Announcing Penalties
 

Guys,

If you (R) do not have a microphone at the game, and you are giving the signals for any penalty, do you still call out the penalty as if you had a mic, or do you just stay silent and give the hand signals?

Just curious.

Thanks

PS- you guys will be getting a lot of basic questions from me this season. i'm a baseball umpire and will be migrating to football in a few years, so i'll occasionally poke my head in here to ask some questions to get a leg up for when i go do this for real.

I always announce penalties. It's good practice for when you get a game in which they give you a mic. If you never practice and you get out there you will be confused with what to announce.

I do, but I'll be honest when I say I'm a lot more careful about knowing the exact situation and the down before announcing on a microphone, since I'll have to tell "the world."

Canadian Mechanics
 

CANADIAN MECHANIC:

We always verbalize foul reports.

I try to announce just as if I was mic'd up. Matter of fact, I commute to work 45 minutes each day, so I continually go over scenarios and how I would announce them in my head just to keep myself awake!

Definitely just as if you had the mic, but louder cuz you don't have one.

I have verbalized while signaling fouls for years. In fact at the quieter middle-school and JV games it is easy enough to tell everyone what happened. Once I even gave an explanation of a situation to the crowd at the end of a varsity game. There was a tie-breaker issue and we had to reassure both teams that we had no need to run the try.

I always verbalize my calls and explanations. This (usually) alleviates the need for explaining to the non-deciding players and coaches again after giving the signals.

Also, as Warrenkicker stated but also at a lot of our varisty games, the crowds are generally so small that I can let everyone know what's happening. Sadly to say, turnout for football games at all in this region (NE North Dakota / NW Minnesota) is sketchy at best.

I always verbalize and I have never been mic'd for a game.

Side Note: are a lot of areas using the mic? I would love to use a mic as half the time the announcer does not announce the right thing and it just gets everyone upset. If I had a mic there would be no question as to what was going on.

Announce as if I have a mic. I have done this for years. On my regular crew I am not the Referee anymore, but my current Referee does the very same thing. In my opinion is slows your signals down and it is good practice for when you do get a mic for real.

I did one time work a TV game where for some reason I was never given a mic before the game. My first penalty I came to a stop and the commentators ranted for about 2 minutes about how good my signals were and that they have not seen an Referee all season come to a complete stop.

I was sold on the practice after seeing the tape if I was not before.

Peace

High schools in Nebraska and Iowa tend not to use the mike on R, although those schools that share their field with a college team might do that. We did have one such game last year, but they asked our R if he wanted to or not. He turned them down, since he'd never been miked.

There seems to be trend starting among the bigger schools in both states that the mike is showing up, especially at fields that are shared by the schools from the same school district. I doubt it'll trickle through the bigger class and on down to the smaller class anytime soon. It may be a LONG while.

Schools around here have small crowds and a mic is not necessary.

I think it is a good habit to verbalize penalties. One thing someone else mentioned, it slows you down and can even make you stop -- you have probably seen Rs who walk and talk or in such a hurry to get back to the game.

One other pointer, turn and look at someone in the press box. The becomes important when you get in the red zone. If you are square with the sideline you may be announcing to the cows.

Talking directly into a microphone isn't necessary either. Last Thursday I broadcast a game where we had a feed from the mic'd referee. He gave the signal, turned on his mic, then leaned his head down toward the mic while pushing the mic up with is hand so he could verbalize the call. Probably just not used to using it. Neither was the PA announcer. A few times he started talking before the referee was finished.

I always announce and signal....whether "mic'd" or not.

I've only done a microphone a handful of times...this Saturday will be another instance. To answer the one question, here in WI, it is getting more and more prevelant....especially the closer you get to the Fox Valley/Green Bay area, where they take the whole football experience, from top to bottom, a little more seriously. Of all the regular season varsity games I did this year, 5 were done with a microphone. Our playoff game last Tuesday was NOT.
You have to remember to slow things down and talk normally. If you don't rush yourself, you'll remember to turn it on and off when you should and get everything down in your head before you turn it on. Most of the systems I've worked with have about a second or so delay, too.

I also verbalize all of them whether or not I'm wearing a mic. It slows you down, makes you think, forces you to give crisp signals, etc. Was miced for TV the last 2 games of the season and had a couple of plays I could explain. Rarely do it, but something like "False start - offense. Lineman lifted from his 3-point stance" or "Illegal motion - offense. Player in motion before the linemen were set."