Officiating question.

[DinwiddieProud]

The breaking news today had me thinking. Do virtually all private schools in Virginia, and/or their member associations adopt the NFHS athletic rules?

My gut tells me that there has been some reluctance to apply the official rules in an uncomprising manner by private school officials over the years. And I'm fully aware that LCA is the only school at this point that will officially compete as a VHSL member, but I wonder if enforcement problems may become an issue? I ask this as an "across all sports" question, not just football.

 

[White hat]

To my knowledge all the schools use NFHS rules. There needs to be a code of rules for games to be administered and no one is using NCAA rules.

If you're referring to rules prohibiting prayer before a game or after a score, those are not rules within the Rules Book. The Rules Book just says you cannot have a prolonged action or anything that calls attention to yourself. This is up to individual interpretation, but I cannot imagine a h.s. official worrying about a kid taking a knee for a moment. That said, I've seen videos from here in Virginia where kids are flagged for flying chest bumps, so heaven knows what could happen.

There are some VHSL specific rules that private schools are not required to adhere to, but will have to if they are part of the VHSL. For example, a player that's ejected has to sit out the next game. That's a VHSL rule, not a NFHS rule. I have no idea what private schools do about that, but if I had a private school in a game and there was an ejection (a situation I never had happen) I'm not sure where a report would have gone. Those are decisions that will have to be made.

 

[DinwiddieProud]

For sure, a little bit of a learning process ahead. Have officials in your association, and in the other areas, traditionally worked private school games if the opportunity arose? Or is this practice a little unusual?

 

[White hat]

Private schools sign a contract with officials' associations just like everyone else. In most places, I believe, the public schools meet as a district and the district signs the contract with the officials' association (although there are exceptions). Since there are far fewer private schools, and they're in conferences spread out over larger areas, I don't know of any that sign with an association as a conference, although it's possible, espectially in hoops.

As for working them, most guys just go where they're assigned. If the private school has a contract with the association, then the officials are assigned there just like everywhere else.

Each association is different regarding whether officials can opt out of working a school (A scratch list). For example, I've had a private school in my area on my scratch list for years, but only because of scheduling. Public schools play on Friday nights. Private schools might not. This school plays its home games on Saturday afternoons and my son and I go to college games on Saturdays. No sense scheduling me at a time that's going to be a conflict, just schedule someone else. Another school used to play Friday afternoon games when I had a job where getting off would be hard.We had plenty of guys who made their own work schedules were happy to have those early games. I scratched that school because there was no sense causing a conflict.