By Brent Rice
MHSAA Assistant Director

This key to a long and happy marriage is officiating school sports.

Richard and Christine Lee from Brown City are proof. Richard has been officiating with the MHSAA for 42 years, and Christine has been an MHSAA official for 23 years. And this spring they celebrated their 45^th wedding anniversary! 

Of course, they celebrated in part by working a meet together, as seen in the photo above.

It’s Official!

Rules Meetings: With winter sports just around the corner, many of you already have begun getting into officiating shape and studying up on rules and mechanics in preparation of another great MHSAA season. Don’t forget to tend to the administrative requirements for postseason tournament consideration. The first Winter Online Rules Meetings become available starting today.

Here is the schedule for this year:

Oct. 8 – Basketball, Ice Hockey, Competitive Cheer and Wrestling

Oct. 15 – Gymnastics and Swimming

All Online Rules Meetings will close Dec. 13 at 11:59 pm. Don’t miss out on postseason opportunities because you put off (then forget) these requirements.

Rule of the Week

CROSS COUNTRY As A1 reaches the 3,000-meter mark, the umpire notices that the runner has multi-color compression shorts with a manufacturer’s logo that extends beneath the runner’s shorts but above her knees.

Ruling: There is no violation and no warning should be given. New NFHS cross country rule 4-3-1 provides that any visible garment(s) worn underneath the uniform top and/or bottom are considered a foundation garment. A foundation garment is any item worn under the uniform top and/or bottom and is not subject to logo/trademark/reference or color restrictions.

It’s Your Call

FOOTBALL On this play, the right guard pulls as the running back receives the handoff. The play results in a half-yard loss, but is there more to this play? What’s the call?

Last Week’s IYC Ruling: In order for the first contact to be considered a “block,” some part of the player’s hands must extend higher than the top of the net. This is a very close call as to whether her hands meet this – probably too close to consider them “below.” (Click to see the video from last week.)

The more pertinent aspect that applies to this play is whether she is still a blocker based on her playing action. One thing we should look at to determine whether this is a defensive or offensive play is arm swing. When the player in the clip takes a swing at the ball, this becomes an attack. As a result, the second contact by the front row member of Team R should be called a double hit violation.