Be the Referee: Play Clock Experiment
September 1, 2016
This week, MHSAA assistant director Mark Uyl explains the 40-second game clock Michigan football schools are allowed to try this fall.
Be The Referee is a series of short messages designed to help educate people on the rules of different sports, to help them better understand the art of officiating, and to recruit officials.
Below is this week's segment – Play Clock Experiment - Listen
From time to time, the MHSAA receives permission from the national rules making body, the National Federation of State High School Associations, to experiment with a new rule.
This fall in high school football, Michigan schools can experiment with a 40-second play clock. In this experiment, the 40-second play clock begins at the end of the previous play, giving teams consistency from week to week when the offense can next snap the ball.
With using the traditional 25-second play clock, it really depends on the referee of the game in terms of the pace on how quickly the offenses can go.
Past editions
Aug. 25: Clipping in the Free Blocking Zone - Listen
Officiating’s High Calling
October 28, 2016
One of the sports world’s better wordsmiths is Referee Magazine publisher Barry Mano. He’s also a fine thinker, as these artful lines demonstrated at the 2016 Officiating Industry Luncheon in San Antonio:
“Let me provide, in all subjectivity, some observations about our environment, about our fellow citizens. We are:
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“More generous but less forgiving.
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More open but less discriminating with that openness.
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More informed but less knowledgeable.
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More litigious but less willing to abide by the rules.
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Quick to seek an expert opinion, then just as quick to get a second opinion, one that agrees with ours.”
Barry is president of the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) which helps contest officials at all levels aspire to be discriminating and knowledgeable adjudicators of fair and healthy competitive athletics.
At a time when the number of registered officials with the Michigan High School Athletic Association has sunk to a 30-year low, Barry’s words are a clarion call to young men and women of character to consider sports officiating as an avocation, or even vocation, that will enrich their lives immensely.