[Mark Padgett]

Originally posted by Camron Rust

Mark actually doesn't work HS games (regular season or tournament), although he did some years ago. He works HS-aged rec leagues and offseason leagues that involves some of the HS players. So, the fact that he doesn't see it called is even more impressive since some of the officials he works with may be very inexperienced and many have never worked an actual HS game.

Camron's point is well taken. Since my work schedule and my desire to see all of my son's games induced me to retire years ago from working official HS, my "games per year" has risen to well over 300 (I work at least 7 different rec leagues), many of which are done with very inexperienced officials. Now, it may be that the reason is tied to the fact that very young officials (and I work with a whole bunch of them) are reluctant to blow their whistle for anything at all, but I think that's just a small part of it.

I train officials for two rec associations and I emphasize concentrating on contact and calling fouls. So perhaps, in games done the first year or two by those officials, some violations (including perceived violations) go uncalled. But I have found that coaches scream ten times more for missed fouls than missed violations, and I have yet to see a player get a serious injury due to a violation.

Getting back to the point, I think there has been so much emphasis on this call, officials are just getting it right. At least out here. I do attend a (very) few HS games at my local HS, and did attend more when my son played a few years ago, and I have not seen this called incorrectly at this HS in many years.

One call I do see called incorrectly quite often is over and back. I actually hold a separate training session just on this rule during my general training sessions.