Regionalism in Officiating

[JRutledge]

I know in 3 Person mechanics the NF allows the Lead official to bounce or hand the ball to the thrower. The Head Clinician (with consulting with rules interpreters and the state administrator) mandated that officials only hand the ball to the thrower.

Another mechanic is we do not have the lead official in 3 Person mechanics give a 5 second count. I asked a question about this a few weeks ago and it was clear that was not what was taught in other areas.

We have had 3 Person in this state for the playoffs since the 1997-98 season. There have been numerous variations with mechanics and things the NF never clearly stated or gave options. I can even tell you of rulings that the officials were instructed to enforce or not enforce. I can think of a Muslim girl that did not want to play basketball with shorts and here headdress. After some officials did not allow her to play, the IHSA told us to not enforce the NF rules to the letter in situations like this. They also made it clear that in order for officials to allow a player to not adhere to the NF uniform rules, the IHSA office had to be contacted and a letter approving this religious expression. We were even giving a very specific ruling about insulin pumps that was not made clear at the time by the NF.

All these examples I talked about are just basketball situations. I could go on and on if I talked about football and baseball. I even worked in Iowa for a couple summers and there were things they wanted that was totally different at that time then what the Illinois wanted.

Peace