[Mike Simonds]

Well, I'm sorry I'm a few days late but here is my first weekly post.

A couple of weeks ago there was an interesting play in a high school game I was watching. Here is a brief synopsis of the play: long pass down the middle of the field, defensive pass interference, interception, block in the back by the intercepting team, runner goes out of bounds, late hit on runner out of bounds by the passing team.

Here is how the crew handled it which I thought was a good job: There were multiple fouls by B on the play: the first, DPI was a loose ball foul, and the second, IBITB, was after the change in possession. Therefore A has to make a choice about which foul to accept. If they accept the penalty for the IBITB by B, then B gets to keep the ball after assessment of the penalty. If they accept the penalty for the DPI, then the yardage is marked off from the previous spot and results in an automatic first down for A. The third option for A is to decline both fouls by B and take the results of the play: B's ball. The dead-ball foul by A is then marked off no matter which of the three options are selected.

The referee is one of the best in the state. However, we cannot put all the responsibility on the referee's shoulders: Each crew member has equal duties to ensure that the penalties are handled correctly.

I'm trying to always report penalties the same way to the referee: status of the ball, description of foul, offending team, player number, location. Let the referee take all of this information in and let him verbalize how the crew is going to handle it after getting the captain's attention. This is an area where the referee may not know what was going on down-field so every official involved needs to get together and get the whole play right.