Quote:
Originally posted by Dirk
I coach a youth team of 8-9 yr olds. We had a bad crew working our last game and I thought I understood to rules well. We play under HSFED rules, with only weight and mercy rules being added on top of those.
We got a penalty at the end of the game with 45 sec left, for hitting the center when the other team was trying to take a knee. The Umpire said we could not contact the center when the QB was taking a knee. Oh, the hit cause the other team to fumble, which we recovered (NG).
1st I have no idea where that rule is? Any help?
2nd If the other team does not tell the D line this is going to occur, how can this be enforced?
Did the Umpire and his crew confuse this with some other formation?
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I do not know. I was not there. I did not see the play. None of us here did. We do not know what took place to warrant a flag and it could be that you misunderstood what they called also. Maybe there was a flag for unnecessary roughness?
Quote:
Originally posted by Dirk
Is there a review that can be requested or sent to some sort of evaluation process? This group was awful and the group they come from needs to be aware of it.
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Youth leagues are like snowflakes, they all are different. You would have to talk to the administrators of that league.
Quote:
Originally posted by Dirk
Other causes of concern, they lost the down count 9 times, said free blocking zone was 4 yds deep and 7 wide, holding on defense was 5 yd penalty while it was 10 on Offense, we could not have MORE than 7 on the LOS, huddles may proceed with as many players as a team wants - not a timeout near the coaches box, the other team huddled 14-16 players and would break the huddle and the extra players would run off the field- many times 1 or 2 were still on field as the snap occured- no flag, coaches could go out on field to give play calls to the players - again no time out called. I believe these guys were just dumb, idiots and not conspiring against us but it looks bad...
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Everything you just complained about is what happens in youth football. First of all on timeouts near the coachesÂ’ box, there can be as many players in the huddle as possible. That is a new rule BTW. There is really no rule that says you cannot break a huddle with 12 or more. The rule only talks about leaving the game properly, but "breaking the huddle" in itself is not a foul. As a matter of fact a Referee or Wing has some leeway to decide when that penalty has occurred. And at the youth level I can tell you there is a lot of confusion as to who is in or out of a game. These are 8-9 year olds, not 18-19 year olds in college.
I have a question for you. Did they call every infraction on you? I have yet to work a youth game where the kids on both teams did not have a time where they did not line up properly. I have worked many games where a lineman is illegally downfield on pass plays. Or better yet, might not have proper uniform equipment. But instead of throwing flags, we tell a coach or try our best to not throw a flag when the violation is borderline at best. I understand you might think you have all the rules and know all the rules, but this was just a youth football game. You probably had officials that were young or not very experienced and are still learning the game. And many of the times officials at this level have to deal with coaches that do not know the rules or do not know basic coaching techniques. So if you are so upset, you have the right to complain and should under the process you have talked about. I just have a problem with youth coaches like yourself that complain about things and you are not even aware of the actual rules. I had a coach in a Sunday Youth League I have worked for the past 2 seasons tell me that "crack back blocking was illegal." I even asked him "what did you mean by crack back blocking?" He had not answer and come to find out the league had no such rule. But if I listened to this coach, I would have violated a league rule. And you guys wonder why you have to pay more to get officials to work a percentage of the time officials work during HS games.
Peace