10:00 am, March 13, 2018 Robert W. Hughes FHSAA Building Gainesville, Florida Minutes Florida High School Athletic Association Officials Advisory Committee Meeting 1. Welcome, introductions, purpose a. Justin Harrison Welcomed the committee and introduced the committee and staff. b. Purpose Annual meeting of winter sports, drawing from experience, voice for officials from respective areas. c. Nominations for Chairman 2 Gilbert Rosario nominated William Ayers, Jim Murray Second 2. Review agenda and verify completion of expense voucher 3. Approval of March, 2017 OAC meeting minutes a. Murray motioned to approve, DeAtley second (9-0 approved) 4. Review recommendations of the following sport committees a. Basketball Frank Beasley / Ed Thompson 1) Recommendations a. Coaching Box- Adoption of NFHS rule 1.13.2 i. Extending the box to a 28 foot box, extending the box allows for new officials to not be distracted by the sideline. ii. Motion to approve DeAtley, second Murray (9-0 approved) b. Recommendations Committee i. This recommendation suggests that booking commissioners should be involved in the review process for recommendation committees for the state tournament. The committee discussed that the recommendation committees put together the pool and the booking commissioners put together the crews. DeAtley brought up the fact that assigners across the state differ based on region, some are employed by the county while others work for the association. DeAtley explained how his association s recommendation process and that associations individual rules vary association to association. Mechanisms need to be put in place to assure the best overall crews are being sent to the state tournament. Murray stated that the rule needs to be more ambiguous to allow the booking commissioner to work with the committee. Discussion to amend the rule 204.02 & 204.33 to allow the assignment
2) Discussion officer to be a voting member on the recommendations committee alone. ii. Motion to amend Kurzner, second Murray (9-0 approved) c. Officials Scorekeeper i. This recommendation suggest that a 4 th official be added to the crew during the 2 nd and 3 rd round of the Regional playoff to run the clock. The committee agreed that at this level of play it is vital to the game to have somebody other than a fan running the table. Mr. Harrison stated that the recommendation should specify the role of the official, whether or not it s a paid position and the round where the 4 th official starts. Does the number of issues per season equate to the number of issues that could arise? Certain associations around the state may have difficulty supplying enough officials. ii. Williams pulled item from further discussion d. 3 Foot restricted area i. DeAtley discussed the area under the rim becoming more dangerous as the players become more athletic and aggressive. Proposed is a 3 foot restricted area under each basket. Beasley discussed that his rule is up for the rules committee for the National Federation this year. The arc would be painted on the floor, which would be a school cost. ii. DeAtley withdrew his item a. FHSAA Officials Registration Late i. Florida being a transient state, associations have multiple officials that move to Florida during January. Associations want to be able to accept as many officials as they can. DeAtley requested that action be allowed for new officials. Harrison discussed the option of increasing the registration fee significantly after a certain date. And waiving higher fee for brand new FHSAA officials. Insurance has to be paid for each of these officials as well. Halfway point for each season as the last date for any registration. Hernandez expressed that regardless of the experience of an official, they will still have access to the New registration via Arbiter. b. Foul Reporting i. Having officials move opposite of the table after reporting a foul. This simple mechanic will allow for officials to not have to engage coaches. NFHS has officials staying tableside as a mechanic. Lack of communication could be problematic for coaches. c. Testing of Coaches i. Harrison discussed that the Coaches Advisory Committee has discussed this concept. DeAtley only wants coaches to get into the book. He reiterated that the scores are arbitrary and don t matter as much as coaches reading the rule book and knowing it. Education of coaches could help alleviate the tension in some games.
b. Soccer Alex Ozuna / Corey Sobers 1) Recommendations a. Required preseason meetings for coaches i. This preseason meeting would allow for coaches and officials to meet and discuss rule changes and hot topics prior to the start of the season. Ayers expressed that opening up communication in a noncompetitive environment would help foster better relations. ii. Motion to approve Kurzner, DeAtley second (9-0 approved) 2) Discussion a. Evaluations i. Evaluations continue to be inconsistence among the evaluators. Ozuna discussed that as we increase the number of evaluators, the more inconsistent the evaluations become. He stated that the evaluator training is being updated every year to help train the evaluators to consistently score across the board. Not allowing evaluators to come from a local area becomes a scheduling issue if you want to get the evaluator to assess multiple officials. Cipriano suggested that there be an online forum for evaluators as a form of a field clinic. b. Referee uniform shirts i. Referees unhappy with the supplier of soccer shirts. Also not pleased with the quality. Harrison discussed the future of the official s apparel vendor. The FHSAA but out bids for vendors and is working to resolve this issue. c. AT6-M Forms i. For non-injury miscellaneous items, the associations should communicate with the school first rather than the FHSAA contacting them. Harrison stated that he is in agreement with this discussion point. d. Rule to retake kick i. This rule differs from the USSF and FIFA rule. Rosario stated that the team should not be penalized for the referee s mistake. e. Honig s i. Previously discussed. f. Game ending procedures 7.1.2 i. This rule has not been adopted by the FHSAA from the NFHS so it must be stated in the guidebook. g. Length of periods i. Length of periods extended to 45 minute halves verses 40 minutes to combat all the stoppage that happens during the game. Stoppage would only happen for hydration. Add time is harder to delineate than stopping the clock when play is affected. Adding time becomes a referee s judgement call. h. Number of players i. Per the rules, the roster can be edited at any time. Players should not be added while the game has already started. i. Indirect Free Kicks i. In the instance of the injury, the team is awarded an indirect free kick. This instance was a referee judgement rather than a misapplied rule.
j. Start Date i. Ozuna brought up the discussion of having both girls and boys having the same start date. Flynn stated that he likes the staggered start as it gives scheduling a full week of girls that they can assign officials to. Ayers discussed that districts would be difficult as there would be multiple games in one week. c. Wrestling Robbie Lindeman 1) Recommendations - none 2) Discussion a. Officials/Coaches Advisory Committees a. Expanding communication between officials and coaches. Combining the coaches meeting with the perspective officials committee. This would allow for both sides to meet and make decisions with input from both coach and official. b. State Seeding a. Teams will sometimes injury default a match in order to place themselves in a certain seeding. Cipriano suggested that starting at districts could help the issue by establishing a specific number of per district. The rotation of regions in the brackets is the main cause of the injury default Harrison suggested hiding that information until the conclusion of the regional tournament. c. Host schools for Regions a. Regional hosts should be capable of properly fitting four mats in their gym. The committees should be able to delineate specific guidelines for the facilities in order to host the tournament. Safety has become an issue with people on the mats because of space. There needs to be guidelines to insure the safety of officials and student athletes. d. Officials selection for State a. The top 10 officials at the state tournament should automatically get a bid back to the state tournament. Associations who are not submitting quality officials to the state tournament should not be guaranteed spots for the next state tournament. Information should be conveyed to the associations after the evaluations come back on who gets an automatic bid. e. Notification of Region/State Officials a. Associations would like to know as soon as possible which officials will get invited back to the state tournament. f. OPC Weigh in sheet entry a. Officials can directly responsible for inputting the weights into Track Wrestling or the official could supervise the coaches as they enter in the weights. Coaches are supposed to police each other s weigh in sheets but that is not currently happening. The meet director should be making a copy of all the weigh in sheets and then handing out a copy to all of the coaches with the original weigh in sheets staying with the meet director. Currently the original weigh in sheets are just being handed out to the coaches. Officials would like to see coaches go through the correct procedures to combat this issue.
g. Pay for the Regional Tournament a. During the regular season officials are being paid more than what they would be paid at the regional tournament per bout. h. Registration Fee a. Registration fee used to get a patch, case book and rule book but now they don t physically receive those. Now those items are online. FHSAA is also looking into providing an app version of the rules and case books. 5. General recommendations 6. Open Agenda (discussion only) a. Lopsided scores- basketball 1.) One team running the score up on the other. Adjusting the mercy rule to apply to the whole game and drop the threshold. Its sportsmanship on the coaches behalf. 7. Adjournment