This is the sixth in a series of eight planned newsletters from Multi-County Football Officials Association for the 2006 season. The subject of this newsletter is to discuss game day and the management of the football game.

GHSA mandates certain requirements of the officiating crew as well as of each of the football teams. Much of the rest depends upon the good offices of the association assigned to call your game.

 We are required to be at the game site not later than 90 minutes before scheduled kick-off. For example, for a 7:30 PM kick-off, we should all be on site by 6 PM. We use the first hour after arrival to get situated in our dressing area, change into our game uniforms and conduct our own, officials-only pre-game meeting. In order for this to work well, we need a designated parking area for up to seven officials’ cars and a private place to meet and change clothes. We don’t need much room for this, but we do need private space and easy access to restroom facilities. Optionally on your part, we would appreciate any water and similar refreshments you care to provide.

We are required to take control of the field no later than 30 minutes prior to the scheduled kick-off. That is we will take charge of the field at 7 PM for a scheduled 7:30 PM kick-off. Our entire crew will emerge from our pre-game meeting area and go to the 50 yard line on the press box side of the field before breaking to perform our individually assigned duties. In the case where the Referee and Umpire must pass right by the home team’s head coach, we may drop off from the group going to the 50 and begin the pre-game meeting with the home coach right away.

As mentioned in our previous newsletter, the Line Judge is the official designated to liaise with “game management.”  This might be the facilities manager, the band director or perhaps the assistant principal. Who is assigned this duty is not ours to decide. But we do need to know who to have the Line Judge talk to about any problems we may find with the field set-up and to coordinate the timely completion of any pre-game festivities including such extra events as Senior Night or Homecoming and routine every-game events like the playing of the National Anthem.

During the pre-game meeting with the coaches, we’ll cover several other subjects. We always start with the home team, first. We meet separately with each head coach. If necessary, we may meet a second time with both coaches to handle unusual circumstances. While rare, we will try to settle all pre-game requirements before the start of the contest. For example, when games in different classifications meet, we need to have a decision as to what to do in case of a tie at the end of regulation. Overtime is not automatic in this case. Both coaches need to have agreed to play overtime in this case prior to the start of the game for us to play on. Otherwise, the game ends in a tie. Especially early in the season, we’ll also likely discuss exceptional weather conditions and any extras measures, such as possible official time-outs for water breaks, that might be necessary or useful. Safety is our number one concern. We take it very seriously.

During the pre-game with each team we will cover a number of standard issues. While each Referee and Umpire may have their own style of covering the many requirements, somewhere during the meeting, the following items should be covered: 

• Legality of equipment worn by all players. We won’t start the game until each head coach answers “yes” to the question, “Are all your players legally equipped?” Remember that for 2006 players are required to have a minimum of 4 snap points for their chin straps and they must use mouthpieces colored something other than white or clear. The Umpire will rule on any questionable equipment as well as the adequacy of padding around such items as casts and knee braces. And he’ll rule on the legality of your proposed game balls.
• We’ll ask about any trick or unusual plays. You’re NOT required to tell us anything in response to this question. But to the extent that we understand more about how you plan to run your game, we’ll be in a lot better position to call a good game for you. We can explain the minimum requirements required to make various unusual plays legal. Generally, it is a lot better to find out prior to running a play that there is special requirement to make that play legal than to find out (via penalty flag) that the play was not legal.
• We’ll talk about the designated “game manager” for the Line Judge. We will also verify the time of day, expected kick-off time and the requirement that captains be ready 10 minutes before kick-off to participate in the coin toss ceremony.
• We are required by rule to discuss sportsmanship with each head coach as well as with team captains. We’ll do this in the pre-game meeting with the coaches and with the captains at the coin toss ceremony. While we never anticipate a negative sportsmanship issue, we treat sportsmanship as a primary aspect of the game. The observation of good sportsmanship starts with the head coach and works down through his assistants and to the players.
• We’ll want to get the names and numbers of your captains. You may designate up to four (4) players to be captains to be present on-field at the coin toss.
• We will provide you and your opponent with a list of officials working your game. We’ll also remind you of this web site, www.mcfoafootball.org, where you can evaluate the crew working this game.
• Finally, we’ll discuss anything else pertinent to the game that you may wish to discuss with us prior to the start of the game.

As far as in-game activity is concerned, our goal is to provide each team with a fair opportunity to compete. We will attempt to establish a natural tempo for the game. We will call any safety violations we see, regardless of impact on the play. But we’ll try hard in regards to other penalties to only call live ball fouls that impact that play. To the extent that we can use preventive officiating techniques, we will. But we will not tolerate unsportsmanlike acts from either team. When penalties do occur or when exceptional events occur on the field, we will relay that information to you just as quickly as we can. And you have the option to call a charged time-out for the purpose of having a coach-referee conference at any time that suits your needs.