SAN DIEGO COUNTY FOOTBALL OFFICIALS ASSOCIATION - THE WEEKLY BULL – Sept. 17, 2025
Meeting In-Person at Mira Mesa High School This Week – See you ALL this Wednesday 9/17 at Mira Mesa HS. Agenda: Attendance (check yours for accuracy), Sharing Game Situations, Calibrations, Instructional Video, and Game Situations
Board Meeting This Wednesday – The Board Meeting will take place at 5:15pm in Room 712.
Crew Chief and Instructor Meeting – The regularly scheduled meeting of all Crew Chiefs and Instructors will take place at 6:00pm in room 714.
Mid-Season Form – We now should be hitting mid-season form. Our Game Tempo, crew organization, communication and mechanics should all be coming together. We are now A CREW! Let’s keep ourselves sharp with weekly rules study, game preparation, and crew goals.
What is Your Weekly Routine? –Some things you can have in your weekly routine are: Study of a particular rule including case book examples Read the Weekly Bull and view the Instructional Video Make a phone call to a crew member or crew chief Review your dead ball and pre-snap routine Help evaluate last week’s game video Establish Crew Goals and Personal Goals Scout the next week’s teams Review our officiating standards and axioms Work on your fitness and flexibility
Scott Reilly Being Inducted Into the Sports Officials Hall of Fame! – Last reminder to purchase your ticket(s) to the Hall of Fame Dinner next Tuesday September 23rd at 6:00pm at the Admiral Baker Golf Course. Tickets can be purchased at https://www.sandiegosportsofficialshof.com/hall-of-fame-dinner. Let’s fill up tables and celebrate our friend and fellow official as he enters the Hall of Fame! Remember, he too started out officiating pop warner games! Now he’s in the BIG 12!
Time Outs – We tell coaches that if they need to get our attention for an important time out, that they can come out onto the field to get our attention so we can accurately stop the clock per their request. If a coach wants a time out just before the delay of game penalty, crews (especially flanks and referees) should assist the coach in making that happen. It all starts with an accurate play clock countdown signal from the Back Judge.
Towels vs Tails – I think we can improve in our monitoring of these “streamers” or “tails”. Towels must be a minimum of 4” in width. Let’s clean this up this week. Flanks and umpire, have something with you that is 4” in width so we can do quick checks before the game. Thank you.
Knee Pads – They sure are making small knee pads these days. As long as they are unaltered from the manufacturer’s original design, they will be legal. Thank you for continuing to work with coaches by sending out players that are not wearing the proper equipment in a legal manner. Keep up the great work!
Set the Standard for Your Sideline During Introductions – It is recommended that the flanks go together to meet with the head coaches. The LJ will introduce himself then introduced the HL to his HC. Somewhere during this quick conversation you will want to confirm with your head coach that “the play callers (OC and DC?) will be calling plays from a location off the field, right?” By phrasing it in this manner the HC must answer in the affirmative. Only once did I have a coach ask, “Well how far can we come on the field then?” I answered, “None, we’ll all be staying behind the sideline.” Get this agreement and you will all be on the same page when we begin the game.
Ball Relays – Remember on long incomplete passes, when there is no ball person, the crew needs to train the players to run the ball back into the umpire, or the flanks need to get involved in the relay from the BJ to the umpire. Our goal is to have the umpire staying at the succeeding spot and the ball comes to him/her. The referee is observing all of the dead ball action, the crew, and the chains/down box while preparing for the next play.
Cross-Field Mechanics – Because we’re rounding into mid-season form, our cross-field mechanics should now be quite sophisticated and accurate. Take pride in this important mechanic! You are a team!
Drones – No drones in the stadium. So far, I. Great job! I‘ve only received one report of a drone attempting to fly over a stadium, and it was the San Diego Police Dept. Even the police can’t fly a drone in the stadium area. They learned that lesson rather quickly! They were told to talk to the CIF which they haven’t done.
Keep Your Mouth Shut – “You can’t quote silence.” – Andy Castagnola. Please continue to be careful with any/all comments. Do not make comments to innocent spectators who might turn out to be the coach’s wife or a school administrator. Be extremely careful and professional when addressing players. What you think is an innocent comment can be reported as offensive or threatening. Keep all comments to yourself or save them for the locker room. And be careful when joking with your crew. Sometimes a clever remark can be offensive to your fellow officials. Just be aware and courteous!
Keeping the Restricted Area Clear – We seem to be doing reasonably well with this thankless task. Our focus is on the field, but for safety reasons, the restricted area needs to be clear at the start of the play. So far so good! One thing to keep in mind is that it is the same for both sides. We are on the same crew, so do your crewmates a favor and do the same work for both teams.
Injury Time Out – Team personnel will be allowed to attend to any injured players and team support staff will be allowed to bring water to the team. Coaches must either be attending to the injured player or at the sideline (outside numbers) to address team or provide substitutes. No coaches will be allowed to confer with the team inside the numbers. And as always, the referee will decide if the teams can go to the sideline and the flanks will have their teams back and ready for the next snap immediately after the injured player is off the field. Tempo!
Crew Evaluations – We are now completing Week 5 of the high school season. Per Board direction, all crews are to be evaluated after week five and again at the end of the regular season. Each association crew chief is to rate the crew. If you are not working with your entire crew, make sure you rate that official(s) on another game. All completed sub varsity games and AYF/Pop Warner games should already be completed. Youth game evaluations must be up to date. First and second year officials in particular need feedback. For those of you who have requested to be youth referees, failure to complete evaluations in a timely manner will affect future assignments.
