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The Official View: Eyes in the Sky

By Brent Rice
MHSAA Assistant Director

September 10, 2018

By Brent Rice
MHSAA Assistant Director 

Welcome to “Official View,” a weekly feature on the MHSAA’s Second Half website designed to deliver must-know information to Michigan’s 10,000 high school officials – while also showing administrators, athletes and fans a slice of the officiating life from those in the avocation.

Each edition will include a rule of the week, present an “It’s Your Call” segment, keep our officials up to date on important news and notices and provide a behind-the-scenes glance at officials making our games possible. 

It’s Your Call

SOCCER In the video clip below, a player takes control of the ball in the area at the top of the goal box and behind two defending players and fires a shot toward the net. Is this player offside?

(Click the video play button below; you'll then need to click again to view on YouTube, starting at 2:20 and ending at 2:39.)

You make the call: No, the player is not offside. The ball was last played by an opponent – in this case through the air on a header – and the player receiving the ball only would’ve been off-side if receiving the ball from a teammate. Rule 11-4-1b (included paragraph).

Rule of the Week

VOLLEYBALL The right-side hitter on Team S spikes the ball to the opposing side floor for a point. As she comes back to the ground following her leap, she both strikes the net and steps completely across the center line. The ball touches the floor before the hitter lands.

Ruling: This is a legal point. In order for either violation to be called, the ball must still be in play.


It’s Official!

Deadline for Tournament Consideration Requirements: Both the 2018-19 Rules Meeting and the Sport Rules Exams must be completed by Sept. 13. Check your Rules Meeting and Rules Exam status on MHSAA.com by logging in, clicking “Official Services” and then selecting the links for Exams and Rules Meetings.

If you haven’t already, get your current season schedules into the MHSAA and confirm your MIGS (Member in Good Standing) status on the MHSAA website to make certain you are eligible for postseason consideration. You must complete all of the above requirements to ensure your eligibility.

Official View

In the photo at the top of this edition, pilot Dean Lefebrve flies his football crew to its Week 2 varsity game, Negaunee at Calumet. The crew also included, just above, Dean Nelson, Rich Lundholm, Paul Angeli and Andrew Lewis.

Membership Mentality

September 16, 2014

The Michigan High School Athletic Association is a membership organization – an association of schools, not individuals – that usually doesn’t think of itself as such. Most member-based organizations work hard to recruit and retain members because member dues are an important revenue source.
That’s not true for the MHSAA which charges no membership dues, no sport sponsorship assessments and no tournament entry fees. The MHSAA is free to join and its tournaments are free to enter.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t think like a member-based organization or that none of the dynamics of membership-based organizations apply here.
For example, we are in the business of recruiting and retaining contest officials; and while we registered approximately 10,600 officials last year, that number is significantly lower than six years ago, and the average age is increasing. So, like any other member-based organization, we need strategies for attracting and holding new, young officials.
A new tactic launched this fall is the “Be The Referee” feature (Click Here) on a Lansing-based sports talk daily radio show and weekly television show. Our staff explains rules and points of emphasis, and then we make a pitch for new officials.
But the most fundamental strategy for recruiting and retaining officials is consistent, ceaseless efforts to improve officials’ working environment. This means improving the assigner-official relationship before events and the sportsmanship at events.
Ultimately, if assigners treat new officials unprofessionally and spectators treat them abusively, we have no chance to increase the numbers and decrease the age of MHSAA registered officials.