Prep School Pregame ...
 

I believe you ilyazhito. As I stated earlier, here in Connecticut private prep schools use hybrid NFHS/NCAA rules that often change from year to year. I have never left a private prep school dressing room without both of us (two man Connecticut) reviewing the differences between the "normal" NFHS rules that we're used to and the weird NFHS/NCAA rules that we're about to use that night. Even grizzled veteran referees who would normally have a pregame of "Let's not screw anything up" (they usually substitute another word for "screw"), or, "Good eye contact", and nothing else, go over the rule differences. "How many timeouts do they get?". "Who gets a closely guarded count?". "How many feet for closely guarded? Boys and girls?". "Do the girls get a ten second backcourt count?". "Does the coach sit when he gets a technical foul?". "Do we use the shot clock for ten seconds?".

We only work one, or two, private prep school games a year (I worked none last season). The weird rules often change from year to year. The few NCAA rules that they use may delay a few years to make their way down to this level. We didn't know until just before the most recent season started that they, i.e., the private prep schools, switched the girls from three feet to six feet for closely guarded. Even the guys that do both high school and college have trouble with the rule differences. I would never go on the court without reviewing the rule differences, and neither would any of my partners.

I always have problems reading the scoreboard (who's close to the bonus) even though we pregame that the visiting team would always be wearing white. Stupid private prep school rules.

I don't like reviewing rule differences in pre-games because the conversations delve off too much into what the rule is in the level we're not working that night. My experience is that officials start mixing it up when you start bringing up another level.

But if you are going to review rule differences in the pregame, do it for yourself. Don't say you're doing it because you think one of your partner's needs the review.

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We (Officials in Board 12 and MBOA) do the reviews for ourselves, and we only say "Today is a (WCAC girls) game. We have a 30-second shot clock, no closely guarded on a dribble, 10 second count on the shot clock, does not reset unless shot clock resets, no mercy rule. The coaching box is 38', and the coach is not required to sit after a technical foul." After we go through the current rules (we only mention the rules that we are using for the present game: a chart of rules differences for all high school leagues is posted on the MBOA website, and Board 12 has a similar page with the rules differences for its leagues on its website. The expectation is that we review the websites or print out the charts. I memorize the differences, or write them into the notes sections of my mechanics manuals ), we continue with the rest of our pregame conference.

Almost every game is filmed it just takes a little more effort on the officials end to get the tape from high school games. I often put an email address on our pre-game card and ask the home coach for the tape. If I don't get the film within a week I follow up as the coach or ADs email is always listed somewhere on the school website. Gotten every film I wanted if I put the effort in to obtain it.

Yes, as a general rule I use video in pre-game conferences when I am the R. Early in the season, I will show a couple of clips of plays from the previous season (but only plays in which I was directly involved). Maybe a RA/LDB play or two plus a few unusual plays (unsportsmanlike, tech, double foul, etc) mostly to emphasize the importance of crew communication, but also remind everyone of floor positioning and working for angles (I have many, many clips of myself being caught out of position :o). Early season non-conference games often involve rookies and I believe this helps to relax them a bit watching someone else (me) make mistakes or miscues and then recover.

As we get deeper into the season and current film is available about the teams in the contest we're getting ready to work, I'll show clips of the teams from previous games to highlight their styles and tendencies of key players.

When I'm not the R, then I let the R run the show. S/he may or may not use clips and that's entirely up to them.