(With apologies to General Douglas MacArthur)
Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
I am sorry I just have a fundamental problem with these very old rulings that only officials like you that keep these rulebooks for several years can find. There are many officials that have not started officiating yet and have no idea where this ruling is or if it even applies.
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Agree. How can rookie officials get access to points of emphasis, that may have only appeared in a single year's rulebook, or annual interpretations, that may never make their way, permanently, into the casebook? Case in point. I remember when heel activated lights in sneakers first came out. The NFHS came out with an immediate ruling, I believe that it was a midseason ruling, that these were not appropriate. It took several years for this ruling to make its way, permanently, into the casebook. Rookie officials who started officiating in the time period between the immediate ruling, and when the ruling became a permanent part of the casebook, would have no way to know about this interpretation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
According to what I have been told these old rulings no longer apply anyway. And unless you can find something more recent or current, I would be careful trying to use this so it applied in today's game. I was told a few years ago if there is an interpretation no longer in the casebook there is a reason for this.
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I'm not sure that I fully agree with you here. Yes, there is always a reason for an interpretation not being in the casebook. One reason is for a rule change that made the casebook play no longer applicable. Another reason is a mistake by the editor, as in the rulebook mistake about the captain requesting a lineup after many substitutes reporting, which was left out of the rulebook for several years until the error was realized. Another may be to simply conserve space, if some case plays weren't deleted occasionally, the casebook would be much longer than it's present length. I'm not convinced that just because a interpretation is no longer in the casebook that it is
always no longer valid. If you can find a citation, or some other form of evidence, to convince me that such rulings are no longer valid, please do so.
At some point the the NFHS must address this problem, that is, rookie officials having the same access to rules, and interpretations, that we veterans have, such as notes that we all take at our local association meetings, often regarding interpretations that our local association interpreters receive from the NFHS, either through meetings, conference calls, emails, etc., that never find a permanent "home", that is, published, somewhere.
