Week 3 Notes

New Rules Clinics for Orange County High School Coaches

• The new rules are normally released in February then final editorial changes in July. Coaches at our August presentation said it would be beneficial to have clinics in May 2007 and August 2007. We are willing to set up presentations of the 2007 new rules. Your feedback is necessary as to when and where would be these events.
• We are requesting that two schools (one from South Orange County / one from North Orange County) provide the venues. This would give coaching staffs four opportunities to listen to rule changes as well as ask questions of how the game will be officiated. Two locations reduce the amount of driving for coaching staffs.
• We value your time as we did in last Augusts’ meeting. The 2007 rules presentations will not exceed two hours.
• Suggestions for rule changes / editorial changes should be submitted to us by October 2^nd. We will forward the information to Steve Stearns, California State Rules Interpreter. He gathers California’s suggestions then forwards them to the National High School Federation.

Communication

• There are some officials who have stated they do not refer to the Weekly Notes because their classroom instruction made decisions that are contrary to these Weekly Notes. This is one reason we are issuing Weekly Notes! Emails from coaches, athletic directors and officials are sent to Paul Wyllie (Assignor & Ratings Chairman) and me (Paul Caldera, Instructional Chairman). Paul Wyllie & I clarify what is the correct instruction, interpretation and how the rating committee will view each situation. I write the Weekly Notes then submit them for Paul Wyllie’s review. He proofs the document and sends out the email to everyone. These Weekly Notes supersede the classroom instruction! Officials who do not take these emails to heart are risking their own rating scores.

Rules

• We seem to have fixed the visor issue. The mouth piece and back pad issues are almost resolved. Hard casts needs clarification. If a player intends to participate with a properly padded hard cast, the team is to supply a “Copy of the doctor’s note” to the officiating crew. The crew keeps the copy of the note. This is to happen at every game the player intends to play. If there is not a note available for the crew, the player does not play.
• Coaches must stay off the field. We have had officials that have been reluctant to enforce sideline control then are physically hurt during the game by running into teams/coaches drifting on the field. Old school was rotating backs or receivers between downs to send the new plays in. Some football teams implemented hand signals to speed up the process. Quarterbacks are now running to the head coach between downs to receive the new plays. Coaches would drift more and more onto the field (to save time for the quarterback). Officials would allow this action. No More! Coaches as well as officials must do whatever is necessary to clear the sidelines. Coaches, do not be surprised by the actions of the officials to clear the sidelines. Officials, do not be surprised if you are critically marked down by an evaluator for not clearing the sidelines.

Classification Exam

• The website has been updated. Go to www.ocfoa.org then click “2006 Instructional Program”. All previous test questions with the correct answers are posted under “Test/Quizzes”. This is a great source to study for your Classification Exam on October 18^th. There will be 50 questions.

Weight Game Evaluations

• Referees, we are starting to let the weight game evaluations slide a bit. Please understand that the officials that work with you know that you are expected to file an evaluation on them and they call me when they don’t get the evaluation.

Coaches Cards

• We have developed the on-line coaches cards to make it easier for the coaches to provide input on the performance of the officials. These cards are very important to us as they are the only independent means that we can use to judge the quality of our officiating. There have been 97 varsity games played so far this year, which means that there is a possibility of 194 coaches cards being submitted. To date, we have received 25 cards. If anyone has any ideas on how we can make the system any easier to use, please contact Paul Wyllie at 714-639-8760.

Call the school

• The schools know that they should have someone contact them to confirm every game. When they don’t receive the contacts, they are beginning to contact the assigner. This is very embarrassing to the association.

Call the Referee

• All officials are supposed to call their referee by 9:00 pm on Tuesday. Referees, if you don’t hear from your partners by then, you are supposed to contact them Tuesday night. If you can’t get in touch with them, you are to call the assigner Wednesday morning. That way the assigner can make sure that someone will show up to work with you. Please don’t wait until Thursday morning to tell the assigner that you haven’t heard from your partner for Thursday’s game.