Wild First week!

[Texas Aggie]

Had my schedule set a while back to include 2 Thursday night JV games and a Friday night varsity game. Picked up a Wed game and Saturday games (pee wee). Boy, where to begin...

Wed (one Frosh C team game) went fine. The weather here in Texas, believe it or not, has been a little hot but Wed was a great break -- welcome start to the season. The only thing weird that happened was the R "overruled" me (LJ) by declaring the runner coming to my sideline was stopped for forward progress in bounds when I signaled him out of bounds. (Hint: he went out of bounds -- it frankly wasn't even that close). Anyway, I later reminded him to respect his partners, he said he would, and we went on without issue. I think he realized he shouldn't have done that even though he was sincere in thinking they guy was held up then slung around OOB. That's true, but he had stepped out before the slinging. Trust me: in a frosh game, I'm giving all benefit of any doubt to keeping him in bounds. I guess I could have missed it, but when it happened, I didn't have a question about it.

Thursday night: hell breaks loose late. We're having few, if any issues until late in the game. V, down 13-7, is driving and gets inside the 20. I don't remember the downs, but after a close incomplete, 3 players -- 2 V and 1 H -- dive on the ball to "recover" it. We're whistling its down and H gets up and pushes V's helmet into the other one. I saw it and flagged it. H bench goes crazy -- saying I shouldn't have made that call at that point. Then they start in on everything under the sun that we missed: a dpi call, a ineligible downfield call, and one other one. Head varsity coach giving it to my LJ and BJ while we're waiting for the kickoff after V scored and went ahead. Again, not that difficult a call in my view. I had just passed on a very close roughing the passer call on that exact play -- too close to call and I decided to err on the side of a no-call. Anyway, coach calls my assignor, who I called before going home and essentially lied to him about stuff. Oh, well. They don't want us back; the feeling is mutual.

Friday night: no real discipline or bench problems (a little disagreement here and there, but not out of control). Pretty good game, but weak and sloppy first half. Something like 14 flags in the first, ended up with 21 total. I HATE that. I want 5 foul games! But, we couldn't help it. Close game, second half MUCH better played. Final 23-19 home and V's late turnover made the difference. V didn't score last 2 and a half quarters of game. We weren't perfect, but second half was solid. The only thing about last night was we didn't get off the field until 10:20 after a 7:30 start. LONG night.

Today: many of the things I hate about pee wee: coaches going crazy; fans yelling (not necessarily at us -- too much at the kids). Hot, sunny, hot, and games running late (did I mention it was hot?). No break because we were running late and after 2 and a half games, I'm literally done -- in more ways than one. Supervisor comes in and relieves me for last half (thanks, Charles!!). I cool off, down a gallon or two of liquid, drive home, nap, and I'm fine. A little red. Hot showers out for a day or two.

What's in store for next week?

[Welpe]

Sounds like a crazy way to start the season.

I'm still jealous you get to work JV games with 5 guys.

I worked a freshman game on Thursday that ended in a tie after a goal line stand by the visiting team and I worked as a sub on a varsity game last night which was a 48-8 blow out.

[BktBallRef]

We just finished week 2. 3 games, 2 V and 1 JV so far. Far too many fouls and fumbles. 1 taunting ejection. A crew from our association had a bench clearing brawl Friday night. Meeting today to sort that out.

[Rich]

Thursday we had a 48-7 JV game. This school *always* pays us for 5 officials. Consequently, we always try to schedule as many Thursdays there as possible. Total of 6 flags. Probably the fastest game we've ever worked -- we started at 6PM and were done by about 7:30PM. Running clock the entire second half.

Friday we worked a 50-32 slugfest. Our BJ tracks penalties and he ran out of room charting the 13 we had in the first half. I keep meaning to pick up a digital recorder to replace the notepad he carries.

The first penalty was a 15-yard sideline interference on about the third play when our linesman ran into an assistant coach in the restricted area. The only reaction that got from the head coach was an apology to the linesman and a chewing out of the assistant (in the pregame meeting with him, I asked if he had any questions and all he told me was that he expected me to hold his players accountable and that he wouldn't tolerate any bad sportsmanship from his team -- I guess that he holds his assistants acccountable, too). Six of the remaining fouls were encroachment or false starts. We did have 2 horse collar tackles (one of which I flagged as the R -- a runner was held up by the defense and a player on the ground reached up and horse collared him straight back -- I guess I was the only one of the crew to see it, which with the crowd we had around the ball doesn't surprise me) and a hold and a personal foul and an IBB on a punt return, but it didn't *seem* like we had a huge number of fouls until we were reviewing them afterwards. (Looking up, I reported 12 here and can't remember the 13th.)

We had 3 fouls the entire second half. One was encroachment on an extra point, another was encroachment on a scrimmage down. Can't remember the third.

It was humid and muggy all night and I decided to put some water breaks in during the second half (I saw some players trying to work through cramps and I kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner). In the fourth quarter after the second or third water break, the linesman came to me and told me the head coach wanted to personally thank me for including those water breaks. (Can we just follow this coach around week after week?).

Saturday morning we did a varsity reserve on the area's turf field. I *love* working on turf and am thrilled to have 5 lower-level games there this season. Four-man, and I spent most of the game chasing down footballs so I could get them to the umpire. So *that's* what the back judge does much of the game (to be fair, we always have ball boys giving us new footballs on Fridays and yesterday we had long passes with no second football ready, so we had to hustle to get the ball back to be spotted -- no big deal, I got some good exercise). The game ended 6-6 in regulation as the only points scored were on a punt return for a TD and a fumble recovery in the end zone (the ball was snapped on the 1 and promptly fumbled by A). So we got our overtime practice in early (25-yard OT procedure here). 4-and-out for the visitors and the home team punches it in after getting 2 first downs and the weekend is over.

[HLin NC]

Week Two for me also. Last Friday we walked off the field at 10:30 and two nights ago it was 10:22. I checked the stats in this morning's paper and we had 21 penalties Friday night. The home team was picking up USC and PF's in the first half but chilled out in the 2nd. It was very humid compared to where I live and I was dripping buckets. The visitor's only brought one trainer and she was overworked. It was 17-14 at the half but white couldn't hold on the the football very well and gave up two more TD's.

Overall the play has been poor so far- dropped passes by the ton, the usual FS, Enc., and IF's on the offense. Friday night the home team's defense apparently thought they had white's snap count down but they repeatedly jumped off. My HC starting predicting to me when it was going to happen.

Add in the JV game and one team each night has just had a clear advantage over the other so far.

[The Roamin' Umpire]

Originally Posted by Welpe

Sounds like a crazy way to start the season.

I'm still jealous you get to work JV games with 5 guys.

I'm jealous that (a) your seasons have started already, and (b) you get to work JV with FOUR guys.

[Welpe]

Most JV games in the region of the greater Houston area where I work football are three official affairs.

[Texas Aggie]

There's one school district around here that pays 5 for all HS games, including frosh, and 4 for jr. high games. That's sweet, although I don't get over there -- other side of town. I wouldn't work JV with less than 4, though I've had to on several occasions due to no-shows. There's no way we can work these spread offenses with only 3.

I was encouraged that the second half of the varsity game friday night was much better played. We feel better about our performance when we have fewer fouls.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Welpe

Most JV games in the region of the greater Houston area where I work football are three official affairs.

I will not take an assignment with fewer than 4 officials assigned.

Some other crew can do those games. We work as much as we want with games that have at least 4 paid for. Sometimes (when all of us are available to work) we'll take 5 and split 4 checks.

[Welpe]

I wish I had that choice but it's either work hardly any football or work with what the system is now.

I'm certainly in no position to change it right now.

I'm used to working 4 officials for all subvarsity so it is going to be quite a change.