Training. Kent Ref.

[Mike Simonds]

Hi Kent. Sorry to take so long to get back to you. You wanted to know how we are handling training over here in our local association. We have about 30 officials. Starting in May and ending July we do the semi-pro games in our area (about 6 games in all). After July 4th we start meeting every Tuesday evening until the first week of November. We are members of the Hawaii State Athletic Association and they are in the process of creating a state-wide officials association. But so far they are only handling the administration of the NFHS exams, evaluation of officials, and selection of officials for the state play-offs (of which we have Division I and II schools). And they selected CCA 7 man mechanics for all state play-off games. But they allow each association (of which our state has 5) to select the mechanics and training methods to use. We have enough officials so we can do 7 man varsity (CCA) and 5 man for JV (also CCA). Our training officer (new one this year) took a new approach: he made an outline for first 8 meetings (which should take us right up to the start of the regular season) that will cover all the basic rules we need to know plus the practical mechanics to cover each type of play. For example, last night we covered pass interference and then went right into the mechanics for covering the passing game. So far it seems to be working and we keep the meetings to under an hour and a half.

A few years back we joined the California Football Officials Association for their great training materials. They have some good outlines on rules, positions, and tests. We have the guys do one test every week on their own time plus read the related rules and cases (I try to focus in on the specific rules and cases instead of overwhelming them with reading the entire rule from start to finish). They turn in the tests and our instructor will grade these at home. The next meeting we pass these back with the answer sheet (that also has the rule number next to each answer) and we only review the questions that were missed the most often. Otherwise you will have these guys arguing for an explanation to each answer and the meeting will drag on forever.

Anyway, I hope this helps and I would love to hear what others are doing at their meetings.

Good luck to everyone and have a great season.