Quality Of Officiating

[I Love HS Football]

Tennessee High School officiating is one of the last occupations in the world that has to answer to no one. So what if they miss a call, there's no discipline for them if they don't. College officials are graded on each week's performance and if there's a problem, there are consequences, but not for TN high school officials.

 

TSSAA officials do get graded by their superlatives. They do answer to someone every week during meetings when they screw up. But getting a bad report is not half as bad to an official as not being know by your peers as a good official. When your association knows that you are booting calls, you might find yourself next week at Red Boiling Springs when they host Pickett County instead of Oakland at Riverdale.

[I Love HS Football]

What would be wrong with the home team making an extra copy of the game film and handing it to the White Hat after the game? Most teams start dubbing copies as soon as the game is over or can burn a officials' copy as they are taping. Just let the crew get together after the smoke has cleared Wednesday night and look at film as a crew. No fans or coaches around. The technology is there. If the officials are so sure they got it right, wouldn't a little self study help them get better.

 

The attitude of some officials is what gets me. Last week I saw a White Hat refused to bring out the chains on a third and very short. The coach of the offense finally convinced the guy on his side to intervene, the sticks came out and it was first down by about three inches. The White Hat was willing to eye ball it from mid-field and was wrong. He had a burr under his saddle the rest of the night. What's the big hurry, these birds are getting $80 each.

 

Good Post!

[I Love HS Football]

I think that officials are about as good as the players. You see some great ones, some OK ones, and some that barely hang in there. It's just part of the game. It's fun to get on them at times, but if they were that great, they'd be working Saturday or Sunday instead.

 

I know several TSSAA officials in the midstate that do call on Friday and college games on Saturday.

[I Love HS Football]

There's a reason most of us don't want the job. Unlike alot of officials we REALIZE we CANT do it. I have seen the worst officiating this year in Collinwood. After the home games I go and look at the tag on the refs cars and when we get the screws its a Maury County tag.

 

It would be a safe bet that Collinwood has over 500 yards in penalties. The teams we play seem to get the no-calls.

Collinwood played MT. Pleasant and MP had 2 offensive penalties. False start and an Offensive Interference call. They ran the ball 47 times with-out a single HOLD or any other blocking violations . MP had 3 defensive penalties. Collinwood was penalized 9 times for 98 yards. * were offensive "HOLDING" calls. CHS ran the ball 21 times.

 

We have endured that kind of rediculous officiating in every game.

 

Any one who honestly believes that high school refs dont try to manipulate games should call thier local real estate agent and ask for some "Ocean front property" in Maury County, Tennessee.

 

Sounds like one team was coached how to block and the other obviously wasn't.

[wad]

This is unreal. Every post I have read comes from someone who is pulling heavy for one team, and from at least 35 yards away. How fair is that? Talk about having it in for the other team. Let me ask you a question. How many patterns were run wrong last Friday night? How many QB's didn't check down to their HOT route after seeing the blitz coming? How many coaches should have stunted on 3 and 8 instead of playing a base defense. how many times did the offense false start, defense offsides and I love this one Miss a wide open receiver. I some of these parents would spend as much time teaching JR how to play football as they do bashing refs, Tennessee would have the best Collage recruits in the Universe. JMO

[Willy41360]

This is unreal. Every post I have read comes from someone who is pulling heavy for one team, and from at least 35 yards away. How fair is that? Talk about having it in for the other team. Let me ask you a question. How many patterns were run wrong last Friday night? How many QB's didn't check down to their HOT route after seeing the blitz coming? How many coaches should have stunted on 3 and 8 instead of playing a base defense. how many times did the offense false start, defense offsides and I love this one Miss a wide open receiver. I some of these parents would spend as much time teaching JR how to play football as they do bashing refs, Tennessee would have the best Collage recruits in the Universe. JMO

 

I know there are a lot of people who complain about trivial calls and the refs catch a lot of flack, but to pass all complaints off is excusing what is blatant disregard for the job they are getting paid to do. They do get paid to do the job don't they? That makes them a professional so they should act like one. The players are high school kids and they don't get paid so to compare their assignments to a refs job is apples and oranges. I am in noway talking about the occasional missed call or the official who goes out and tries to do his job to his HONEST best ability so why are you defending them? This is a problem that can be made at least some better by just reviewing some of the game films when the TSSAA receives complaints, and start reprimanding the ones that deserve it.

 

In my experience people who have a disregard for their job are a lot more apt to do it properly when they know there are consequences when they don't. I am one of the first and often, the only person after a game to thank the officials for a job well done because I do appreciate and respect the ones that do their job because it isn't easy, but in the same breath let me say I think the ones that do some of the things we are talking about have no business wearing the stripes, or the blue. Sure you have the irrational few that feel all officials are corrupt but you or no one else can honestly say that none of these complaints are legitimate.

 

In one of the games I mentioned before, where the blatant personal fouls were not being called, it was only causing the other team to get more and more violent. They were honestly trying to hurt our players and the refs were letting it happen. I for one don't feel like pushing my child around in a wheel chair the rest of his life because a few select people can't/won't do the job they are paid for. A holding call or procedure call blown here and there is one thing, but cheap shots and blatant fouls are a different story. Before somebody else tries to pass that off as "the ref just didn't see it," trust me, or you don't have to, but it wasn't the case.

[The Sports Guy]

Just a couple of definitions:

 

Expert- A person who knows exactly what he is doing, whether he gets paid or not.

 

Professional- A person who gets paid, whether he knows what he is doing or not.

 

Many of the TSSAA officials do a fine job, but we really do need to turn more of the professionals into experts.

 

Any serious suggestions on how that can be accomplished?

 

It's hard to tell a friend or co-worker that he just doesn't make the grade, but I believe that some people need to be told to shape up, or ship out, and I don't mean to a different crew.

 

One bad official can make a crew look bad. One bad crew can make everyone look bad.

 

Nobody out there is perfect! I umpired baseball as a volunteer for years from Little League to American Legion, and I was never biased. That simple fact never stopped players, coaches, and fans from questioning everything from my eyesight to my intelligence.

[I Love HS Football]

They could study game film at meetings if they wanted to make everyone better.

 

Other than that, they are human officials, they are going to make mistakes. They are going to miss calls. Like it or not.

 

Now, if there are other issues like comments being said that shouldn't have been said, they need to be reprimanded. If they are cheating for one team, they need the permanant boot.

 

Keep in mind, majority of the officials do their job quite well, but once again, I do think game film would help alot of matters.

[coacherdude]

I have been an official for quite some time and without naming names, our assigning officer is absolutely awful. He has a priority list.

Number 1 - Where is my check?

Number 2 - Wind the clock.

Number 3 - Where is the closest game so that I can be home by my ten o'clock bedtime?

Nummber 4 - How can I take care of my geriatric buddies and prevent these younger guys from taking our places?

He is a weak a official and a weaker leader for officials. He needs to retire but no one is pushing the envelope because no one watches over his shoulder. He considers himself untouchable.

[I Love HS Football]

I have been an official for quite some time and without naming names, our assigning officer is absolutely awful. He has a priority list.

Number 1 - Where is my check?

Number 2 - Wind the clock.

Number 3 - Where is the closest game so that I can be home by my ten o'clock bedtime?

Nummber 4 - How can I take care of my geriatric buddies and prevent these younger guys from taking our places?

He is a weak a official and a weaker leader for officials. He needs to retire but no one is pushing the envelope because no one watches over his shoulder. He considers himself untouchable.

 

That guy is not in Middle Tennessee I can tell ya!

[coacherdude]

That guy is not in Middle Tennessee I can tell ya!

He is in East Tennesse and everybody up this way knows who he is!

[GLee]

What is your opinion of the high school football officiating this year? There seems to be some doubt of the fairness. For instance, Antioch vs McGavock game the officials had left the field with 3.2 seconds left to play - the game was decided in those 3.2 seconds but didn't count because there was no officials on the field. While we know there are a few questionable calls during every game, it seems this year the refs bring their personal preferences into the game instead of having an unbiased opinion - just there to call a fair game!

 

 

I know there will be mistakes because I have officiated enough and you know when you have missed one. You just have to eat it.

 

At a game a couple of weeks ago, I became frustrated watching the official spot the ball after runs that were close to a first downs. Problem was, he would get the ball, turn and look at the first down marker and then spot the ball. This should never happen as it brings on problems.