• Because our regular season contracts are now assigned to us by GHSA, we eliminated the largely superfluous position of VP, Contracts and created a new position of VP, Marketing in its place. The idea here was to develop improved relationships with lots of different groups. These include contracted and non-contracted schools in our area, fans of high school football, GHSA and other local associations, the media, and anyone else who we can think of to help promote interest in the activities of MCFOA and the officiating avocation in general.

• We were published each Friday of the regular season in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Gwinnett section) in an "Ask the Ref" column. Tony Cordaro obtained this space for us as one of his first initiatives in his new role as Vice President, Marketing. About half-a-dozen of our folks contributed at least one of these weekly articles. In the column we covered new or changed rules for 2006 or interesting situations and rule applications that are often confusing to the average high school football fan. We hope to continue this column again in 2007.

• We participated in a short film demonstration each week, shown Saturday mornings on WAGA as part of their in-season high school football coverage. This was another of Tony Cordaro's innovations. It was another way for us to show the public what officiating is all about and to help get the Multi-County name circulated in a very positive way. We hope to be able to do this or something very similar to this again in 2007.

• We increased the number of pre-season and regular season meetings from 13 to 14 with the additional week coming at the start of the pre-season. The effect was to give us one more week of training before the Part II exam. We will look toward expanding training even further in 2007 even as we strive to keep the number and length of our meetings at a level that interferes as little as possible with the time our members have to devote to other personal business.

• We observed a stronger crew concept through the regular season than we typically have in years past. This was a quite purposeful and deliberate effort. When it came time for the playoffs, regular season crews that had scored well throughout the season were kept largely intact as deep into the playoffs as was possible; some crews were entirely intact in the first round, for example. While we will continue to tweak the entire crew process going forward, especially to allow early opportunities for promising new officials in the organization to prove themselves, the use of a strong crew concept has proven highly successful. You can expect us to continue to use a similar set-up in 2007 as the one used in 2006, particularly in the latter half of the season as we solidify crews for the playoffs.

• We established an "internal evaluator" position that was filled by Dave Lloyd. Dave volunteered to go around to visit several regular season games using MCFOA crews and provided a similar evaluation as would be done by GHSA evaluators. But by sticking to MCFOA crews, exclusively, and by being the lone evaluator involved in this effort, Dave was able to relay consistent critiques of our on-field performance and entire game-day experience. This made for easier comparisons of performances between crews and aided our ability to standardize our efforts relative to GHSA standards.

• We took our show "on the road" for several Varsity games in 2006. This was done, in part, to help balance the schedule between different associations given the inevitable weekly imbalances that occur when handling so many schools' contracts. GHSA asked all associations to help out with balancing coverage. MCFOA was happy to comply and did so actively. In particular, we got to see a couple of Class A ballgames, one for a region championship and another between teams on the other end of the spectrum playing non-region schedules. For very different reasons, each of these games was fun to do; and the schools we served were well-pleased with our service. We hope and expect GHSA will put us "on the road" again for several games in 2007.

• We took greater advantage of our Position Representatives in 2006 than we have in previous years. We added a couple of more breakout sessions led entirely by Position Reps during the concentrated training season. Here the Reps relayed the information they had received during the GHSA summer clinics. We plan to continue sending Position Reps to the GHSA clinics in 2007 and have them relay what they learn there much as they did in 2006.

• Varsity: We did 90 regular season GHSA games over the course of an 11-week-long period; all used 6-man on-field crews plus an ECO. In DeKalb County, we also provided chain crews for each Varsity game. For the 11 weeks of the regular season, we averaged doing 8.18 GHSA games per week. We had only four games in week 6, but no less than eight games in any other week. We had eight games in each of weeks 1, 2, 7, 9, 10 and 11, nine games in weeks 3 and 8, and ten games in weeks 4 and 5. All this included 1 Thursday game and 10 Saturday contests; these totaled 12% of our Varsity assignments. In general, we expect to have even more non-Friday-night games on our schedule in the years to come.
•  We also worked an additional six non-GHSA Varsity games where non-GHSA schools needed our service and our GHSA commitments allowed us to do do without diluting the quality of service we were providing to anyone.

• Sub-Varsity: We worked a total of 129 games, almost all of which we successfully covered with 4-man crews - even with the typical last minute changes that happen due to weather and other scheduling factors at this level of play. This was done over the course of a 9-week-long season.

• First Round - 6 games: AAAAA Norcross (7-1) vs Walton (6-4) - Garner; AAAAA M. L. King (2-2) vs Bradwell Institute @ Haliford - Camp; AAAA Mays (6-2) vs NW Whitfield (7-3) @ Lakewood - Rice; AAA McNair (5-2) vs Franklin County (8-3) @ Panthersville - Davis; AAA Hart County (8-2) vs Dunwoody (5-3) - Reed; AAA North Hall vs Cass - Tarquinio
• This compared to 5 games in the first round in each of the previous 4 years: 2002, 2003, 2004 & 2005.

• Second Round - 3 games: AAAAA Stephenson vs Coffee County @ Haliford - Garner; AA Calhoun vs Greene County - Reed; A Athens Academy vs Hancock Central - Davis
• This compared to 2 games in the second round in each of the previous 4 years: 2002, 2003, 2004 & 2005.

• Third Round - 1 game: AAA Grady vs Shaw - Reed
• This compared to 1 game in the third round in the years 2002 & 2003 and no games in the years 2004 & 2005.

• We handled 3 more total playoff games in 2006 compared to 2005. That is a 43% increase in playoff opportunities year-to-year, a huge jump! While there can be no guarantee that we will get as many playoff games in 2007 as we did in 2006 (or even more!), the trend is in the right direction. GHSA doesn't award playoff games on a mere whim. Getting the opportunity for these additional playoff games came from our improved on-field performance week-to-week during the regular season, better test scores (on all 3 GHSA tests) and the positive energy that exudes form each and every member of the association. We've done remarkably well in our delivery of service recently; we need to keep this momentum going in 2007.

• Follow this link to view a gallery of playoff crew pictures: 2006 Playoff Pictures

• We had a total membership of 97 officials as of 8/29/06. This is roughly average size for the 21 GHSA-sanctioned local officiating associations.

• In 2006 MCFOA moved this web site to a lower cost provider, thereby saving the organization approximately $30/month (total $360 for the year) over the previous contract. This was done even as new features, including near "real-time" updates to game assignments, became available.

• First Vice-President: Frank Reed (newly elected)
  Booking Agent: T. C. Candis (re-elected)
  Vice-President, Training: Joe Rice (re-elected)
  Vice-President, Marketing: Tony Cordaro (elected after having served an interim appointment for a year)
   

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