Be the Referee: Football Targeting
August 22, 2014
The series features MHSAA assistant director Mark Uyl's insights on officiating. These weekly messages can be heard on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the school year on The Drive With Jack Ebling on WVFN-AM, East Lansing.
Below is this week's segment:
"Be The Referee"
Aug. 25 - Targeting - Listen
Today we are going to talk about one of the new rules changes for this fall’s high school football season, targeting. This is yet another example of player safety being the number one priority in our game.
Targeting deals with getting the “head” out of the game of football. Many times when you will see a targeting foul is when a player will use the top or the crown of his helmet to launch or propel himself into an opposing player, making that helmet to helmet contact, which can be so dangerous for both players involved.
When a targeting foul happens, the officials, if they judge it to be flagrant, can not only enforce a 15-yard penalty but also can eject the offending player.
2023 Officials Awards Recognize Nearly 400, Including Norris & Paulson Honorees
By
Jon Ross
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
August 7, 2023
This year's Officials Awards & Alumni Banquet recognized 397 officials who celebrated a milestone year of MHSAA registration during 2022-23, plus honored a highly-respected mentor and a young official with a tremendous future in the avocation.
Longtime Jackson-area official Chuck Walters was named the Vern L. Norris Award honoree for his decades of service not just on the field but recruiting and helping to retain officials. Recent Mackinaw City graduate Madison Smith received the Randy Paulson Legacy Award and has officiated junior varsity basketball and volleyball over the last year as part of the MHSAA Legacy Program.
This year's honorees included 24 officials with 50 years of service, along with 36 officials with 45 years, and a 40-year award has been presented to 51 officials. In addition, 110 officials with 30 years and 176 officials with 20 years of registration were honored.