Help with a High School rule

[ajmc]

It's my understanding that a catch (anywhere) has not been completed until an airborne receiver returns to the ground in possession of the ball. When possession is obtained while ariborne, and subsequently lost before returning to the ground, the pass has not been caught and the pass is considered incomplete, whereas forward progress is irrelevant.

If I follow your second example, that pass would be incomplete as well, for the same reason.