Slight rise of game officials hailed as good news
MIAA associative executive director Richard Pearson has been at the forefront of extolling the virtues of game officials.
At Wednesday’s MIAA Board of Directors meeting, Pearson spoke about the importance of officials and went on to add there has been a slight rise in officials, which is a promising development. Pearson added that his recent tournament experiences have been very promising with crowds acting in a generally positive manner, which should be considered a plus.
He went on to mention that there are two initiatives he has been looking into, one of them being Refreps, a program which consists of comprehensive officiating education courses and interactive training video packs.
These can be distributed to schools to teach them the pillars of officiating with the standardized online course curriculum complete with instructor guides, support materials, assessments, example videos, and more. Paired with video training packs, people can see the game through the eyes of the officials, practically apply what they’ve learned, and build confidence before ever stepping out on the field, court, or mat.
The second initiative was Officially Human, a program whose mission is to restore respect to game officials and recognize them as authorities on the fields and on the courts.
In other matters, there were some rules change clarifications.
The first regarded the canceled season policy. Now, a school which cancels a sport prior to an official contest being conducted and no later than seven days after the first possible competition date, will not forfeit any wins to its anticipated opponents. In this case, opponents who had the game canceled may have up to 72
hours to consider rescheduling a game only against one of the other schools that had a game dropped.
A school which cancels a sport after completing at least one official contest or later than seven days after the first possible competition date will forfeit wins to its remaining scheduled opponents. In this case, schools will receive a for
feit win and are not permitted to schedule another opponent in place of the dropped game.
The second one regarded league membership changes. When the process described below is completed, and the District Athletic Committees act to approve the proposed changes, implementation of the changes may occur until two years after the ultimate DAC vote of approval. If any leagues or DAC contested the change request the implementa
tion of the change would not occur until two years after the ultimate DAC vote.
When any member school makes an official application to another league, then that high school principal must simultaneously notify each of the District Athletic Committee chairs and league presidents potentially affected by the proposed change. The recorded vote and rationale are then to be forwarded to that District Athletic Committee chair.