October 22, 2015
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SPORTSCENTRAL
Hosts Steve Johnson and Sid Edwards are scheduled to be joined by guests including CHS players Brian Calhoun, Josh Tanksley and Ben Peazanti. See programming information just below.
PART 2
It’s the second stanza of Dennis Dearie’s 3 part look at high school referees. See HEY REF column, right after Scott Osborne’s THE WIZARDRY OF OZ.
BATON ROUGE AREA BROADCASTING SCHEDULE:
Thursday, October 22: 5pm—6pm: SportsCentral… with Sid Edwards and Steve Johnson
Radio Amour 91.9 FM, Central
Friday, October 23: 6pm: Denham Springs HS at Central HS
Jon Fine, Andy Duckworth
Fox Sports Radio, 1210AM, Baton Rouge
JonFineProductions.com
SportsRadio 1310 Radio, Lake Charles Programming of Interest (also heard on KEZMOnLine.com):
Friday, October 23: 6:45pm: Sulphur HS vs New Lafayette HS
Bruce Merchant, Clopha Boudreaux
KEZM, 1310AM, Lake Charles
KEZMOnLine.com
Saturday, October 24: 9AM—10AM: All Things Football with Scott Holtzman
Monday, October 26: 8AM—10AM: The Locker Room with John Goodman and Jim Gazzolo
WE THANK YOU FOR DOING YOUR UTMOST TO PATRONIZE SPONSORS OF OUR PROGRAMMING. THIS HELPS US TREMENDOUSLY IN SUSTAINING OUR WEEKLY LINE-UP AND WILL ASSIST US IN ADDING MORE PROGRAMS IN THE FUTURE. KINDLY MAKE AN EFFORT TO LET SPONSORS KNOW YOU HEARD THEIR BUSINESS MENTIONED ON OUR BROADCAST(S).
THE WIZARDRY OF OZ
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High School
Jimmy Fallon write thank you notes on The Tonight Show, and I am going to take my turn at the gesture.
Thank you Sean Payton and the Saints coaching staff: I was pretty harsh on you all after the Eagles loss. While the defense still gives up yards like airlines give away peanuts, you all played to your strengths. The offense played to its strengths and the defense did not give away penalty yards.
Thank you Brandon Harris: The LSU passing game now qualifies as being better than a triple option team’s passing game. Another way of putting that, is LSU looks like a 21st century offense at times. Or yet another way, LSU can take advantage of what the defense gives through the passing game if they choose thanks to your talent and development.
Thank you Math: Yes, math, for giving us ways to determine quality of rushing performances. Fournette had 7.9 yards per carry against South Carolina, but only 5.8 yards per carry against Florida. Brad Nessler kept saying how quiet a game Fournette had (thank you mute button). It wouldn’t have been quiet if Nessler would pay attention to Fournette’s median yards per rush. The South Carolina stats were skewed by the 87 yard run. Yet, Fournette had just 3.5 median yards per carry. Against the much stronger Gator defense, Fournette was superior with 4 median yards per rush. My eyes saw and my ears heard a very strong performance.
Thank you NBA Preseason: We need you to be long and not matter because the promise of a new Pelicans season has already been dampened by the reminder that this roster is not able to stay healthy.
Thank you Ole Miss, Arkansas, and Auburn: No really… really… reeaalllyy. Thanks, for making the SEC West not as strong as most people thought and making the LSU/Alabama game a quasi-playoff game. With Baylor, TCU, Ohio State, and Florida State rolling in weak conferences I don’t think LSU can overcome a loss to Alabama and make the top 4.
Thank you Michael Mauti: The Steve Gleason blocked punt the night the Superdome re-opened is a moment I will remember the rest of my life. And was nice to relive it on a lower scale for a night.
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HEY REF
This is the second part in a special three part series delving into the LHSAA’s high school football officials.
Welcome back as we continue down the road trying to figure out just how, when and why the quality of those calling high school football games in Louisiana has deteriorated and is there a way to reverse this trend. For those that missed part one please “log” onto jonfineproductions.com and you can access our newsletter from there. As I left off last week I tried explaining the lack of commitment many officials have when it comes to attending meetings.
The LHSAA acknowledges the shortcomings of those willing to skip weekly meetings by its football officials. They’ve even taken the step of demanding that officials attend a certain number of meetings to remain eligible to work regular season varsity games. Those that continue to miss meetings are only degrading the quality of the official that their association puts on the field. I know there are times and events in our personal lives that come up from time to time and make getting to a meeting impossible and I can live with that fact.
But it has not only caused hard feelings among those that make the vast majority of meetings but is has become a direct reason for some of the missed calls during each and every season. The top two reasons I’ve heard mentioned as “reasons” for staying away from the weekly meetings are (1) Many feel it’s just a waste of their time and (2) Since officials are assigned games through an internet account/connection then there’s no other reason to attend.
And there’s the major gripe I have with this new technology that’s been adopted by most if not all associations whether it be high school or college athletics. I’m proud to say I was trained “old school” because we not only understood the science of officiating but we took pride in working together as the third team on the field that particular night. Which of course might make you think I’m saying we were better trained than today’s officials and you’d be right, that’s exactly what I’m saying.
For instance if you’ve got five officials that’ll work a certain game and the only interaction among those five officials is asking where’s the dressing room they’ll use that night then you should understand we’ve got a huge problem here. One of my fondest memories from my first stint of working games in Baton Rouge was Clyde Messenger. Here was a man that took a personal interest and dedication in having our local association becoming and staying the very best in the state. And we were, hands down the very best association year after year.
Clyde was our vice president and responsible for teaching rules and reviewing rules during our weekly meetings. He would also take his VHS camera to JV games and film the crews. These crews were made up of manly one seasoned referee and three young guys who were learning the ropes so to speak. He’d invite the crews he filmed over to his house to study our play coverages and the calls we made. He took his time to explain what we did right and what we didn’t. He then would offer ways to improve our positioning on certain plays and what we needed to do to be in a better spot to insure better coverage.
Now let’s compare the “old” way of teaching the game to young and new officials to the “new” way of helping guys understand the rules that I just experienced this year (2015) from the so called rules guy and trainer of new officials in my first and only year in a new association in south Louisiana. Well I’d been reading and going over the new study guide and had one question had me stumped. I knew it was something simple, probably right in front of me but I was just not finding an answer that I was comfortable with.
Being at the end of my rope I got the phone number to the “Rules Guru” and made a call. I told him I had a simple question, the answer to my question would be a simple one and I was hoping he’d lend an ear and help me understanding a rule. The conversation was a short one since as soon as he reminded me of a situation I heard the bells go off and as I’d said the answer was a very simple one. I thanked him for his time and help.
At our next meeting I made sure to “Thank” the trainer in person because I knew he’d be getting more calls than normal because this was the year that the LHSAA changed their testing procedures and everyone was getting nervous. I was prepared for the typical answer that follows where he’d say “No problem” or “Glad I could help” and so on. But what I got was the biggest blind side hit I’ve ever encountered. He flew into a mini rage saying “You know what scares me? A guy that’s supposed to have 25 years’ experience and he forgot that”!
I didn’t know how to respond. I’ve never been attacked like that in front of other officials. As I stumbled for a reply he again goes after me and continues “You’d think you’d know that rule. We all know it, you should know it”. “How can a man that’s got over 20 years in this business forgetting something so simple”. I just kinda stuttered and said “I knew it was a simple answer I just couldn’t find the answer in my rule book”. I felt an inch tall as he went off on me. You don’t ever belittle another official for any reason. This is the guy that’s charged with getting this association up to speed with the rules and prep them for the test.
I came from a world where every official did what they could to help a fellow official. Making your association the best only happens when each member helps another become the best they can be. I get the feeling that if these new brand of officials were on the Titanic they’d be the only ones in the life boats. No women or children would’ve survived since they only think of themselves and not the bigger picture.
Today’s officials I’m sad to report are only interested in their own careers. They have egos bigger than the Super Dome. It’s all about them. They don’t have “we” in their vocabularies. They can’t understand the concept of the chain and the weakest link and so on. I won’t even attempt to go into the economic aspect of officiating.
The “old” way of training gave crews that feeling that they were in effect THE BEST. The “old” way wasn’t something you did on your own. The “old” way made you part of a team of officials and not a lone stripped shirt. We didn’t just feel as though we were the best because we were the best! How can I make that statement? That’s easy, we all felt this way because of the many hours we studied and worked together. We dedicated ourselves to the crew concept. All members of the crew had a mindset of “We get it right as a crew and we get it wrong as a crew”. Having been warned four years ago that I should forget that concept and just deal with what I do and not worry about anybody else is contrary to the way officiating should be.
The difference and comparison from those days in how we committed ourselves to working and doing what needed to be done as one so that we’d be the best is day and night with those that put on the striped shirts today.
Till next week…
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