Positioning of R

[Illini_Ref]

I agree with you all. I have been a white hat at the varsity level for about 8 years now. I just want to work well with the new crew. Last Friday was to be our first game together but.................I am a police officer and an inmate from the local state prison escaped that day. I worked 13 hours and missed my game. Will try it again tomorrow.

I have asked 4 clinicians in Illinois. Three say arm side. One says that with a 5 man crew the R should stay between the hashes regardless of what arm the QB throws with. The one who said that is the head clinician and rules interpreter for the state of Illinois. What to do, what to do????

Here is his email:

The HS manual was written by men who were influenced by college mechanics which is 7-man. With HS mechanics, if the R starts on the throwing arm of the QB, if the play goes the other way, the R, who's not 18 years old, has to cover more than 2/3 of the field to stay with the play. That's not practical.

The HS Ref should stay between the hashes and not concern himself with the throwing arm of the QB.

Hope this helps.