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I have the utmost respect for our High School Officials.  I've witnessed some pretty nasty behavior in the stands of games.   Glad to see some Officials stand up to it.

 

Inevitability is a challenge.

Anything inevitable is usually predicted. The fight is to keep it from happening.

It’s always on the horizon, just hanging there in plain sight, but it’s just ignored.

 

No one thinks it’s going to happen in their lifetime. No one wants the responsibility of cleaning up the mess.

So, what happens when the inevitable becomes reality?

We are about to find out.

Last week, the Eastern Panhandle Officials Association decided it had had enough. The group severed ties with the Tri-County Youth Football League (TCYFL) in West Virginia.

The referee organization announced its decision in a release, pointing to “poor behavior” presented as “abuse, negativity and utter disrespect shown to our officials from parents, coaches and most recently our players.”

The organization elected to stop working all the youth football games.

That’s right. The zebras left the reservation. They literally took their ball and went home.

After years of being the subjects of public ridicule, these referees finally hit the breaking point.

Every breath they took. Every move they made. Every rule they enforced. Everyone was watching them … and complaining.

It’s tough being right only half of the time, if you’re lucky.

With this move, the officials said “you need us more than we need you.”

And they are right.

Now, the TCYFL is at a standstill.

The league was entering the final stages of the regular season to qualify teams for their playoffs.

And now every kid is sidelined.

There are no title games. No championships. No trophies, to be earned or given for feel-good reasons.

In essence, the entire season has become nothing more than an asterisk.

And the reason is simple.

These players are unable to utilize the skills they have learned on a playing field because of the behavior they were learning at home.

That is a culture of “abuse, negativity and utter disrespect” that is prevalent at practically every game on every level these days, coming from “parents, coaches and most recently our players.”

And here’s the news. These problems don’t stem from the referees.

Local-level referees aren’t perfect. They will admit that.

They try their best in very challenging situations and times, multiplied by a group of people in the stands who think they know better.

The funny thing is if the critics are so knowledgeable, why aren’t they volunteering to take the field.

It’s a lot easier sitting up in the stands, pointing out perceived infractions 100 feet away from the field.

Refs have the worst seat in the house. They are in the middle of the action with many obscured views.

Yet, they suffer the trickle-down wrath of a world controlled by instant replay.

Referees choose to do this job because they have two attributes — passion and integrity.

They love the game and still want to be involved for its betterment and they approach the game without playing favorites, no matter what some people think.

You know what happens when you fight authority. Authority always wins.

Parents and coaches in these youth contests continue to come up with new ways to amaze. They continue to live vicariously through the games their kids play.

They fight and scream like every play is stealing food off the family table.

They believe their kids are destined to be the next great high school and college players who will get to play in the NFL.

 

They will tell you that.

The problem escalates with coaches, who try to intimidate the referees instead of instructing their teams. Coaching staffs can be seen screaming on every play, trying to guilt officials into making the next call a favorable one.

How long does it take before players — especially the young, impressionable ones — start believing all odds are stacked against them. Your parents and coaches can’t be wrong, can they?

Now that’s building our children a foundation for a successful future.

No one considers that games are still decided by the best team winning, at least on that day. It’s amazing what a little coaching, encouragement and confident words can do.

You have to wonder how these adults would react if their kids came to their jobs and started yelling at their bosses and department heads.

That might be embarrassing. Wonder how the kids feel?

The TCYFL is working to repair the burnt bridges between the league and the officials. They realize that a good thing in the community was ruined by a selfish few.

The process will probably consist of promises, new rules and a bit of groveling.

“That’s definitely our goal,” said TCFYL commissioner Doug Arndt to the Martinsburg Journal. “It’s a shame but the message has been sent. We are not alone. It’s happening all over the country.

“This is for the kids. Let the little guys play. We don’t need all this stuff in the stands and all this stuff on the sidelines.”

That remains a work in progress.

The world of sports has become increasingly combative and overly self-centered in recent years, especially off the field.

About a year ago, this column presented the idea that the sport of football will disappear someday in the future.

There were many reasons, like participation and health, but one notion was the game will end when there are no longer any referees to officiate games.

This idea was very hypothetical, but this instance could be the first sign of football’s apocalypse.

Is that the next inevitability on the horizon?

Only time will tell.

 

 

https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/opinion/parasiliti-refs-decide-to-take-ball-go-home/article_c686a87a-e32a-11e9-aef9-5b326693c162.html?fbclid=IwAR3K4roHmMqKvPtrQK9DuW5dDvhf-vgD8VIXiAS4-EoxYL-8Ksk36ChwYBQ

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I’ve read several articles about this including an interview with the league president. I have really mixed emotions about it. Ultimately it’s the masses of kids who suffer. Not just the the jack wagons that cause the problems. But the bottom line is, at least for some guys, go deal with the crap and piss a day away for a little cash, or spend and enjoyable day with friends and family and have a little less cash in your pocket. And I don’t think any of us ever did it for the money. 

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The worst area for these abuse issues are youth leagues. The coaches are often less trained and have nothing to lose. A high school coach has to answer to an athletic director and crossing the line too many times could cost him his job. Parents and fans at youth games are also much closer and can more easily engage the officials. In HS we are largely separated from the fans. We usually don't hear individual comments during games and rarely does anyone confront us on our way off the field. Many locations we don't cross through fans to get to our locker room. I think we are losing more officials who are working the youth games than those working primarily high school games due to abuse reasons. It seems most who leave the high school field are advancing in college (we have a disproportionate number of college officials working D2 through NFL compared to nearby states), work/family demands, relocation, or age/health reasons.

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I would agree with @JustRules comments. Not too many years ago in Beech Grove a parent attacked an official and was arrested/charged with assault. The next year this dad had his kid playing in the Greenwood and dad even signed up to coach. Purely through happen stance a guy on the league board knew a guy who knew the official involved know each other, and the guy was banned from the premises in Greenwood. 

I will do a youth game occasionally to help a fellow official out, but only certain leagues. There are also leagues that I avoid like the plaque. 

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8 hours ago, JustRules said:

The worst area for these abuse issues are youth leagues. The coaches are often less trained and have nothing to lose. A high school coach has to answer to an athletic director and crossing the line too many times could cost him his job. Parents and fans at youth games are also much closer and can more easily engage the officials. In HS we are largely separated from the fans. We usually don't hear individual comments during games and rarely does anyone confront us on our way off the field. Many locations we don't cross through fans to get to our locker room. I think we are losing more officials who are working the youth games than those working primarily high school games due to abuse reasons. It seems most who leave the high school field are advancing in college (we have a disproportionate number of college officials working D2 through NFL compared to nearby states), work/family demands, relocation, or age/health reasons.

Totally agree that youth sports are by far the worst for coaches being abusive to referee's and in general making a**es of themselves.  We just had this conversation within our high school staff, collectively with approximately 50 years of coaching experience we have witnessed a coach being tossed from a game(our's or opposing coach) a couple times total.  This season started coaching my son's sixth grade team and it's happened to opposing coaches twice in a month. 

Every single play complaining to the referee or side judge and never let up  despite numerous warnings until they finally get tossed.  Ten times worse than anything I see on Friday's and frankly us coaches wouldn't make it thru the 1st qtr on a Friday if we were acting like this to the side judge or white hat.  However, because coaches aren't paid or employed by the school for these youth positions there really isn't any repercussions.  Some people seem to just really enjoy making an *ss of themselves.

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22 minutes ago, Lemmy said:

Totally agree that youth sports are by far the worst for coaches being abusive to referee's and in general making a**es of themselves.  We just had this conversation within our high school staff, collectively with approximately 50 years of coaching experience we have witnessed a coach being tossed from a game(our's or opposing coach) a couple times total.  This season started coaching my son's sixth grade team and it's happened to opposing coaches twice in a month. 

Every single play complaining to the referee or side judge and never let up  despite numerous warnings until they finally get tossed.  Ten times worse than anything I see on Friday's and frankly us coaches wouldn't make it thru the 1st qtr on a Friday if we were acting like this to the side judge or white hat.  However, because coaches aren't paid or employed by the school for these youth positions there really isn't any repercussions.  Some people seem to just really enjoy making an *ss of themselves.

Friday nights you see a professional situation. 

Youth league you see untrained or beginner coaches, untrained or beginner officials, it's just not a good mix. Back in the day working PAAL I would hear more crap from fans and coaches in a half, than an entire season of Friday nights.

In Softball we have been using more experienced officials for the younger age groups, and younger officials for the older groups. It seems to be working out a little better. More experienced officials are often better at dealing with goofy stuff that happens with younger age groups, and are better at diffusing situations.  

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1 hour ago, Impartial_Observer said:

Friday nights you see a professional situation. 

Youth league you see untrained or beginner coaches, untrained or beginner officials, it's just not a good mix. Back in the day working PAAL I would hear more crap from fans and coaches in a half, than an entire season of Friday nights.

In Softball we have been using more experienced officials for the younger age groups, and younger officials for the older groups. It seems to be working out a little better. More experienced officials are often better at dealing with goofy stuff that happens with younger age groups, and are better at diffusing situations.  

In Little Gridiron we moved to Friday-night crews a long time ago ... over two decades ago.  We used to just hire college students, but found it to be unreliable and not contributing to a positive experience.  Nothing against college students, but there's a world of difference having professionals out there on the field; especially when there aren't professionals on the field.  We pay more than when we hired the college kids, but the results have been worth every penny.  The set of refs that we have do a great job working with the kids and also with the coaches too.  We do have some situations where we have beginner refs on the field, but it has always been something like two experienced refs with a beginner ref.  It has been a win-win-win all the way around.  I know it's different in some other leagues as I've heard some horror stories from some of our refs that have also reffed in other youth leagues, but I hope that our league is doing its part to help make the experience more encouraging/rewarding for experienced refs and also to do our part not to run off the new guys.

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11 minutes ago, foxbat said:

In Little Gridiron we moved to Friday-night crews a long time ago ... over two decades ago.  We used to just hire college students, but found it to be unreliable and not contributing to a positive experience.  Nothing against college students, but there's a world of difference having professionals out there on the field; especially when there aren't professionals on the field.  We pay more than when we hired the college kids, but the results have been worth every penny.  The set of refs that we have do a great job working with the kids and also with the coaches too.  We do have some situations where we have beginner refs on the field, but it has always been something like two experienced refs with a beginner ref.  It has been a win-win-win all the way around.  I know it's different in some other leagues as I've heard some horror stories from some of our refs that have also reffed in other youth leagues, but I hope that our league is doing its part to help make the experience more encouraging/rewarding for experienced refs and also to do our part not to run off the new guys.

The leagues I worked when I started were pretty good (Brownsburg and HSE) because the leagues didn't tolerate poor behavior from coaches or parents. I did some CYO as well and don't remember that being bad. But when my son played CYO I saw nasty behavior from both coaches and parents. The kids just wanted to play football. Where I saw really bad behavior was rec league soccer and baseball where the officials were often 14-18 year old kids. I was stunned.

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19 hours ago, 77Jimmie said:

The referee organization announced its decision in a release, pointing to “poor behavior” presented as “abuse, negativity and utter disrespect shown to our officials from parents, coaches and most recently our players.

That is a culture of “abuse, negativity and utter disrespect” that is prevalent at practically every game on every level these days, coming from “parents, coaches and most recently our players.

 

This is what I find most troubling.  It would appear parents and coaches have officially lowered the bar for their kids and/or players, and at a time when these young minds are still very impressionable.

My only coaching frame of reference is youth ball.  We never yelled at the refs, and only questioned them in an adult-like manner if the call or no-call was just unbelievable - and there were a handful of those.  Our intent was not to berate the refs or try to get more calls going our way to influence the outcome of the game but in several cases it was purposeful, repeated illegal hits or behavior by opposing players - and from the same two teams most of the time.  Just wanted to bring their attention to what was happening and then left it there.  Other than that as long as they called most of the major stuff we weren't going to make life difficult for them.  Did have to address this with parents a couple times at practice, tho.....

As a parent when the boys played jh/hs ball, yeah sometimes I would comment on something to my wife or the guy sitting next to me, but that's it.  I have been to games where the abuse got pretty bad, usually by the fans.  In fact, after one game the law had to escort the refs to their vehicles.  Not of of the better called games IMHO, but no excuse for that kind of behavior from the fans.  For the most part during my kids playing "careers", I kept my mouth shut and let the refs and coaches do their thing.

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11 minutes ago, JustRules said:

The leagues I worked when I started were pretty good (Brownsburg and HSE) because the leagues didn't tolerate poor behavior from coaches or parents. I did some CYO as well and don't remember that being bad. But when my son played CYO I saw nasty behavior from both coaches and parents. The kids just wanted to play football. Where I saw really bad behavior was rec league soccer and baseball where the officials were often 14-18 year old kids. I was stunned.

A co-worker used to umpire select baseball games and his college-aged son at the time did some softball.  Both had several instances where they threw parents out and even ejected a few coaches.  Pathetic.

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As a youth board member and trying to schedule referees, the movement of JV games to Saturday have hurt our ability to get licensed IHSAA officials for the youth games.  I typically have a handful that I get to work games and then I may have 1 (out of a 3 man crew) that isn't licensed. 

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14 minutes ago, 1st_and_10 said:

As a youth board member and trying to schedule referees, the movement of JV games to Saturday have hurt our ability to get licensed IHSAA officials for the youth games.  I typically have a handful that I get to work games and then I may have 1 (out of a 3 man crew) that isn't licensed. 

Can you play your youth games on Sunday?

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2 minutes ago, 1st_and_10 said:

There are 7 different leagues that come together to form a "Conference"... Would be difficult to get all of them to buy in on Sundays. 

Thank you for the explanation.

The Sunday route would be my suggestion, or maybe split 1/2 of the games on Saturday evening, 1/2 on Sundays (as a compromise)....this is if all your fields have lights.

Best wishes.

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20 minutes ago, 1st_and_10 said:

As a youth board member and trying to schedule referees, the movement of JV games to Saturday have hurt our ability to get licensed IHSAA officials for the youth games.  I typically have a handful that I get to work games and then I may have 1 (out of a 3 man crew) that isn't licensed. 

The interesting part of that is a lot of the freshman/JV games on Saturday have a hard time finding officials because so many are working youth leagues. Do I go work a freshman game and get paid $50-$60 for 90-120 minutes on the field. Or do I work 4 youth league games and get paid $200 for 3-4 hours of work? It definitely goes both ways. I agree moving these games to Saturday has affected both groups in finding officials.

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13 hours ago, JustRules said:

 It seems most who leave the high school field are advancing in college (we have a disproportionate number of college officials working D2 through NFL compared to nearby states), work/family demands, relocation, or age/health reasons.

I just realized something about this.  Indiana primarily plays games on Friday nights throughout the playoffs.  I know Illinois generally plays playoff games on Saturdays.  Do other states do that as well?

My point is, if I'm an official, I would take some pride in advancing throughout the playoffs with my crew.  Illinois would not be ideal, as I couldn't schedule a late October/Early November collegiate game as I would hope to be doing a playoff game.  In Indiana I could.

Am I oversimplifying it, or could that be a reason why Indiana has a disproportionate number of collegiate officals ?  

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10 minutes ago, oldtimeqb said:

I just realized something about this.  Indiana primarily plays games on Friday nights throughout the playoffs.  I know Illinois generally plays playoff games on Saturdays.  Do other states do that as well?

My point is, if I'm an official, I would take some pride in advancing throughout the playoffs with my crew.  Illinois would not be ideal, as I couldn't schedule a late October/Early November collegiate game as I would hope to be doing a playoff game.  In Indiana I could.

Am I oversimplifying it, or could that be a reason why Indiana has a disproportionate number of collegiate officals ?  

Your point about potential schedule conflicts is valid. I have several officiating friends in Illinois and they've never mentioned it. Maybe they get the Friday playoff assignments. Keep in mind very few officials advance in the tournament and Illinois with a qualifying tournament have even fewer who get a playoff game.

But that would have nothing to do with advancement in college. We've just had a very good run of guys who have advanced. When I started there was only 1 NFL official in Indiana and maybe 4 or 5 Big Ten officials. Now there are 6 NFL officials in Indiana (most who went through B1G), 5 B1G, 5 MAC, and 5 MVFC officials. Most of that group were HS and/or small college officials when I started. Many of them probably worked your middle school games back in the day.

It's very hard to advance past the D3 ranks as spots are more limited and competitive as you move up. The men and women who make it to the D1 or NFL level have put in a lot of time and effort and energy and been scrutinized heavily to even get to that level. Then the level of evaluation once you get there is even higher. Just because they aren't publicly reprimanded doesn't mean they aren't addressed.

Some of you have attended the IFOA clinic in June. Our clinicians there usually include these NFL and college officials in addition to the top high school officials around the state. It would be like the state coaches clinic having Mark Nagy, Frank Reich, Mike Tomlin, Jeff Brohm, Urban Meyer, Brian Kelly, Kurt Mallory (ISU), Chris Keevers (UIndy), Mike Leonard (Franklin), and Mark Henninger (Marian) as your presenters every year. We are very blessed.

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2 minutes ago, JustRules said:

Your point about potential schedule conflicts is valid. I have several officiating friends in Illinois and they've never mentioned it. Maybe they get the Friday playoff assignments. Keep in mind very few officials advance in the tournament and Illinois with a qualifying tournament have even fewer who get a playoff game.

But that would have nothing to do with advancement in college. We've just had a very good run of guys who have advanced. When I started there was only 1 NFL official in Indiana and maybe 4 or 5 Big Ten officials. Now there are 6 NFL officials in Indiana (most who went through B1G), 5 B1G, 5 MAC, and 5 MVFC officials. Most of that group were HS and/or small college officials when I started. Many of them probably worked your middle school games back in the day.

It's very hard to advance past the D3 ranks as spots are more limited and competitive as you move up. The men and women who make it to the D1 or NFL level have put in a lot of time and effort and energy and been scrutinized heavily to even get to that level. Then the level of evaluation once you get there is even higher. Just because they aren't publicly reprimanded doesn't mean they aren't addressed.

Some of you have attended the IFOA clinic in June. Our clinicians there usually include these NFL and college officials in addition to the top high school officials around the state. It would be like the state coaches clinic having Mark Nagy, Frank Reich, Mike Tomlin, Jeff Brohm, Urban Meyer, Brian Kelly, Kurt Mallory (ISU), Chris Keevers (UIndy), Mike Leonard (Franklin), and Mark Henninger (Marian) as your presenters every year. We are very blessed.

If I was interested on moving up to do college games as an official (through hard work and being great at my job---DO NOT WANT ANYTHING HANDED TO ME), how would I go about doing that?

I am thinking out loud as I have a schedule that would allow this, IF I was fortunate enough to earn the opportunity.

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1 minute ago, DannEllenwood said:

If I was interested on moving up to do college games as an official (through hard work and being great at my job---DO NOT WANT ANYTHING HANDED TO ME), how would I go about doing that?

I am thinking out loud as I have a schedule that would allow this, IF I was fortunate enough to earn the opportunity.

The rule of thumb is work high school varsity football for 5 years before trying to do college. The reason for that is muscle memory is such a huge part of being good at this. The more you've seen a pulling guard on the edge trying to block a DB without holding or a receiver and defender hand fighting as they run down the field or had to rule on a close catch/no catch on the sideline or a runner breaking the plane of the goal line before his knee touches the better you'll be. But there are definitely exceptions to that rule.

As for getting in there is no magic formula, but generally you are doing the following things. First, contact the supervisor of officials for a local D3/NAIA/JC conference and request an application. If you know someone already working in the conference they should be able to help you with that as well. Attend any local clinics or study group meetings in your area as often as you can. This helps you learn more about college officiating and also connect with college officials. Networking and advocacy help play a big part as well.

In Indy we have a D2 and D3 official who host a monthly study group in Carmel January - June. A group of D1 officials host a bi-weekly study group at Butler during the season. If you are closer to Chicago I believe they do similar things there. The IFOA hosts a clinic every February for college officials. It's open to anyone interested so you could definitely attend that next year. The study groups are also open to any HS official who wants to learn more. There are also larger clinics all over the country and you could go broke attending as many as you wanted. The Marian clinic is $90 and it's one day. Some of the clinics are multiple days and include scrimmages and cost over $1000.

Once you get started with that you work college JV games and scrimmages to get on field experience and work with experienced officials. Every year the local D3 conference has at leas some turnover and hires from the list of applicants who have been doing all the things above. There are examples of officials who have tried for 3 or 4 years and never get that varsity opportunity. There are some working varsity games their second year. Like anything there are multiple factors. The key is to have a mentor who can help you.

Geography plays a big role. It helps to be in an area where there are already a lot of college officials. Believe it or not someone in South Bend has a hard time because they aren't in the footprint of any conference. They are surrounded by small college conferences, but they are 4-5 hours form many of the schools in those conferences. There is only 1 B1G official in South Bend and he's the only college official there so there are no study groups. You would have to travel a lot with little or no compensation to break in. It's not impossible but you would have to work a lot harder.

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39 minutes ago, JustRules said:

The rule of thumb is work high school varsity football for 5 years before trying to do college. The reason for that is muscle memory is such a huge part of being good at this. The more you've seen a pulling guard on the edge trying to block a DB without holding or a receiver and defender hand fighting as they run down the field or had to rule on a close catch/no catch on the sideline or a runner breaking the plane of the goal line before his knee touches the better you'll be. But there are definitely exceptions to that rule.

As for getting in there is no magic formula, but generally you are doing the following things. First, contact the supervisor of officials for a local D3/NAIA/JC conference and request an application. If you know someone already working in the conference they should be able to help you with that as well. Attend any local clinics or study group meetings in your area as often as you can. This helps you learn more about college officiating and also connect with college officials. Networking and advocacy help play a big part as well.

In Indy we have a D2 and D3 official who host a monthly study group in Carmel January - June. A group of D1 officials host a bi-weekly study group at Butler during the season. If you are closer to Chicago I believe they do similar things there. The IFOA hosts a clinic every February for college officials. It's open to anyone interested so you could definitely attend that next year. The study groups are also open to any HS official who wants to learn more. There are also larger clinics all over the country and you could go broke attending as many as you wanted. The Marian clinic is $90 and it's one day. Some of the clinics are multiple days and include scrimmages and cost over $1000.

Once you get started with that you work college JV games and scrimmages to get on field experience and work with experienced officials. Every year the local D3 conference has at leas some turnover and hires from the list of applicants who have been doing all the things above. There are examples of officials who have tried for 3 or 4 years and never get that varsity opportunity. There are some working varsity games their second year. Like anything there are multiple factors. The key is to have a mentor who can help you.

Geography plays a big role. It helps to be in an area where there are already a lot of college officials. Believe it or not someone in South Bend has a hard time because they aren't in the footprint of any conference. They are surrounded by small college conferences, but they are 4-5 hours form many of the schools in those conferences. There is only 1 B1G official in South Bend and he's the only college official there so there are no study groups. You would have to travel a lot with little or no compensation to break in. It's not impossible but you would have to work a lot harder.

Great information.  Thank you.  Lots to think about.

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3 hours ago, oldtimeqb said:

I just realized something about this.  Indiana primarily plays games on Friday nights throughout the playoffs.  I know Illinois generally plays playoff games on Saturdays.  Do other states do that as well?

My point is, if I'm an official, I would take some pride in advancing throughout the playoffs with my crew.  Illinois would not be ideal, as I couldn't schedule a late October/Early November collegiate game as I would hope to be doing a playoff game.  In Indiana I could.

Am I oversimplifying it, or could that be a reason why Indiana has a disproportionate number of collegiate officals ?  

Generally speaking, any games that are played on Saturday afternoon in Illinois are because their fields are not equipped with lights. At least that's the case in NE Illinois.  In my sons' entire careers, I had only attended (and officiated) varisty games on Friday nights.  The only times they played Saturday afternoons were because those fields had no lights

 

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7 hours ago, snrmike said:

Generally speaking, any games that are played on Saturday afternoon in Illinois are because their fields are not equipped with lights. At least that's the case in NE Illinois.  In my sons' entire careers, I had only attended (and officiated) varisty games on Friday nights.  The only times they played Saturday afternoons were because those fields had no lights

 

The Southern Illinois area they play many playoff games on Saturday afternoon's because they are driving 2.5 to 3 hours for the games. 

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22 hours ago, JustRules said:

The leagues I worked when I started were pretty good (Brownsburg and HSE) because the leagues didn't tolerate poor behavior from coaches or parents. I did some CYO as well and don't remember that being bad. But when my son played CYO I saw nasty behavior from both coaches and parents. The kids just wanted to play football. Where I saw really bad behavior was rec league soccer and baseball where the officials were often 14-18 year old kids. I was stunned.

Glad that you felt we did a pretty good job in Brownsburg.   I know many of us worked very hard to keep parents and coaches in there lanes.  Not saying we were perfect at it but we did try our best.  Since I worked with our officials I had some great insights and we tried to make sure we were all on same page.  I got the feeling not every league had our same thought process.  

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23 minutes ago, Wally1832 said:

Glad that you felt we did a pretty good job in Brownsburg.   I know many of us worked very hard to keep parents and coaches in there lanes.  Not saying we were perfect at it but we did try our best.  Since I worked with our officials I had some great insights and we tried to make sure we were all on same page.  I got the feeling not every league had our same thought process.  

This was about 20 years ago so glad to hear the leadership is still similar. The other thing they did well was have a board member on the field for every game to help with the league-specific rules. One challenge of youth football is each league has their own set of rules in addition to the normal HS rules. For example, the LBs couldn't be any closer than 3 yards from the LOS and DL had to line up heads up on the OL (no gaps). The board member addressed those things so the licensed officials could focus on the rules we already knew. If anything got crazy I think the board member would have addressed it, but there were rarely any issues.

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