SAN DIEGO COUNTY FOOTBALL OFFICIALS ASSOCIATION - THE WEEKLY BULL – October 7, 2026
No Meeting This Week – Prepare each day this week. Review a rule for your crew. Study the Instructional Video and this Bull. Stay fit and healthy. Scout your teams and organize yourself and the crew for your league contest this week. Banquet Stories – Our Banquet will be on November 4th, and we need stories. See Bob Hood or email him your video or story of our fun-loving mistakes from the 2023 season. Also, remember to attend as you’ve already paid for your dinner when you paid your dues! The banquet will start at 6:00pm and will again be at the Admiral Baker Golf Course, 2400 Admiral Baker Road in Mission Valley. Game Check Weekend! - Vassar, Gastelum, Judd, Trisby and Coover won! Congratulations. We did well and the checks and donations are still coming in. Thank you for your generosity! The 23rd annual SDCFOA Golf Tournament – This golf “adventure” benefits the SD Youth Football Fund and will take place on November 4th at the beautiful Admiral Baker Golf Course. Tee time is 11:30am and the event is open to all football officials/guests and all skill levels. Entry fee is $160. Space is limited, so please go to www.sdyouthfootballfund.org and click on “Fundraisers” ASAP to sign up. Singles are welcome…we’ll make sure you get paired-up. We can also use donations for the 19th hole raffle. Please contact Mike Downing, Mike Gunzelman, or Ed Blick if you have questions. Pushing and Shoving and Players from the Bench – When this happens, we will most likely have penalties, but we may not have any ejections. We’ve had to rescind a number of ejections for pushing and shoving. That is not fighting. Players coming off of the bench is a problem, and that deserves to be penalized. But ejecting a player for coming off of the bench to participate in a fight, when there is no fight, is an incorrect judgement. What is a Catch? Is it different at the Goal Line and Endzone? – Starting on page 161 of our SDCFOA Officials Manual and Officiating Standards is the section on Catch/No Catch & Recovery/No recovery. Now is a great time to review all scenarios as we enter the second half of the season. In our Instructional Video this week you will see a play at the goal line where the receiver is being contacted and going to the ground. The receiver does not demonstrate control of the ball and it comes out as he hits the ground. If that play would have happened out on the field somewhere, we would have had no trouble ruling incomplete pass. But because the goal line was involved we were too quick to award the TD. If the receiver was upright, without any contact, then he most likely would be able to demonstrate control much quicker. If he contacted and/or going to the ground, be slow and wait for demonstrated control. Go re-read those pages before your game this week. Texas On-Side Drop Kick – In high school, a drop kick may be used for a scrimmage kick, a kickoff, a free kick following a safety, or for a free kick following a fair catch or awarded fair catch. For all free kicks and kickoffs, the kicker must designate the location from which he will be kicking. He must kick from that general location. No running around. The ball must be kicked within one step of K’s free kick line and the ball must be kicked as the ball touches the ground or is rising from the ground. This does not mean that the punter has only one step to kick the ball. It means that he can take his usual steps but must kick the ball within one step of K’s free kick line near the designated spot. The same goes for a punt following a safety. No rugby kicks! Wireless Microphone Systems – We now have all of our Crew Chiefs attempting to learn to use a wireless microphone during games for announcements. Although we are in our infancy in our use of this electronic equipment, and some stadiums are a challenge to get quality sound and no static, we have had some outstanding experiences with their use. Something as challenging as adjusting the game clock becomes so simple. The coaches and fans quickly understand the unusual ruling on the field that just occurred. Wireless Systems at Schools – We are also seeing an uptick in the number of schools that have a stadium wireless system available for our use. Some schools have them available and don’t even know we can use them at their games and have our referees make game announcements! We expect the number of schools with these systems to greatly increase in the near future. It is far better for a school to have control over the system than to have our referees bring equipment and hooking it up. We are working with schools to provide technical support and pricing when they inquire about purchasing their own system. PA Announcers and Music – Just a reminder that announcers and music must not interrupt the offense’s ability to call signals. All music and announcements must end as the QB begins calling signals. State Championship Crews Have Been Selected – The following crews have been selected to work the CA State Championship Game the first two weekends in December: Referees: Matt Starr and Brian Mills, Umpires: Andy Wilson and Sammy Totah, LOS: Charlton Lynch, Spencer Hoffelder, David Duffield, and Ben Sherlock, Deep Flanks: Mike Andrews, Eric Stoffer, Brad Shein, and Levi Sumner, Back Judges: Ben Boccoli, John Downing.
