It’s Sunday morning and I’m sitting here with a cup of coffee reflecting on my clinic experience yesterday before ESPN’s “The Sports Reporters” comes on TV (my Sunday morning ritual).

I attended the Heartland Conference this weekend at Ball State University. About 40 officials from 5-6 states gathered in Muncie, Indiana yesterday. It was a well-organized event combining film review and field work over a full 8 hour day.

The film review centered around a set of plays scripted from Dan Romeo. “Dr. Dan” is a referee in the Mountain West and also a dentist, hence his moniker. Dr. Dan compiles a series of plays each year and Larry Snyder, Heartland’s Supervisor of Football Officials, was fortunate enough to obtain a copy. The session, entitled “You Make The Call” put the participants into crews with a basic representation of each position in a 7-man crew. The morning consisted of reviewing about 14 of the 26 plays. Wish we had more time, but the discussion was healthy and it gave the seminar attendees a great chance to talk philosophy and judgement on a wide variety of play situations.

After lunch, we broke out by positions and hit the field. I attended the “short wing” session, or line of scrimmage officials. Brian Bollinger, a Line Judge in the Mid Atlantic Conference; did a fantastic job of walking through some of the differences you see when making the move from high school to college. We covered LOS mechanics in detail and this session gave great insight into what it takes to officiate at the NCAA level.

We returned to the class room to wrap up the day. Larry Snyder gave us his list of What it Takes to Succeed at the NCAA and NFL level. To keep this post short, I’ll cover the first three areas here and finish this up in a few days.

What It Takes to Become a Successful Football Official – At Any Level

1. Study Rules of the Game

• Rule Book
• Tests & Quizzes
• Ask Other Officials
• Quiz a Buddy
• Never Stop Learning

1. Study Mechanics of Game

• CCA Mechanics Manual
• Camps & Clinics
• Philosophy
• Attend area meetings/rules study groups (Do any of you do this now?)

1. Surround yourself with better officials

• Its hard to soar with the eagles, when you are surrounded by turkeys.

Part Two (continued in a few days)

1. Watch film – Imperative
2. Experience – How much is enough
3. What You Have Control Over

That’s it for now, gang. I’ll finish this list later in the week. June is already here and that means football is just two months away!!!!

Be the Best on the Field

Todd

Practice, Practice, Practice

 

Why does it seem a bit goofy for an official to stand in front of a mirror and practice signals, but it’s normal for a player to spend hours working on a post-up move to the basket? Why would it seem strange to witness a basketball referee in his backyard tossing a jump ball to imaginary players, but there’s no problem with a baseball player hitting off a tee in his garage, practicing his swing?

Truth is, many officials don’t practice at all. Think about it: Is it really fair to the players and coaches who have put hours, weeks and years into their games for officials to show up without a second of practice? To that end, officials need to act more like players and coaches. We must practice what we do.

For his first two years in the NFL, referee Ed Hochuli was a back judge on former referee Howard Roe’s crew. Hochuli says that before every game, Roe stood before a mirror, practicing signals. One day, Hochuli jokingly asked Roe if he’d finally gotten them down pat. Roe turned to Hochuli and answered seriously, “It’s important to get it just right.” Hochuli agrees that attitude helps officials improve. “You’re never too qualified to improve,” said Hochuli. “Being picky pays off.”

Techniques. There are lots of things officials can practice — some mental, others physical. This brief list shows just some of the things you could practice that will help you in your games.

• Practice tossing the ball underhand to your crewmate. Too often poor tosses among crewmates bounce aimlessly or sail overhead. It looks bad and slows things down. Work on it.
• Count the offense/defense. You can easily practice this while watching any game, live or on TV.
• Know your keys. Line of Scrimmage or Deep Officials – As the offense lines up, call out your key.
• Also, do your best Howard Roe imitation and practice your signals, even if you’re not the referee. Make sure your signals are strong and crisp. While practicing them, think about the proper yardage and penalty administration.