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Originally Posted by BigFarns
I just found out I'm going to be white hat for a JV game for the first time too. I'm nervous already and I've got 2 weeks yet to prepare. I am interested to hear how your game goes and anything you did before/during that helped or hurt. The perspective of a nervous newbie like me will be interesting.
I've read everyone else's suggestions to you also. Great advice all around. It's interesting to me that the suggestions for every position include go slow, stay calm, watch keys. It's a good fall back for me when I'm on the field in any position especially if the game is getting good. If I feel before a play that the excitement is starting to infect me I'll repeat something like that to myself or talk to myself about who my keys are on this play.
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The key part of being a WH is penalty enforcement, but PE is a team effort. I got a DVD from our Week 1 game today and for the first time ever, it was from the local TV broadcast instead of the chopped up "plays only" tape we normally get. This gave me a chance to really watch how we handled PE -- our pace, our chemistry, our duties. For example, they had the camera on me when I gave the prelim, but when I gave the final signal, the camera started on me and moved to the umpire as soon as he started marching off the penalty. My goal is to complete my reporting at the same time the ball is being spotted by the umpire.
The key is to make sure that you and the umpire take enough time to verify what's going to be enforced. I *always* use yard lines. I'll say to the umpire: "10 yards from the spot of the foul, so we're going from the 38 to the 28." At times, I'll let the umpire communicate that to me instead of me doing it. He's gotta be as good as me in PE cause I will make at least one mistake a season and I want that to be caught before we get back in the locker room. Our back judge (on Fridays) and the relevant wing get the information from the umpire -- the BJ to record the penalty, the wing to communicate back to the offending coach.
This takes time. In reality, it looks normal on tape, but feels like it takes forever on the field. So slow down even more than you feel like you should. The only long discussion I saw on the DVD was on a kickoff out of bounds we had where I needed the U covering to tell me whether R touched the kick before it went out of bounds and he took a bit to sort it out in his head (it was a squib that hit two players and went out). On the tape it was clear R touched it first and K knocked it out after, but it all happened very quickly. I liked how I pulled the U away and we had a nice chat about it and then I stepped out and signaled. It did look like it took a while, but so what? The announcers didn't even say anything about it.
The key thing is to know your keys, protect your passers and kickers, and trust your crew mates. By that, I mean look where you're supposed to look and don't let your eyes drift downfield when they're not supposed to. If there's an acrobatic catch downfield, you are probably the only guy in the place who will never see it. If you have an umpire who is good with PE, make sure you tell him not to let you make a mistake.