SAN DIEGO COUNTY FOOTBALL OFFICIALS ASSOCIATION - THE WEEKLY BULL – August 24, 2022 No Meetings This Week – No meetings of any kind. Week off, but that doesn’t eliminate the need to study! Have you completed your rules exam? If so, maybe review your test and see where you may have misread or got confused! Watch this week’s instructional video and, if you’re on a crew, you have the opportunity to review your film and the crew’s cut ups! Let’s get better! Rules and Mechanics Testing – All testing should be completed. Scott Carroll will provide me with a master list of all scores and I will record them on our attendance sheets. Once that is done, it will be up to each official to confirm the accuracy of my records. We will do this at our next zoom meeting on Wednesday 8/31. If you did not receive a link to the testing portal or need extended time to complete the testing please email or contact Scott Carroll and he will accommodate you. Hudl Video– We did “OK” with scrimmage film, but got much better Week #1. If you did not get your film please contact me – Steve Coover – and I will get you your film. Remember, 8-man teams do not share film, nor do out-of-town teams or teams from the Imperial County. If you’re a fill in on a crew, contact your crew chief for the film. I am currently adding the 2nd year officials to the conferences so contact me if their names do not show up in your conference that week. Instructional Video and Calibration Plays – I am working in the Hudl Classic. If you are trying to view my comments in the New Hudl, the comments will be missing. Remember, Hudl Classic for instructional video. Improvement Week #1 To Week #2 – The improvement from week #1 to week #2 is the most dramatic all season for all three teams, players, coaches, and officials. It’s just a matter or opportunity! Work hard and get involved with your crew. Phone members of your crew to discuss opportunities to improve based upon your crew’s evaluation and the review of your film. How did you do on your goal for week 1? What are your goals for week #2? Keep Your Calendar Current – I know this is the hundredth time we’ve reminded you but more officials turned back games recently and their calendar showed that they were available. Important tip: Don’t piss off your assignment secretary, and this is one way to do it! Block in Your Schedule – It should be obvious by now that we need all officials to be available to help out and accept a game assignment. Please keep you blocks accurate. If you are an NCAA official, our assignors and the college assignors can see if you have a game already assigned. The JC assignor will still assign you and the youth league assignor will assign a new official. No worries. Don’t block in general on Saturdays as the Board does monitor blocks. Be available and help out if needed! Adopt a Crew or a School Site – If you’re not on the field, there is no better way to improve your mechanics than to watch a veteran crew demonstrate them. I highly advise all newer officials to either adopt a crew on Friday nights, or go to your neighborhood high school and observe the different crews come through each week. You can even get involved by keeping the foul report for the crew! Introduce yourself to the crew beforehand in the locker room and offer your services. If you need a SDCFOA Pass for pre-season and league games, please contact Ed Zapolski. These passes are not guaranteed but they almost always work! Visitors at Games – If you are visiting a game and observing a crew, do not follow the chain crew and head linesman through the team box. Stay out of any team box area and do not communicate with coaches or game administrators. Please observe the game from the stands, or if allowed on the field, from the sideline outside the team box and outside of the white restricted area or dashed restraining line. If you want to change ends of the field, walk around the team box. Lightening - From the NFHS Rule Book – From the back of the Rule Book – Include game administration in any decision making: When thunder is heard, or a cloud-to-ground lightning strike is seen, the thunderstorm is close enough to strike your location with lightning. Suspend play and take shelter immediately. Thirty-minute rule. Once play has been suspended, wait at least 30 minutes after the last thunder is heard or flash of lightning is witnessed prior to resuming play. Any subsequent thunder or lightning after the beginning of the 30-minute count, reset the clock and another 30-minute count should begin. California State Mercy Rule - At the conclusion of the third quarter or any point thereafter, if there is a point differential of 35 or more points, a running clock shall be instituted for the remainder of the game regardless of the score. The game clock shall stop only for a score, a free kick following a fair catch or awarded fair catch, a charged team timeout, a coach-referee conference or an official’s timeout. This bylaw applies to all levels of play. Overtime Rules – The CIF Green Book requires overtime at the varsity level. Review these rules each week! We’re posting it up on our website at www.sdcfoa.org. In high school we repeat the same procedure each series. We do not shorten the overtime like they do in college. Sportsmanship Nominations – Who were the amazingly sportsmanlike teams and schools this week? Please nominate worthy teams each week who display the sportsmanship this sport deserves! Email Steve Coover with your nominations each week. Uniforms and Adornments – Keep up the great work. If we’re all enforcing the rules then we’ll all reap the benefits within a few weeks. Special emphasis, Face Paint (no symbols) just a single line under the eyes. I’ve seen some smeared faces but that seems to be the left-overs from trying to remove the painted crosses. Just send them out! Our crew sent off a kicker and holder whose pants were being worn improperly. No warnings please…that’s an endless road and no change occurs…just send them out for one play. Coaches Off the Field – Please be consistent and use the sideline warning early, if necessary, to help remind coaches of the rule. Consistency week-to-week will help coaches. Inconsistency will send the wrong message and coaches will have the right to be frustrated with us. Locker Rooms – If we’re allowed to use them, please leave them better than when you arrived. We are visitors and the PE teachers appreciate it if we keep it clean. Do not use any items in the locker room for your own purposes. If there is food or water in the offices, they are not for your use. Have a crew member responsible for hydration! Return all furniture to how you found it please. Seeing the Play Differently – If you see action as legal, and your crewmate throws his flag into the area seemingly at the same action that you judged as legal, here are the recommended steps. Go to the official and confirm the penalty is for the action you witnessed...” What do you have?” If it’s as you suspected, do not speak in codes “State your observation, “I saw those two players and I judged it to have been a grab after the runner had gone past.” Then let the calling official decide if he/she wants to pick up the flag or not. Do not announce, “We’re picking up that flag.” Observation Checklist – Attached is our Observation Checklist. Pick and choose from it as you prepare weekly. Great pre-game discussion topics. Battlefields to Ballfields – Thank you Joe Magnuson, for leading us in this very important program. We currently have 28 mentees. Mike Pereira acknowledges that San Diego is a leader in the utilization of his program’s resources. Thank you, Joe! And “thank you” to our mentors: Mike Allen, Ed DeLos Reyes, Nick Williams, Joe St. Onge, Gary Gittelson, Michael Lay, Gerry Burgos, David Duffield, Bob Hood, Kevin Fuller, Jutin Joseph, Tom Miles, Jim Huggins, Tom Patrick, Eric Stoffers, Domicus Perdue, Brian Mills, Tony Shaw, Greg Covington, Robin House, Craig Gustafson, Paul Kwiatkowski, Brandon Page, Kyle Amstead, Brett Warner, Ed Quidley. San Diego Youth Football Fund – Jake Minger has retired from his position as treasurer of the SDYFF. We have reached out to Mike Gunzelman as a replacement for Jake, and Mike has agreed to accept the role. Jake and Mike will be working together for the remainder of the year to hand over the treasurer’s duties. We want to thank Jake for all his volunteer time to make the SDYFF as progressive and proactive as it is! SD Youth Football Fund “Game Check Weekend” - We have selected the weekend of 10/13-10/15 as our “Game Check Weekend”. Mark your calendar as this is a chance to donate just one game check to the fund in support of the greater San Diego football community. More info as we get to October. Food For Thought – 4/3 at the K 17-yard line. From scrimmage kick formation, Team K snaps the ball and after the snap, player R88 (who is the 11th player) enters the field at the K 25-yardline. R88 runs downfield along the sideline and then runs back off the field. No K players react to R88, and R88 does not participate other than running down the field near the sideline. R44 catches the punt at the K 45-yard line and returns it to the K 40-yardline and is clearly down when K28 comes in late and hits R44 well after he is down. Is this Illegal Substitution or Illegal Participation? (3-7-6 and 9-6-3) Is this PSK? (2-16-2h). Correct enforcement results in 1/10 Team K at the 11-yard line.
