Colorado will use a 40-second play clock in football this season as it takes part in a three-state experiment of a new rule.
It means that an offensive team will have exactly 40 seconds to snap the ball after the end of the previous play, except for a few select circumstances. No official will give a signal to mark the ball ready for play.
This marks a change from the use of a 25-second play clock. Previously, an official would have to signal to start the play clock after marking the ball ready for play. That won’t happen with the 40-second clock, as it will run as soon as the previous play ends. Additionally, the ball will be ready for play as soon as it is placed, and no official will make a signal, nor blow a whistle.
A 25-second clock will still be used in a few instances, including, for example, after a penalty, a timeout, an injury, a measurement, change of possession, or a scoring play.
The aim is to provide a consistent interval between plays, said CHSAA associate commissioner Tom Robinson, who is in charge of officials.
“We try to work with referees in terms of when they mark and spot the ball,” Robinson said. “Teams are often waiting for the ready to play. There are a number of inconsistencies, and this will hopefully give teams the opportunity to dictate the pace of the game. We want the teams to dictate the pace, not the officials.”
Additionally, the play clock will not wait on a chain crew after a first down.
“They’re not going to wait for the chain crew, period,” Robinson said. “(The officials) might drop a bean bag to mark a first down” if the chain crew isn’t in position at the snap following a first down.
In a brief explaining the new rule, the Colorado Football Officials Association (CFOA) wrote:
With a 40-second play clock, the ball is ready for play when an official spots the ball and steps away to his position. The 40-second play clock has significantly standardized the time the offense has to put the ball into play.
Colorado is one of three states using the experimental rule, along with Indiana and Michigan. Indiana piloted the the rule last season, and Texas has been using it since 2014. It is also used by the NCAA.
The experimental rule could be in place for up to three seasons, Robinson said, but it is possible that it goes before the NFHS football rules committee in that period.
“If it’s a compelling presentation, then they could change the rule in a year,” Robinson said. “If they don’t, we’ll do (the experimental rule) again for the next two or three years with the hope that we can convince enough states that we should change it.”
AURORA — As CHSAA’s liaison to every official in the state, Tom Robinson has his fair share of rough days at the office. The associate commissioner hears it all when it comes to any officiating issue, but he tries to block out the outside noise.
Robinson takes time during the year to attend as many games as he can evaluate referees and try to help them develop so they can reach higher levels.
He also serves as a replay official for the Big 12 and the Mountain West conferences — so if anyone knows the rules, it’s Robinson.
We sat down with Robinson to discuss issues that arise when it comes to officials, as well as the expanded use of iWanamaker to score Colorado high school golf, which he also oversees.
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Q: As head of officials, what is the biggest concern for you going into the start of any school year?
Tom Robinson: I don’t know if I would say it’s concern. It’s just a lot of preparation that goes into the start of not only the school year and the fall season, but the winter and the spring (as well). All of our officials organizations, every single one of them are in the throes of master planning.
It’s like a master clinic to prepare their officials for the upcoming year relative to new rules, maybe new mechanics. Maybe it’s looking at issues they had during the previous season that they want to correct. So concern? Maybe not. It’s just having enough time and the right approach to get them prepared for the season.
Q: What’s the biggest complaint that you hear on a regular basis in regard to officials?
Robinson: It’s not even a love/hate, it’s a hate/hate relationship with officials. It’s just somebody complaining that either the officials blew a call or in some respects it’s that (a team) was cheated or something, or that the officials have some kind of bias. Which is just the mentality about officials, unfortunately.
Q: When you’re attending a game and you see an incorrect call made, what’s the process that you go through? Do you inform the officials after the fact that a certain call was wrong or do you address the ruling with all the officials as a group?
Robinson: Probably the temptation is, for example if it’s a football game and it happens in the first half, to storm into the locker room at halftime and say, “You guys flat screwed that up.” But that’s not my approach. The deed is done. There is no going back on it, so what I generally do is make a note.
And if it’s a football game, I just contact the referee to have him tell me what happened on the play, I give him my response as to what happened on the play and just follow up that way. I try to be heavy-handed with that piece of it.
Tom Robinson, speaking at an event earlier this month. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Q: People watch a lot of NFL and they always think the rule at the highest level of a sport trickle down, but that’s not always the case. What would you say to someone who claims they know a rule but really don’t?
Robinson: That’s difficult. A lot of people would like for all the codes to be the same. Most of them know that there are three different codes for rules. I would say to a fan in that case — I would inform them that for high school there is a code and it may be different than what happens on Sunday. In fact, that’s kind of what we do. We say, “That’s a Sunday rule.”
Everybody knows that Sunday belongs to the NFL, because that’s what they watch primarily. There’s a tendency to want to say that how officials officiate on Sunday is how they should do it on Friday, and sometimes, it’s far from the truth. For example, if you have pass interference, in the NFL that is a devastating rule. You throw a 60-yard bomb and it’s at the spot of the foul. In high school, it’s 15 yards from the previous spot. In college, it’s 15 yards from the previous spot, but if it’s inside of that, it’s a spot foul.
Q: Earlier this week, a friend brought up to me that there’s this quirky field goal rule where you can free kick it off a tee. Why do rules like that exist? (Note: The rule was used when Kip Smith of Legacy kicked the state record 67-yard field goal in 2009.)
Robinson: You know something, that’s a good question. That’s for somebody who is a grandfather of a grandfather of a grandfather of me that would probably know when that rule came in. There are some people (around) that know that too. When you say, “Kick a field goal,” it’s from a tee or a place kicked, but it’s from scrimmage. So the opponent has a chance to block it and that’s generally what we know.
In high school and in the pros, there’s this quirky rule that says if on a scrimmage kick — a punt play — the receiver fair catches or is awarded a fair catch, on that spot where the play is ruled dead, the (receiving) team can set up for a free-kick field goal. So in high school and the pros, they can do that. They can get three points out of that.
So let’s say you’re punting from your own endzone and you get nervous and you want to get the kick off quick and you pop it up and it only gets to your 20-yard line and the receivers fair catch it, the other team can kick a field goal from that spot. Depending on the time and the score of the game, that would dictate whether they want to or not. Let’s say there’s one second left and they’re down two, then I certainly would free-kick it. I would tell the referee, “I hope you know this rule.” There’s no pressure except for kicking it off the tee.
Q: When you look at the rule books that are laying around this office, they all have NFHS on it. Is there a NFHS rule book and a CHSAA rule book or do Colorado high school athletics go by what the NFHS puts into place?
Robinson: We’re one of not many states that are 100 percent states. We 100 percent abide by NFHS rules. The National Federation of High School rules. Now, the 100 percent label is done by sport. So you can go 100 percent in football but maybe not 100 percent in basketball. For example, in Texas they are 100 percent in basketball, just like we are.
We go strictly by NFHS and those are our rules. CHSAA does not have its own rule book, except to say that it’s NFHS. But in Texas, they go by NCAA rules (in football). They also have seven-person crews and mechanics as well. As a result of that, they can’t have anybody on the national high school rules committee because they are not 100 percent.
Q: So when you say Colorado is “100 percent” are they 100 percent in every sport?
Robinson: We are rare because we are 100 percent in every sport. We don’t deviate. Another example would be a shot clock in basketball. There are some states that have a shot clock. New York, California, North and South Dakota. Shot clock. Those states, they’re not 100 percent in basketball. We are, so we don’t have a shot clock.
Q: You’re also the commissioner in charge of golf. There are a lot of people who express concerns with iWanamaker. What’s the biggest benefit of iWanamaker with where we are today in high school athletics?
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Robinson: I think this, and I’ve expressed it all along, it’s just I can’t get in front of every single coach in an auditorium — at least after they tell me all the problems with iWanamaker. If I can actually get through that and tell them what the vision is, most of them are pretty responsive.
The vision is just like everything else we do: We have MaxPreps which is the repository for scores for volleyball, for football, for basketball. That’s where you would go to find schedules and scores of events in just about every sport. You can’t go to MaxPreps to find golf. There are no scores. We’ve tried to get coaches to put that information in so it can get to the media, it just hasn’t worked.
So in my mind, the vision of iWanamaker is to have a place where you can go to see where teams are playing, who’s playing and then in the end, seeing the results of those events as they were scored. You can find out which player won that particular event and iWanamaker provides that as an opportunity for everyone across the state. It also has, if you’re registered in that system, you can go to rankings. Right now we have over 500 golfers in iWanamaker that are ranked. Now, it’s not legitimate because there are some schools that have opted out or are not doing it, so you don’t have every player there. But you have close to 500, so that’s the place to go to see how you measure up prior to regionals.
In my mind, the benefits far outweigh the complaints we get about it. The biggest complaint we get about it is coaches who are asked to score. Some of those things are real and legitimate, but some of them are excuses as well. It just changes the culture of when coaches go to an event and what they do and what they’re responsible for.
Q: Do you see any deficiencies with iWanamaker where you sit and if so, do you have a plan to try and get those resolved in the near future?
Robinson: Yeah, I think I know after observing a few matches this year, where the frustration occurs. If you don’t have everyone on board then you cannot get an event set up. Every school that is participating in the event has to have its roster updated and then the person hosting that event has to know the order of which those players are playing. In other words, their No. 1 golfer, No. 2 golfer, No. 3 golfer, No. 4 golfer has to be delineated in iWanamaker. It’s actually an easy process to execute, but what happens is that a lot of our coaches are either working careers and coaching is like everything else, secondary. Or they’re teachers, where coaching is secondary.
They just have a lot on their plate. I get it. If they’re coaching the day before they have an event and they’re trying to figure out who’s going to go to the event or maybe they’re having a playoff, the last thing on their mind is making sure the host of that tournament knows who’s playing. So a lot of times they’ll arrive at an event with players that the host doesn’t know is in the event. Now it’s a scramble to get them in the right place. It’s that type of thing that does take place. Those are some of the legitimate reasons that I say exist.
What I’d like to do knowing that is just maybe only require for leagues one event or two events is all they need to have live-scored. And the rest they can relax and do their thing. But really make an effort to have one or two of those events. Maybe one in the middle and maybe one at the end which could dictate their seeding, that are reporting their events and live-scoring. Make it available to parents and administrators so people can see what’s going on because there’s going to be some buzz around it. Maybe that’s where it goes. That’s a compromise.
The mandate is your roster has to be in, the hosted event has be in and the event has to be live-scored. The live-scoring is preventing people from getting to the first step most of the time.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he tales of sports officials all have a similar beginning. They tend to be a part of a group who find themselves in college or recently graduated and in dire need of additional income. More importantly, they all have a love of sports and want to remain involved no matter how far removed from their playing days they might be.
And Colorado has seen a fair share of officials who start at the high school level develop into collegiate and professional level referees. In fact, many former Colorado high school refs have donned the stripes for some of the most important games in recent sports history.
But like any profession, they didn’t just start at the top. These men who used to prowl high school football fields and gyms began their careers at an entry-level position.
NCAA basketball official Dave Hall was one such individual. Hall had been recruited to play baseball for the University of Colorado. The scholarship money wasn’t as much as he or and any other player would’ve liked, so he was forced to look elsewhere for additional cash.
“At the University of Colorado, I played baseball for Irv Brown,” Hall said. “I was a baseball player on a partial scholarship and he said to a bunch of the freshman and sophomores, ‘If you want to earn extra money you have two choices. You can either go work in the cafeteria and clear tables, or I have some basketball officiating assignments at a very low-level — fifth grade girls and fifth grade boys.’”
And so began Hall’s journey, one which spanned many, many high school games. He maintained a job as a ref through his college years and stayed involved at the high school level after graduation. His chance to work the next level came through Brown, the man who started him on the path in the first place.
The University of Northern Colorado was one refs short for a varsity basketball game, so the call was made to Hall.
“They were independent, Division II and someone couldn’t make it so Irv asked me if I wanted to go up to Greeley,” Hall said. “I was 23 and the players were just about my age. That was my first college game.”
And the snowball effect continued. Eventually Hall began working games for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and soon made his way to the Division I level. Like any official, whether it by at the high school, college or professional level, Hall did have outside employment. He worked as an accountant for a software company, but retired on Dec. 31, 2003 and now focuses solely on his work as a referee.
On top of working national championship games in the NCAA tournament, he boasts a résumé that would garner the attention of any sports fan.
(Caden Colson/cadencolsonphotography.com)
“The most notable (championship game) was probably the 2000 championship game between Michigan State and Florida,” Hall said. “Recently, even though it wasn’t a Final Four game, but was probably the game of the tournament, was the Elite Eight game between Kentucky and Notre Dame. It had the record for the biggest audience in the NCAA in the history of the sport. It was a big time game for not being a Final Four game.”
On the football front, Colorado Springs native Greg Burks is a another official who got started on a high school level, but now holds national recognition. The former three-sport ref (baseball, football and basketball) had the honor of serving as the referee for the very first college football playoff championship game this past January.
“That was a truly amazing opportunity to have,” Burks said. “That was bigger than life. I had so much fun doing it and doing the first one; doing all of that was incredible.”
Like Hall, Burks attended college at the University of Colorado and upon graduating he figured out that he wanted to remain involved in sports and pocket some additional cash. Not once during the process did he think of it as something he would stick with as long as he did.
“When I first started doing it, my goal was to do a state championship game,” Burks said. “That was the top; that was a far as I ever thought. Like other things in life, once you start doing something and become involved with something and become passionate about it, more opportunities open up.”
NFL back judge Terrence Miles can certainly relate to that passion. Following in his father’s footsteps, Miles got into officiating when he graduated from college in 1993. His career began as a referee for youth football at Thornton City Park.
He eventually worked his way up through learning at camps and taking advantage of assignments at higher levels. It was in his fifth year of officiating that he was given eight varsity-level games, a feat he considered a major accomplishment.
It wasn’t until he saw one of the most bizarre plays he ever witnessed that he realized he had come into his own as an official.
“There was one play I had at All-City Stadium,” Miles said. “I was working on the sideline and the ball gets thrown over to that area and it gets tipped. It’s about to hit the ground and hits the guy’s foot and he catches it on the deflection and just runs the other way. I’ve never seen a play like that and I’ve been to the NFL level.”
Miles saw the develop right in front of him and knew he was positioned right where he was supposed to be. It was that moment that told him he was going to be good at what he did. As he continued to work, the leagues that he worked for began to agree and in Feb. 2015, Miles walked into University of Phoenix Stadium as a back judge for the Super Bowl.
But he was hardly the first Colorado-based official that had reached that level. In all his years of officiating, Tom Fincken had been named to an official for three separate Super Bowl games. He worked on the crews for Super Bowls XXIX (San Francisco vs San Diego), XXXII (Green Bay vs New England) and XXXIV (St. Louis vs Tennessee).
Getting to that point was obviously a career defining point for Fincken, but he never lost sight of where he came from or the work he put in to reach the top level of officiating.
“If nothing else, (I learned) to be humble and appreciate you come from,” Fincken said. “It’s still the game of football and you’re still going to have to officiate it and hopefully one of the things you’ve learned over the years — from the high schools, from the small colleges — is you have to go back to basics and follow the mechanics.”
But the key to learning those mechanics, is starting at a young level and working up. That’s the common theme that Hall, Burks, Miles and Fincken all preach. Kids these days might live in a different time, but a recent college graduate who wants to remain involved with sports in some way is nothing new to society.
“You get so many student-athletes who finally reach the apex of the pyramid where they can’t play anymore at a competitive level,” Hall said. “The organized part of the sport is gone and they get kicked out of the pyramid. Now, they still have a passion and they love sports. If they want to continue that love of the game in whatever that sport is, one of the ways you can do that is through officiating.”
Burks added: “The challenge of refereeing is so formidable that (you’ll thrive) if you like that kind of challenge and you like being around the game. For me that was a big factor, having a game to go to and to be involved with.”
The prospect of starting at the youth or high school level isn’t the dream job that any high-profile official aimed for right away. But with any job in any industry, continuing to work and to get better paved the way for some to reach a level that in some ways, they still feel like they’re dreaming to this day.
“I just have to think to myself as a Denver kid from Park Hill, I just worked the Super Bowl,” Miles said. “If you would’ve told me I’d do that 20 years ago when I started at Thornton City Park, I would’ve said you were crazy.”
Tom Robinson, the officials liaison at the Colorado High School Activities Association. A high school teacher and coach, Robinson started working high school football games in 1969 after encouragement to do so from his former high school coach and mentor, Guy Gibbs.
“It was the typical way most officials get started: with a mentor who does more than just plant the seed,” Robinson said. “They lead by example and constantly follow up with how you are progressing.”
Robinson received a letter in the mail in 1975 from the Western Athletic Conference asking if he would accept working two football games at Utah State University and the Air Force Academy and the rest is history. He went on to work a full schedule for the WAC and the Western Athletic Conference as a Head Linesman for 12 years and a Referee for 13 years.
Robinson is currently a replay official for the CFO West (Big 12 and MWC). He has worked numerous bowl games during his ongoing career.
John Adams, former Supervisor of Officials for the WAC and the Secretary of the NCAA Football Rules, was the instrumental voice that garnered Robinson prestigious recognition in the The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame as an Outstanding College Football Official in December 2008.
The list of names is very long one of officials that got their start working for the Colorado High School Activities Association and worked professionally or at the NCAA Division I level.
Some of those currently working are: Scott Novak (football), Kent Payne (football), Verne Harris (basketball), Bob Staffen (basketball), Lonnie Dixon (basketball), Ryun Mendoza (wrestling), Fred Marjerrison (wrestling), Ben Keefer (wrestling), Bob Keltie (hockey) and Randy McCall (basketball). The list goes on.
For more information on how to become an official, email Tom Robinson at the CHSAA office (trobinson@chsaa.org) or visit the Officials Page.
High school girls sports officiating pioneer Kaye Garms has retired as Western Athletic Conference Supervisor of Women’s Basketball Officials after 25 years in the position.
Garms is a member of the CHSAA Hall of Fame (1991) and the National Federation of State High School Associations Hall of Fame (1995). She was the first female officials inducted by both organizations.
The first “pure” game official inducted into the CHSAA Hall of Fame, Garms spent 20 years officiating CHSAA activities, including basketball, gymnastics and track & field. She was selected to officiate in the first 15 state girls state basketball tournaments and was assigned to 12 state title games from 1975 until her retirement in 1990.
She officiated in 16 state track meets and was one of the region’s top collegiate basketball officials. She is a member of the National High School Hall of Fame (1995).
Garms joined the WAC in 1990 helping that Division I conference enhance training and evaluation of veteran officials, along with the recruitment and development of new officials. She has been held in great regard by coaches, players and officials alike during her tenure, according to WAC commissioner Jeff Hurd on the WAC website story.
She was honored last fall as the Naismith Women’s College Official of the Year, which is presented to individuals “who display character, integrity and dignity, and have contributed mightily to the growth, success and viability of college basketball.”
For more information on this outstanding women’s sports pioneer, the CHSAANow staff encourages you to go wacsports.com.
Some information contained in this story was provided by the Western Athletic Conference Website.
The Class of 2014 inductees to the NFHS Hall of Fame gather at a press conference on Tuesday. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
BOSTON — George Demetriou didn’t exactly choose officiating for himself. It’s more accurate to say it was assigned to him.
Demetriou is a graduate of West Point, and West Point has a — in his words — “very comprehensive, mandatory intramural program.” The first three years at the Academy are spent as members of the intramural teams. Cadets then spend their senior year as an official or a coach.
“So when I got to be a senior, they didn’t ask me,” Demetriou said on Tuesday morning. “They decided that I would be an official.”
A PE instructor led the training for officials, and quickly tested his new crew.
“He had a bunch of guys run a play, and then he had the defender grab the quarterback and then they start boxing each other,” Demetriou said. “And I went over there and I blew my whistle to stop them. Well, that’s exactly what he wanted because that was his lesson on the inadvertent whistle.
“So, he suckered me.”
George Demetriou. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Demetriou served in the Army for 23 years, but also became a full-time official when he was stationed at Fort Carson near Colorado Springs. Along the way, he evolved into an expert in his field and now has 25 years of experience as a football and baseball official, in addition to serving as CHSAA’s rules interpreter for both sports.
Demetriou has also written books which delve into deeper understanding of the rules.
Wednesday night, Demetriou will be inducted into the National Federation of State High School Association’s Hall of Fame along with 11 other athletes, coaches and administrators as part of the Class of 2014. He joined CHSAA’s Hall of Fame in 2011.
“It kind of makes me somewhat uncomfortable,” Demetriou said. “You know, I really don’t think I deserve everything that comes with it.”
But Demetriou may be about the only person who knows him — or knows of him — that feels that way.
“The first time that I had gotten an inkling that I was even in the ballpark for consideration was at a football clinic in Denver about three or four years ago,” Demetriou said. “(CHSAA assistant commissioner) Tom (Robinson) got up and said something like, ‘George has done more for you guys than the guys that they put in the Federation Hall of Fame.’ I think he was coming to my defense because I was getting stuff from people at the meeting.
“That was the first time that I had heard that anybody would even think of me that way.”
Robinson was reminded of the story on Tuesday.
“In reality, that’s everybody’s respect for him. He just knows his stuff. And he doesn’t flaunt it,” Robinson said. “So that statement (at the rules meeting) is obvious. He knows as much, or more, than any official in the Hall of Fame.”
Added CHSAA assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann: “He represents, in my mind, everything that’s right about officiating. Rules knowledge, judgment. He teaches kids, he moves the sports forward. He knows why we play the game.”
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Demetriou’s family, including his wife Joan and three kids — Ted, Julie and Gabe — will attend the induction ceremony on Wednesday night at the Boston Marriott Copley Place.
“They’re really impressed by it,” Demetriou said. “I never thought they’d want to come, but they all wanted to come.”
Officiating was, in a sense, picked for him at West Point. But Demetriou also had to choose to continue to purse it.
Asked why he did, Demetriou said, “That I can’t explain. Especially in baseball — I mean I have days where I say to myself, ‘Why am I out here listening to this?’ Baseball is much more abusive to umpires than football is. I mean you hear some pretty stupid stuff.”
So he has grown some thicker skin over the years.
“You have to,” Demetriou said.
Ultimately, he stuck around the profession because of the level, and the kids.
“One of the things you continually have to fight is those that want to make high school baseball games like the Major Leagues,” Demetriou said. “It’s a different environment, there’s different standards.
“The player is a teenager, and anybody that’s had teenagers knows that they will do stupid things. You’ve got to understand that most of the time, there’s no evil intent. It’s commensurate with their age. And you have to be understanding. I mean you can’t let them get away with everything, you have to draw a line, but you have to be a lot more understanding in the high school game than you would in a professional game or a college game.”
COLORADO SPRINGS — The annual Colorado Board 4 Awards Ceremony honoring basketball officials was held on Wednesday.
The ceremony honored Randy Fagerlund, John and Patsy Clowers and Bill Metz, who were inducted into Honorary Membership.
Other awards included the Ted Schiessler Memorial Award, Gene Bunnelle Service Award, NFOA Awards, State Tournament Awards, Al Schalge Memorial Award, Ken Furman Scholarship Award, Bill Ruberry Memorial Award, Jim Miller Memorial Award, Jim Dorsey “Class Act” Award, Don Wilson Sr. Memorial Award, Greg Nehf Award, Women’s Association of Basketball Official’s Award, Bill Rupp Award, and the Lloyd McMillian Memorial Award.
