October 15, 2015
TOP BILLING!!
Long-time JonFineProductions.com Newsletter columnist Dennis Dearie is going for 3!! Here’s Part 1:
HEY REF
This is the first part of a special three part series delving into the LHSAA’s high school football officials.
I never thought I’d use the words football officials and cannibals in the same sentence. But that’s the easiest way to describe the attitude in at least three football official’s associations in the Baton Rouge area. I’ve been doing some fact finding the last four years into why the performance of LHSAA’s football officials has declined in recent years. It goes against every fiber of my being to be writing this story but this story must be told. There won’t be any fireworks or front page headlines to announce that I’ve decided to retire effective immediately but I’ve seen enough and am sick to see just how bad the officiating and the attitude of many officials has become in this part of the state.
I started working high school football games in the Baton Rouge area back in 1979. I took 1980 off and resumed my career in 1981. Back then we played under NCAA rules but in the mid to late 80’s Louisiana made the switch to National Federation (High School) rules. So we had to hit the books hard to insure we enforced penalties as prescribed in the high school rule book.
I worked games for 20 years before major health problems sidelined me. You know little things like several surgeries to both knees then a total knee replacement, a triple by-pass, four abdominal operations and the “Big One” where my lower spine collapsed and to fix things the doctors took bone out of my hip and spliced it into my lower back. I bring this up because I never expected to be able to call another game. I kept this information from many other officials since I didn’t want or need pity. The facts are that after one Friday night game I’m in bed for two to three days unable to walk and dealing with all the pain.
During my time off (almost twelve years) I would still talk to coaches in our area and tried to keep up with how teams were doing. I’m not sure of the exact time frame but things started changing for the worse as far as how football games were being officiated. Coaches would tell me about plays they had run on a given Friday night and how the officials ruled wondering if this or that was correct.
I don’t like to question how fellow officials enforced penalties or how they handled game situations just on a coaches version of the events but it became clear something was amiss. And it wasn’t just one coach or fan that would ask me questions so I decided to get back on the sidelines so I could see for myself just what was going on. Back at the start of my stint as an amateur football official there was this feeling of a brotherhood among a crew of officials working games together.
That was the first thing I noticed missing among the membership and in fact before I started back I called and talked to an official that was still calling games and has more than 40 years in the Baton Rouge Association. He told me “Things have CHANGED! Don’t ask questions just do your games and don’t worry about anything else but what you do”! That conversation only made me want to get back to see why things had changed for the worse.
I admit I was excited to have the chance to catch up with many of my old friends. But when the meeting got underway I was shocked in that I only recognized a handful of the guys I used to call games with. I didn’t make it through the first meeting back as I was asked to leave. The Baton Rouge Association was still meeting at LSU’s Williams Hall so I felt comfortable sitting in the seat I’d spent nearly 20 years occupying. It was close to the top row of the room’s seats and it felt like old times. But not more than twenty minutes into the meeting I’d noticed many officials talking on their phones, in small groups and some were even playing games on their laptops and cell phones. I noticed a couple guys with laptops never looked up and just continued being focused on the screens. So I walked by them to get a peek at what was so important and I was shocked to see them on the internet as the meeting continued onto new business. It was like being in a bad daycare center with all the noise and inattention to the discussion on the floor.
Well, I couldn’t hear because of all the talking, walking around, laughing and phones ringing so I raised my hand and asked what was being said on the floor. The president made the remark that if I wanted to hear what was going on and to “fix my problem then I should come sit on the front row”. This upset me and I stood up and told him to “Fix this problem everybody needs to shut the F*CK up so we can hear”!
When I got home I had more than a dozen calls on my answering machine from members thanking me for saying what I said because it’s just mass confusion at the meetings and I said what needed saying. Well, it didn’t go over very well with the president and I was almost immediately put on his sh*t list.
And from there things only got worse. I was used to meetings where you could hear a pin drop. Every meeting had a purpose in that before the rules test we opened the rule book and discussed what they meant and how to enforce penalties. We had a study guide with over 300 questions and we’d go over the first 50 questions then the next week another 50 and so on until we’d read all the questions and understood what they meant.
The new way of doing things is handing out the study guide along with the dates that the test would be given. When no discussion on the rules happened I wanted to devote a minimum of 30 minutes before the test to our study guide and the rules then after the test the 30 minutes would be to review game situations from the previous Friday night. Needless to say, it wasn’t received very well and was turned down. I asked one of the veteran officials if he’d support my motion and he told me “Man, you know the real meeting is after we leave here (LSU) in the parking lot or at a local “watering hole”. You can see that this was not the way I was taught but I ran up against so much resistance that I knew nothing good was to come from doing business this way.
I’ll leave things to your imagination as to just how good the product would be if this was “NEW” way of learning the rules.
Till next week… …
BLESS YOU BOYS
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THE WIZADRY OF OZ
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High School
If you are very talented, you can get away with being undisciplined. But if you are not very talented, then you better be disciplined. Right now the Saints are not overly talented and not disciplined which is extremely disappointing to watch.
I have been a strong believer in this coaching and management regime. For at least this week, I am suspending my faith in what the Saints management and staff are doing.
As I have written repeatedly, I like most of the defensive additions made this off season, but that is not enough. The defensive penalties are excessive, and often caused by awful technique. The inability to come close to covering a tight end is reaching comedic levels.
During the off season, we heard the defense was being simplified so the players could react and play faster. That was the kiss of death as the defense is consistently 2 steps behind every offense it encounters.
The Saints have a potentially great young middle linebacker in Anthony. The defensive line should be eating up blockers so he can run to the football. Currently, the defensive line runs around blocks allowing offensive lineman to create gaping holes or simply gets swallowed up. And don’t even start to think about blaming that on the youth of the line because I am mostly looking at veterans with these accusations.
The defense plays as 11 undisciplined individuals with no concept of how to work together to stop an offense.
The special teams, as it has been for years, is a complete dumpster fire. When was the last time the Saints tried anything with creativity on special teams to steal a possession? 2009 in the Super Bowl? It feels as though the immediate action after the Saints score a touchdown to take a lead is to surrender a long kickoff return.
The saving grace of the team, the offense, is the most disappointing aspect. This off season, the Saints made moves with the plan that Seantavius Jones, Brandon Coleman, and Josh Hill were ready to be the next in a long line of players to fulfill productive roles within this offense. Jones isn’t on the team, while Coleman and Hill might as well not be on the team.
The lack of discipline has been on display on the offensive side of the ball as well. McCown played a great game against Carolina taking what the defense gave. Brees continues to force the ball downfield and hold onto the ball too long that leads to sacks or turnovers. Payton continues to try and force “shot” plays without a receiver on the roster that can make those plays. Play Joe Morgan or find someone else to fill that role.
There are many turnovers that result from poor technique in ball security. And those have been wide spread from multiple players at multiple positions.
Furthermore, the offense has not adjusted to his talent. Spiller and Ingram are being paid as upper level running backs. Khiry Robinson has almost always produced when given chances. Yet, only one running back gets on the field at a time. Too often, only Ingram is on the field. There has been little misdirection, creativity, or execution in the running game.
The future of the Saints is on the roster right now. Except for Brees, Colston, and Evans, this roster has been completely remade. The media and short sighted Saints fans will be willing to throw this season in the toilet, and wait for another draft day as if that is going to save the day. A football team requires 53 players to be successful. Seven rookies from a draft and a few free agents will not fix everything.
The Falcons took their lumps last year, but look at all the players that were on their roster last year who are contributing to their undefeated start. The Saints success next year will be determined by their quarterback, the development of the talent on the roster at this exact moment, and a few off season additions. While most focus on the quarterback and hopes for off season additions, the Saints coaching staff and management better start getting better production and discipline from this year’s roster. Otherwise, the other decisions won’t matter, and the Saints are back to being the Saints I grew up with.
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