In Georgia, the GHSA has a rule that any sub-varsity game that is played on a day before a school day has a curfew of 9:00 pm. 1) Do any of your state associations have a similar rule? and 2) Who enforces the rule, the officials or game administration.

We are having a debate as to the enforcement of the curfew. I say that the officials enforce it and others argue that it is up to game administration to stop the game at 9:00. My concern is that what do we as officials do when game administration chooses to ignore the curfew if they are in charge of administering the curfew.

We have no such rule.

As to implementation, you would likely need to ask your governing body, but I believe it would depend on where this rule is listed. If it's in your FED rules or your state's exceptions to the FED rules - it is the official's job; but if it is elsewhere it may be game administration's job.

One general rule of thumb, though, is that once a game starts, it's the official's decisions as to whether to end a game prematurely. Even on lightning, we take input from game admin - but it's the referee's "official" decision to stop the game.

Wisconsin Adaptations do not include a curfew.

In ND we are told that any non-game rule is not to be handled by the game officials. Such things as not eligible to play in the next game because of an ejection. We eject, report the player's name to the state and that's it. We don't inform teams about when the player can play again. Also, the number of quarters that a player can play in a week, etc. is not our problem. Let the state and the AD and coaches deal with such things. If we had the curfew here, it would be handled by game management, not the game officials.

Mcrowder,
My point exactly. Last week I had such a game on a Thursday night. When 9:00 came I, as referee, knew that the curfew was in effect. There was about 8:00 remaining in the 4th quarter and game administration didn't want to stop the game. As referee of an ongoing game, I stopped the game. I was told by game administration that I didn't have the authority to stop the game.

My concern was that if I allowed the game to continue what would be the repercussions on me by the state association. I can tell you what would happen if this came to a head. Game administration would immediately state that the referee let the game continue.

I have submitted a request for a directive from the state association on this matter. I want a definitive ruling from the state. All they have said until now is that there is a curfew, but there is no statement as to who will enforce the curfew.

Folksref,

I fully agree with what you say and in all cases you describe that is exactly how we handle it.

But in the aforementioned scenario, what would you do if you knew that a curfew exists that calls for the stoppage of a game when the curfew hour is reached and the game administration refuses to stop the game. Do you continue to officiate the game and become complicit in the violation of the state regulation or do you and your crew walk off the field?

Herein lies my quandray.

Still being new to officiating, I think following the rule would make the most sense within reason. 8 minutes of 4th quarter is a significant amount of time, whereas 1:00 minute may be something that can be worked out (set your watch back 5 minutes, :) ).

ALthough, you can bet if you let it go past the curfew hour, and someone gets injured, you will probably be included as a responsible party.

You are correct. You need a directive from the state. And, once you get it, if the local game administration doesn't abide by it, then I'd walk off the field. I'd then inform the state as to what happened. If you had a game that looked like it might run over the time, I'd get both coaches together and see if they would agree to shorten quarters. I'd do this by half-time. This is allowable according to our current rule book.

I'd feel pretty safe in enforcing a state rule, rather than go by what the locals want.

What in the world were you guys doing at a Sub-Varsity game at 9:00?!

We start around 5 in Statesboro for Sub Varsity--I guess you either had rain or started later.

Let me know what you find out--I'll learn from your dilemma. :)

I'm on the field past 9 almost every Monday. 3 games - 7th grade C, B, and A teams. C starts at 5:30; B scheduled for 6:45, but often starts a few minutes after that. A scheduled for 8 - usually runs to 9:30ish unless one of the 3 games is mercy-ruled.

If I have a JV game that is in the evening, never know if one of those will go past 9:00. It all depends on what time they actually start. Sometimes schools have busing issues and they arrive a little late, so we end up starting a few minutes late. Happens alot when the games are late afternoon, and a few times when they're night games and involve significant travel.

Many schools in my area play FR/JV DH that start at 5. It's easy to finish up around or after 9PM.

I spoke with Dennis Payne, Deputy Commissioner of Football Officiating for the GHSA, and he said that the 9:00 curfew is enforced by the officials. He did say that common sense should be used if there is very little time remaining in the game, but if it has 7 or 8 minutes left it should be stopped.

That answers my question and now I know how to proceed.