to be perfect. We strive for perfection knowing that the best we’re going to get is excellence. We’ll take excellence!!!
CONSISTENCY – How do we get it and keep it?” Preparation, Knowledge, and Concentration” – From Mike Weseloh PAC 12
