Be the Referee: Forward Fumble
By
Paige Winne
MHSAA Marketing & Social Media Coordinator
September 9, 2025
Be The Referee is a series of short messages designed to help educate people on the rules of different sports, to help them better understand the art of officiating, and to recruit officials.
Below is this week's segment – Forward Fumble - Listen
We have a Football “You Make the Call” for you today.
Team A has the ball at their 20-yard line. Team A’s quarterback gets the snap and starts running toward the sideline.
He’s tackled and fumbles the ball forward, towards the sideline. The ball rolls forward four yards and goes out of bounds before anyone can recover it.
Whose ball is it, and where is it marked?
Since the offense fumbled the ball, it went out of bounds and it wasn’t recovered by anyone, it remains the offense’s ball.
But the ball is marked back to the spot of the fumble. There’s no advantage to fumbling the ball forward.
If the ball had been fumbled backwards and out of bounds with no recovery, then the offense would retain possession where the ball went out of bounds.
Previous 2025-26 editions
Sept. 2: Field Hockey Basics - Listen
Aug. 26: Golf Ball Bounces Out - Listen
Finals Partners Now Long-Distance Friends Reunite to Officiate Together Again
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 15, 2025
Portland’s Tony Costello and Houghton’s Rob Fay first connected when officiating the 2022 Division 3 Boys Basketball Final together at the Breslin Center. They shared a meal after the game, met each other’s families and have kept in touch since – hoping to someday have another chance to work together again.
Living about 500 miles apart, the opportunities seemed limited. But last month, they made a long shot happen.
Fay also serves as Houghton’s athletic director and was scheduled to be in East Lansing on Dec. 11 for an MHSAA committee meeting. The trip also seemed like the possibility they’d been seeking to reunite.
Costello’s tournament partner Alex Schrauben put in a call to the Mid-Michigan Assignors Association to find out if there might be a game available – and trio ended up working the Dec. 10 boys basketball game at Alma against Beal City. Costello is in his 24th year as an MHSAA-registered official, while Fay is in his 22nd and Schrauben his 17th wearing the stripes and Schrauben also has recent Breslin experience as last season he officiated a Division 4 Semifinal.
The game was still much closer to the mid-Michigan pair – Fay ended up traveling more than 440 miles to get back home. But it might be just the first of the reunion tour, as Costello and Schrauben are hoping to make the trip across the Mackinac Bridge and work a game with Fay sometime in the future.
PHOTO From left: Rob Fay, Tony Costello and Alex Schrauben take a quick selfie during their meet-up to officiate a Dec. 10 boys basketball game at Alma. (Photo courtesy of Tony Costello.)