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Be the Referee: Tackle Box
September 16, 2014
This week, MHSAA assistant director Mark Uyl discusses the differences between high school and college/NFL rules when it comes to a quarterback's movements within and outside the "tackle box."
"Be the Referee" is designed to help educate people on the rules of different sports, to help them better understand the art of officiating and to recruit officials. The segment 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 - Tackle Box - Listen
Today we are going to talk about the rules that govern the quarterback, specifically when the quarterback is being rushed and is looking to throw the ball away and avoid the sack.
Under both pro and college rules, they have what’s called the tackle box. When the quarterback gets outside of the original position of the offensive tackles and throws the ball and it reaches the original line of scrimmage, there is never a foul for intentional grounding. However, under high school rules there is no such thing as a tackle box.
If the quarterback is either in pocket or scrambles outside of the pocket and now is trying to throw that ball away to avoid the sack, there always must be a receiver in the vicinity of the pass to avoid an intentional grounding foul.
Past editions
Aug. 25 - Targeting - Listen
Sept. 4 - Concussions - Listen
Sept. 11 - Pass Interference - Listen
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The Official View: All in This Together
By
Brent Rice
MHSAA Assistant Director
November 5, 2018
By Brent Rice
MHSAA Assistant Director
“The Official View” has received significant positive feedback, from both officials and non-officials – and we thank you for your interest in learning more about this essential avocation.
This week, we discuss a promising effort to recruit Legacy officials and another “get-to-know-you” opportunity at MHSAA Sportsmanship Summits, plus dive into rules scenarios in volleyball and swimming.
It’s Official!
MHSAA officials will be presenting over the coming weeks at the annual Sportsmanship Summits held around the state. Renewed focus will be concentrated on the effect that poor sportsmanship has on the challenge of recruiting and retaining officials. Discussions will be led by noted officials in those areas to allow students to discuss the concerns and solutions to these issues.
Improving sportsmanship is a priority of the MHSAA Officials Program, and officials should be looking for new initiatives to support this goal. They include new policies on protecting officials, providing schools with framework to institute a Game Day Ambassadors Program, “Official Thanks” nights and several others.
Some efforts already have proven successful. “The Official View” continues to serve its purpose in humanizing the folks that officiate MHSAA contests. On that note, keep sending those photos and stories to [email protected] for features in The Official View. Ideally, submissions will be for in-season sports and include photo(s). Don’t forget to add the who, what, where, and when.
Rule of the Week
VOLLEYBALL As A1 tosses the ball in the air to serve, she realizes she is the improper server and catches the ball in attempt to force a re-serve. The proper server (A2) then immediately takes her place and makes a legal serve, scoring a point. A2’s toss for her second serve is bad and she catches the ball.
Ruling: This is an illegal serve and loss of rally/point. The re-serve privilege was used up by A1 since this was during A2’s term of service.
It’s Your Call
SWIMMING In the clip, the swimmer in Lane 5 begins to stray in her backstroke and ends up incidentally contacting the lane divider. She ultimately continues and wins the race. What’s the call?
Last Week’s IYC Ruling: In the clip, as the attacker and the keeper approach the ball, the attacker strikes the keeper’s ear. Since this is outside of the penalty area, a direct free kick would be awarded and the attacker would be assessed a yellow card. (Click to see last week's video.)
Official View: We’re All in This Together
The MHSAA Legacy Program has produced some terrific officials since its inception in 1992, many of whom are still officials today. We feel that recruiting eager and qualified officials is a collective partnership between the MHSAA, schools and officials associations around the state.
For our part, the MHSAA offers a reduced registration fee for enrolled-student officials to get them started into officiating. We suggest that the schools and associations further alleviate these new officials from their startup costs by taking on this reduced fee. Schools benefit because they can then utilize these officials’ services at middle school and junior high school contests, and associations benefit because they are able to add a new official to their rosters for years to come.
Fowlerville has taking the lead in this area by recently hosting a Legacy clinic where veteran officials were paired with newly registered (paid for by Fowlerville Schools) Legacy officials and assigned to a volleyball match with local middle school Red Cedar League teams. This event allowed experienced mentor officials to provide on-the-spot constructive feedback in live game scenarios.
Other schools are following suit by hosting clinics and other events to draw new officials into the fold, including adding curriculum in officiating to next year’s course load. Schools interested in adding officiating to their curriculum can contact Brent Rice of the MHSAA for a curriculum outline and guides to make it a success.
PHOTOS: (Top) Fowlerville Legacy officials and mentors work a recent middle school volleyball match; left to right: John Garrison, Kelli Hart, Lindsey Darby, Jackie Jarvis, Dalaija Franklin, Rodney Horton and Tyler Hover. (Middle) Hart (mentor) instructs Franklin, far right, while Darby shadows. (Photos courtesy of the Fowlerville athletic department.)