High School Football Referee Guide

Hey, welcome back to the High School Referee Guide Blog!  A while back we talked about crew communication prior to the game. Let’s expand on that a little bit more today.  Some people think we just walk on the field and officiate the game, right?  Wrong!!    Today I will talk about the pregame routine and all the details we address as a high school football crew.

As a rule, we like to be on the field at least 35 minutes prior to kickoff time.  During this time members of the  crew should meet with each team’s head coach and follow these rules of communication: continue reading…

It’s been another busy football week here in Northern Colorado! I have done a Jr. High or Jr. Varsity game pretty much every day this week. Last Saturday I had the opportunity to white-hat for a local youth league. The team I officiated for was 4th graders – they were so excited about playing football! I just loved watching their energy and enthusiasm. Doing these type of things in your community can really keep an official jazzed about the sport.

Four guys from our varsity crew are going on the road this afternoon to the Eastern Plains to officiate an 8 man game. We’ll take sandwiches and other “road food”. It will be a long day (2 1/2 hour drive each way!) but these rural schools have just as much interest in the games as the big name local high schools.

Remember, as an official, it’s not about always working big games or playoff games….it’s about the kids and the athletic programs and the loyal fans at the schools no matter how big or small. Keep a good attitude and enjoy your officiating at EVERY game…

till next time…..

New high school football officials often ask for advice and I always tell them: Never stop learning from every experience. I believe that almost ALL games can be used as potential learning experiences. I try to learn something from key situations in games, from other officials (new or old), and from rule changes. Many officials will tell you that it is a good practice to write down your goals before the season starts regardless of how many years you’ve been officiating. continue reading…

The 2009 High School Football Season is Underway!!

Sorry for the delay in posting – I have been up to my eyeballs serving as white-hat for Jr. High games while waiting for my varsity game season to start on the 5th of September!   Also there are weekly football association meetings to attend and I’m still officiating for a softball league at work.   whew – there are not enough hours in the day!

Anyway as you all know, this time of the year is especially busy so bear with me and I’ll try to update this blog as often as I can with useful information for the High School Football Official. Let me know if there is something you’d like me to cover in a future blog post.

Now, let’s talk about high school football official crew communication continue reading…