Ah, the off-season! A time to relax, hang out, slack off, forget about football, maybe work some basketball, play golf, eat and drink hardily…..
NOT!
The football off-season is definitely not the time to “let it all go”. Officiating has become a year-round avocation. It takes just as much work, if not more, during the off-season to become a highly successful and quality official. You must continue to prepare for coming seasons in the off-season period. This time should be utilized wisely and effeciently so that you are fully prepared when the new season begins.
Rules knowledge is VERY important in today’s game. Players, coaches, media and even fans are becoming more knowledgeable with the rules. You are expected to know them, you are the expert! Study the rules books and the monumental amount of rules information that can be found on-line!! Get with your crew regularly to discuss mechanics and field operations throughout the off-season. You do not want to come into the next season “cold”.
GET YOURSELF IN SHAPE! Many officials nation-wide do not look the part of an official. It is very important to your credibility to look the part. The talent at the high school level is ever-increasing and you must be able to be athletic and move with the speed of the players. Your appearance on the field is a large part of the perception that you are projecting. Not only will you look good if you are in top, physical condition, you will feel good as well and gain even further respect from coaches and players and show a high-level of committment.
Camps and clinics will be available for attendance soon. Take the time and attend as many of them as you can. NCAA clinics, although designed for college officials, can and will improve your high school football officiating. There will be techniques that you will learn that can be easily transferred to the high school game. You will be among brothers on the field and the experience that you can take away will certainly improve your performance.
Don’t let the off-season pass you by and then suddenly realize that you are not ready for the next season. Invest in yourself, your crew and the game…………..
Playoff assignments are your reward for having a successful season. These assignments are not taken lightly and there are many requirements that you must complete prior to and throughout the season to even be eligible.
The OSSAA Director of Officials makes his decisions on crews each week that are comprised of the playoff points system, composite ratings, test scores and evaluations. Once those are reviewed, each eligible crew is ranked from top to bottom. If you have taken care of your officiating business, provided top-level officiating and worked with integrity and professionalism, there will always be a strong possibility of your crew working in the playoffs.
So far this year, the GTOA has been well represented again. In Round 1, we had 23 crews assigned. And now, in Round 2, we have 14 crews assigned. This is a very positive aspect for the GTOA!!
If your crew was not assigned a playoff game, take the time to complete your own crew evaluation and attempt to determine what may have kept you out of the mix. Was it test scores or ratings? Did your crew do everything possible to increase your playoff points (i.e. - Mentoring Program, camps/clinics, etc.)?
Contgratulations to the crews who have been assigned so far in this years’ Playoff Series!! Beginning in Round 3, the need for crews drops off dramatically. It is the association’s hope that we have continued success this year and get crews assigned in Round 3 and further, including State Championship games.
Work hard, and good luck!!
As the 2011 high school football season comes to a close, take the time to reflect on how well you and your crew handled every situation that may have occurred.
Were you able to identify areas that need improvement?
Did you actively make necessary adjustments during the game?
Was there a quality pre-game discussion each week?
What were your foul tendencies and thresholds?
Were you professional and prepared?
Did you review situations that may have caused problems?
Was game film requested and reviewed?
Did you keep an accurate jounal of all crew activities?
These are the things that great officials do year in and year out. This is what it takes to improve and get better each year. No one official or crew has a perfect game. Something can be made better.
The playoffs will be assigned very soon. If your crew does not receive an assignment, you need to look hard at what has been said here. Football officiating takes time, preparation, focus, concentration and much more work to be successful.
Begin to plan your offseason now. You must stay connected to football during this period. You cannot just forget about the game and expect to be ready when we start up again in July of next year.
Be a great official……….
The 2011 high school football season is quickly nearing an end. The OSSAA will soon be in the final decision-making process for the playoff assignment list for this season.
Last year, 88 crews were used on Week 1 of the playoffs and many, if not most, were from the GTOA. If you have taken care of your officiating business and worked to improve each week, you and your crew have an excellent shot at an initial assignment and every opportunity to advance!
It will be very important that you continue to improve and fine-tune all aspects of your field operations during these final two weeks of the regular season. What you do and how you operate can certainly set you apart from the rest.
Be cognizant of your game. Know where both teams stand. Know that your game could decide the fate of one team or another. But also know that your game may be for school pride for either team. Regardless of the impact of the game, work it like it is a championship contest.
Each week during the playoffs, the need for officials dramatically decreases and only the top officials/crews will be chosen to move on. Make every effort to ensure that your crew advances as far as possible and be prepared for the unexpected assignment. It happens every year!!
It is that time of year again when the weather can change dramatically. During the course of any given week (or day for that matter), it may be smothering hot for a day or two and then bitterly cold on other days. It might be perfect weather when you start the game and then freezing rain/sleet or even snow after halftime……..yes, it can be that severe of a change.
Pull out all of your cold weather gear for inspection now. Get it ready and put it in your bag. Make sure that if you have any worn or tattered cold weather items, get them replaced properly and in a timely manner. You do NOT want to be caught at the game site without proper gear. If you are, it will make for a long, miserable, uncomfortable night that will take your focus off of the game.
It is suggested that you take spares or extras of cold weather items/gear for those crew mates that may have forgotten to bring theirs along or to actually wear if the temperatures drop rapidly. A biting, cold wind requires proper clothing to keep warm! Not to mention this will fight against hypothermia or frostbite…….it can happen.
Lastly, be sure that you and your crew dress uniformly for cold weather games. This will keep your professional appearance intact and show your preparedness for the event. But remember, NO JACKETS are to be worn within the GTOA.
Stay warm, safe and dry!
Every season we hear coach’s and their staffs bring up the foul count issue……”We have 5 fouls and they only have 1!” That very well may be true, at least at that point of the game. This happens more often in the game of basketball, but it is occuring more often in football games and coaches want you to “even up the fouls” or “call it both ways.”
When this situation occurs, it is necessary to explain to coaches that as officials, we officiate and administer the game as a whole, as we see it, and do not keep record of the number of fouls committed by either team. But be careful and don’t tell a coach that they are “just fouling more than the other team” or go a step further and tell the coach to have his team “stop fouling”. That will make for a long night.
On the flip side, if you do notice a trend where one team is being penalized more than the other, your crew should have a discussion on consistency. Is the crew calling major fouls on boths sides of the ball consistently or is the team not fundamentally sound and have several administrative fouls (delay, false start, offsides, etc.)?
Even though one team is up the charts on the foul count, be absolutely sure that you do not put in a ”make up call” or calls or worse yet have ”phantom calls” just to make the opposing coach happy.
Just as in basketball where consistency is very important at both ends of the court, it is just as important in football on both sides of the ball. If you are calling major fouls by one team for a certain action and the same action occurs when the other team has the ball and there is no call, then you are not consistent and your credibility will be damaged.
Every official wants to be right…….all of the time. But the fact of the matter is, we are not. Sometimes we throw our flags wishing with every ounce of our being that we had not. This is something that can happen in any game, at any level and at any time.
The “old school” of thought was, that if you threw your flag, regardless if you were right or wrong, you were right. Officials would NEVER make a mistake or admit error, especially in front of a large crowd, and would go with their call even if they knew it was incorrect. Even worse, they would make something up so that it at least sounded good during the Referee’s announcement.
Times have changed.
As skilled football officials, our job is to get it right and get better every game. If you throw your flag, and immediately think, “I shouldn’t have done that…..”, or your gut tells you it’s wrong, then pick it up and wave it off. There is absolutely no shame in picking up a flag in today’s officiating world.
Take for instance NCAA officials. Nearly every play is reviewed by a Replay Official. Initially, when replay became a large part of the game, NCAA officials thought it was a huge crime for a Replay Official to overturn their call on the field. How could an official in a skybox, with slow motion overturn a call that was seen at game speed with a split-second decision having to be made? The audacity!!
Now, NCAA officials are grateful for replay. They know that with the advent of technology their calls can be corrected if they were in error and replay adds another level of fairness to the game and can be used as a training tool to make NCAA officials better by increasing their vision and timing.
At the high school level, there is no instant replay. The decisions are made purely on the field with no assistance. It’s do or die when that big call (or not) happens right in front of you. Let your instincts guide you. If you feel your flag was in error, pick it up. Explain to the coach why you are doing so and move on with the game.
Let the athletes decide the outcome, not your pride.
It is the responsibility of EVERY member on your crew to assist with game management. It does not solely rest on the shoulders of the Referee.
Understand and adapt to the pace of the game. Do not intentionally slow down the pace because you are tired or need a rest. Let the teams set the pace and you keep up with it appropriately. Now, this is not saying that there won’t be situations where you must interrupt the pace for an administrative issue, but do not intentionally slow the pace down for any team.
Penalty administration and down tracking is a crew responsibility. When you mis-administer a penalty or miss or add a down, your crew loses all credibility and it is virtually a death sentence. There are 5 crew members on the field. Every official should be a check and balance for each other. Know the down, know the penalty administration, know the basic spot for the enforcement. If something seems off kilter or not right, shut it down and talk about it. Do what needs to be done to get it right!
Rules knowledge is another crew responsiblity. Each crew member should be well-versed in the rules. It is imperative that you do not confuse rules between youth league, NCAA or NFL. This seems to be occurring often this year, which escapes understanding!
Finally, when dealing with coaches, be the professional and calming influence on the field. You should NEVER argue or yell at a coach even though he may be extremely irritated or even angry. Under no circumstance should you refer to the coach with a deragatory name - that is completely unacceptable at any level. Know when to end the conversation, know how to handle a tense situation with an even temper and never let the coach speak with an official without another crewmate nearby or listening to the conversation. A second official can assist with ending the situation calmly and within a timely manner.
Appropriate game management is a very large part of the flow of the contest and MUST be handled correctly. Under no circumstance should you or your crew let the game get out of hand because of management techniques. You are there to control and manage the game with fairness and integrity, not opinion and anger.
By now, issues may have shown their face regarding your crew mechanics and philosophy. How are you addressing these issues so that necessary improvement steps can be put in place?
Do you request film from Head Coaches so that you can review your game and your positioning/mechanics? Do you track your penalties to identify trends? Do you have a solid post-game discussion each week and cover any issues that may have occured during the game? Do you have a journal that you write in weekly that gives your personal overview of the game and how you felt it went and/or issues you think may need to be addressed?
These are just a few of the tools that you can use to help keep moving your crew forward and preparing for each and every game. If you are not doing this, then you will become stagnate and will never improve. You must take steps each week to get better. You must be brutally honest with each other and be able to critique and constuctively critize each crew member. You cannot take anything personally and you must use this input to improve your officiating.
Great officials are always looking for ways to get better. Great officials always ask other officials to evaluate their performance. Great officials study the game and ways to improve.
Are you a great official?
The 2011 high school football season has begun! We now put our months of off-season preparation to work.
Keep in mind that it is the little things that you do each game that will make you successful and set you apart from the rest. Are your shoes shined? Is your uniform clean? Do you have proper game cards? Did you thank game site personnel for assisting you? The actual game each Friday night is really the easiest part of the job.
Get into a rhythm and routine each week so that you and your crew are a well-oiled machine when playoff assignments are distributed in November. Pack properly, talk with crewmates during the week, get all of your travel situations squared away.
Review your game day/week procedures constantly. Develop your mechanics and philosophy - continually. Never take a play off!! Your crew motto should always be “get better”.
It’s going to be a great football season and it will go by in a flash. Know that you will not be perfect, know that there will be mistakes made, know that some situations will be intense. Learn from these and teach others but most of all HAVE FUN!!
Congratulations are in order for the newly elected or re-elected officers for the 2011-12 season:
President: Erik Herring
VP of Football: Todd Ragsdale
Secretary: Mark McClendon
Treasurer: Dennis Hartney
Assignment Committee: Harold Alspaugh, Steve DeVivo, Barry Stearns
We are another step closer to the start of this season! Only five (5) meetings remain. You MUST attend 5 meetings and have paid your dues to be a member in good standing and to be considered for assignments this season. Please take care of your officiating business if you have not done so already.
We are in the middle of record-breaking heat and drought. Make sure that you are physically prepared for the coming scrimmages and early season games. It is going to be extremely hot and your conditioning and hydration will be key to a successful start for this season.
Another year has come and gone and we have begun our 2011 annual GTOA officials meetings once again! We are off to a great start.
It was good to see all of you again and to find out how your offseason has progressed. It was one of the worst and coldest winters we have seen in a long time that included a blizzard in February, and now it appears that we will have one of the driest and hottest summers ever recorded! I sincerely hope that each of you have been or are starting a conditioning program to prepare for the heat that will be upon us for August scrimmages and early fall games that are quickly approaching.
Please be sure to provide me any suggestions that you may have for association improvement during our meeting sessions. Many of you have excellent ideas that can be immediately incorporated into how our association can be better and grow. Any idea that you may submit or discuss will certainly be considered for implementation.
Now, it is time to focus on the game of football. Be tight on your mechanics and rules. Speak to your crew at least weekly and begin to form solid field operations and crew philosophy for this season. Expect great things, and work to make them a reality!
The GTOA is making great strides and further establishing itself as the top football association not only in the state, but the region as well. Do your part and make us even better!!
Todd Ragsdale
Vice-President of Football
GTOA
If you were unable to attend this years’ GTOA Clinic, you missed some quality information. 30 NFL, NCAA and High School clinicians were available to you for improvement of your officiating skills. Breakout sessions for pre-game as well as film review by position were held during the clinic that invoked some positive conversation regarding standard mechanics and philosophy.
Phil Laurie, who is the Supervisor of Officials for the number one D-II conference in the country (MIAA) was a guest speaker along with Mike Whaley, Director of Officials for the OSSAA. They both had excellent presentations and previewed the coming season and what it takes to be a successful official at any level.
This is an annual training opportunity that you should NEVER miss. There are not many high-school specific clinics in our area or in the country. Hopefully, if you were not able to attend, you can plan ahead next year and be a part of our growing association and a fine training environment.
The 2011 GTOA Football Officials Clinic is right around the corner! Our clinic this year will be held on Friday, May 20th beginning at 6pm and Saturday, May 21st beginning at 8am both at Broken Arrow High School.
This is a great opportunity for you to get an off-season clinic and study 5-man mechanics, GTOA philosophy and to generally improve your overall officiating. All of the details and registration information are available on the GTOA website and registration deadline is May 2nd.
You will recieve instruction from veteran high school officials and NCAA officials who have worked their way up from the GTOA along with a t-shirt, GTOA notebook and a CD with all of the clinic materials for your reference. Plus there will be a Friday night social with snacks and drinks and lunch on Saturday all provided by the GTOA.
Get signed up soon! It will be a perfect time to start preparing for the coming season.
Now is the time for you to start registering and preparing for any off-season camps and clinics that you would like to attend.
Be sure to find events that will be the most beneficial for you. It takes some research to find the right camp to attend and to get the most out of the camp. Some camps are classroom only and others are field work where you are evaluated and have classroom sessions as well. Some are one day, some are several days. But all are well worth the money and effort.
Most camps and clinics are geared toward NCAA officiating and are a good stepping stone for the aspiring official to move to the next level, this is where you get noticed and begin your path to college officiating. However, all camps and clinics are great for high school officials too, even for those that do not want to move to the next level. Many techniques are taught and learned at these camps that can easily be adapted to the high school game.
It is must in today’s officiating world to get better! Use camps and clinics to your advantage and make them a new part of your off-season plan every year.
As Vice-President of Football, I would like to wish all of our members the Happiest of Holidays!
It takes hard work to be a successful official in any sport at any level. Over this past year, I pushed you to get better and to keep your focus and concentration, made changes within the association in an effort to improve the GTOA, talked with nearly every one of you to ensure that you were on the right path for success and did what I could to promote ourselves to the OSSAA.
Some things went well, and other pieces still need further improvement. As we look forward to 2011, more changes will be developed and implemented as we continue to grow and enhance our officials to make them even more successful in their officiating careers!
Thank you all for being a part of the GTOA! Officials rarely get positive recognition but you have earned this accolade. Each one of you have had excellent ideas that you have brought to the table and every voice has been heard. I hope to incorporate several of the concepts that I have discussed with members in the coming seasons.
Please take this Holiday Season to spend time with your families and enjoy the festivities. Family is very important, especially for an official who is absent much of the time to pursue his or her officiating career. Reconnect, and let everyone in your family know how much they are appreciated for allowing you the time and effort to cultivate your avocation.
Merry Christmas and I hope you all have a prosperous New Year!! May God bless you all!!
Todd Ragsdale,
GTOA VP of Football
It was a great year for the GTOA!! All of your hard work certainly paid off. Many thanks to every official in our assocation. Without your dedication, commitment and support, we could not have had such a successful year.
Everyone one of you took the changes by the GTOA and the OSSAA in stride and worked hard to improve not only yourselves indvidually, but your crews and the overall association. And for that, we thank you immensely!!
The 2010 season is now over and we begin looking forward to the 2011 season. Don’t forget about football. Have a plan in place for your off-season to keep yourself sharp and focused. Before you know it, our meetings will begin again!
The 2011 GTOA clinic registration will be out soon. Make plans now for you and/or your crew to attend. The tentative dates are being discussed and the clinic will be in May of 2011.
Thanks again for such a successful season and being a part of the Greater Tulsa Officials Association!!
As we enter the final week of the 2010 High School Football season, congratulations are again in order for two (2) GTOA crews that have been assigned a State Championship Final!!
Erik Herring - 2A Final (Davis vs. Hennessey)
Mark McClendon - A Final (Woodland vs. Stratford)
Both games will be played at Boone Pickens Stadium (OSU) in Stillwater on Saturday, December 11th. Herring’s game will begin at 1:00pm and McClendon’s game will begin at 7:30pm. If you are available to travel to Stillwater to watch one or both of these games, please make it a point to do so and support our crews working this final week.
These crews have taken the necessary steps over their career to improve and adjust to the ever-changing game of football, not only with players and schemes but rules and administration as well. Hard work and perseverance pays off and now these crews will reap the rewards of their football officiating commitment!!
With Erik and Mark, that puts our crew count to 4 crews that were assigned a State Championship Final!! Again, congratulations to all - you deserve it!! Work hard, stay focused and concentrate and end your season on a high note!
Please take the time to congratulate Harold Alspaugh’s and Randy Jeffers’ crews. These two GTOA crews were assigned the 4A and 5A State Championship Finals for 2010!! (respectively)
These games will be played at Boone Pickens Stadium (OSU) on Saturday, December 4 with Randy’s game at 1:00pm and Harold’s game at 7:30pm. If you have the availability, please attend one or both of these games in support of our GTOA crews that have made the finals.
It takes hard work, commitment, dedication, time and effort to improve thoughout each football season. These two crews have put in the necessary requirements over the years to improve not only as individual officials but as overall crews as well. They are now being rewarded for their positive actions!
It is not often that one association works 2 of the top 3 finals (by class). This is a powerful reflection of our association and the type of officials that we put on the field!
Hopefully, we will be well represented again when the lower class finals are assigned next week…………..
Congratulations to the 7 GTOA crews that were assigned in Round 3! Three of the crews received large class semi-finals and four of the crews received small class quarter finals (22 games were available this week). Another excellent reflection of our association!
As the playoffs begin to wind down, the number of games each week dramatically drops. Hopefully, 2 or 3 crews from the GTOA will recieve a state championship game this year. For those of you working this week, keep your focus and conentration levels high!
For those of you not working this week, be ready! There are still 3 more weeks in the playoff series to be assigned.
Good luck!!