Invalid Fair Catch Signal During a Free Kick
 

NFHS Rules
Sophomore game - 3 officials - I'm R

Following a safety, K chooses to free kick with a punt. R gives an invalid fair catch signal (2 hands, chest high, moving) and catches the ball. I kill it and drop my flag.

I'm thinking that we have a loose ball foul and the choices for K are: to accept the penalty, and enforce it from the previous spot and re-kick; or decline the penalty.

Both of my partners thought we could give K the choice to penalize from the awarded fair catch spot. I said no, that we can't use PSK, since we have a free kick instead of a scrimmage kick.

Was I right or wrong?

No PSK because you don't have a scrimmage kick. You have punt used for the free kick following the safety.

Sounds good to me MNBlue.
Hopefully, your partners are now clear on when PSK is in affect and when it's not.
Also, were did they come up with this term you mention as the "awarded fair catch spot"? Even if it is just semantics, there couldn't be one on this play anyway as there wasn't a fair catch and there wasn't a foul against team-K.

You were wrong, usually officials don't give fair catch signals or catch kicks.

But what if it is kicked right to me? :eek:

Was it really a FC signal or was he just waving his teammates away from the ball? :confused:

It was. He just didn't know any better.

Did an official get a chance to tell the kid what a good signal is before the play? Probably not with a 3 man crew on a sophomore game. Just curious.

Nope. But he knows now.

LOL! I'll bet.