Rather than ramble on and on, I would just simply say that any type of video reply for officiating purposes of a high school game is a bad idea.

If most schools do not have a play clock how are we to expect them to have replay equipment?

IR has no place in HS football. It's already ruined NFL (For me anyway). Every play is even more scrutinized over and over again to see if it should be challenged, and I feel it's taken alot away from the game.

In Minnesota hockey, I think the state tournament uses IR but of course they are using the TV stations' equipment. In Minnesota, hockey is a religion, so they have to do everything extra "special."

Good point made about play clocks. Only one field that we work on even has a play clock.

Good discussion, but it is very far from reality.

Schools already have shot clocks for basketball, so I don't think it would be a big deal to get a play clock for football setup. We already have two schools with them installed and they used them only during the playoff games. The problem is who will run it for the regular season games?

For BB games, it's usually some school personnel who doesn't even have to be a certified official. For football, any clock operator has to be a certified official. Do we need that now for a play clock operator? I don't know if the contract covered it. If we do, that person is required to be in full uniform and is paid a certain contractual game fee specifically for clock operators.

As far as IR at the high school level.. please just say NO. :}

We don't need a play clock and certainly do not want instant replay.

Just say no.

The biggest state tournament in Minnesota and to some extent in North Dakota is hockey. That seems so strange to me now since Indiana doesn't even sanction hockey.

Your comment about play clocks brings up another question. I can only recall one school I've only worked that did not have a play clock and they now have one. Some of the really small schools in the rural areas may not have them but we don't work too many games at those places.

The play clock and game clock operators are the responsibility of game management and sometimes they are the same person. We usually meet with them before the game and will take over the clocks on the field if we have too many problems. We have had a few instances where a play clock didn't work.

REPLY: I've seen a football play clock (note I used the singular) at only one school here in NJ. It wasn't used in our game. I wouldn't have allowed it if they wanted to use it. There was only one at one end of the field. Kinda dumb, don't you think?

I've always been against instant replay. I espically hate the college application. I think it breaks up momentum in the game, I'd eliminate replay and finally get to the magical 3 hour game (which is happening in DIII now).

Look its a game, coaches and players make mistakes, so will officials. As long as those breaks go both ways I see no reason to over analize them.

One play clock? absolutely Bob, I also would not permit it's use with only one or if either of them conked out. My experience this year with three games at these two fields was that they (the teams) liked having the visible play clock.
Only one delay call and it wouldn't have matter as they were so messed up that even a 40 second clock would not have been long enough.

There is a community college up the road an hour from my location where I've worked NCAA games and they set out a pair of portable play clocks that I'm told are also used for basketball. Very visible from the field and wired up to the press box clock operator for control.

I'm not advocating mandating PCs but if you have them or can get them installed cheaply, such as these portable ones, I say use them.

I would love to have play clocks.

My philosophy is get as many snaps as possible in the game. I keep the 25 second clock fairly close and keep the offense informed therefore very few DOGs.

A play clock would be a great addition. I am tired of this part of the game being put only in the hands of the officials.

Peace

With school districts around here talking about dropping any support for sports due to the state of California's budget, I seriously doubt money being dropped on unnecessary play clocks.

At Engelstad Arena ($110 million hockey facility) in Grand Forks they have replay available for NCAA games but they don't use it for HS hockey tournaments. I believe the IR for NCAA is used only for determining if a goal has been scored or not.

I don't think (maybe this is wishful thinking) that state HS associations philosophically believe that IR is necessary and that they believe that sports still have an educational value that is more important than winning at all costs.

However, there seems to be mounting pressure to make HS sports bigger and more like college or pro sports.