Get Ready for Fall 2024
From: "Rich Kollen" - dayofgame@icloud.com
Subject: SCCFOA
Date: Friday, November 10, 2022
I hope you have enjoyed these weekly informational bulletins on Southern California community college football. I try to keep everyone informed on football rules and officials’ responsibilities. I also like to show appreciation to the people who make all this happen for over 3,500 football student-athletes in Southern California. As we prepare for this Saturday’s games, there are eight colleges competing to get four spots in the state playoffs, and thirteen colleges hoping to be invited to five bowl games.
A shout out to SCFA commissioner, Jim Sartoris, who yearly develops a competitive game schedule in our two divisions, approves eligibility for all our players, and interacts with our college presidents and athletic directors. He also addresses administrators’ and coaches’ concerns on a weekly basis. Jim started as a football player at Glendale College, and then played at the University of Washington. His coaching career started at Glendale, where he was the head coach for 25 years, and Athletic Director for 15 years. In 2006, Jim was a leader in starting the Southern California Football Association and became its first commissioner.
A player picked up a scrimmage kick, rolling on the ground 9 yards deep in his own end zone, and returned it for a 109-yard touchdown return, tying a state record. Unfortunately, the ball becomes dead when it touches Team B’s end zone untouched by Team B. (Rule 6-1-7-a) The record stays in the books for now and, hopefully, this mistake will never happen again. I respect the Referee for sharing the play as a teachable moment. We used the play in our weekly training video and more than 24% of the respondents did not know the rule. We need to hit the rule book during the off season, and keep in it during the season. This is a fairly easy rule to remember.
Without replay, the toughest call for our Referees to make is whether an attempted pass from a pressured quarterback an incomplete forward pass or a fumble. On these tight plays, I would prefer we call them by our “When-in-Question” philosophy: incomplete forward pass. (Rule 2-19-2)
I want to thank all of our 185+ officials who attended our training program and participated in the weekly testing and video reviews. My goal each year is that you have a good experience and will return the next season. My plan is to continue some of the zoom trainings by using videos during the off-season. I hope officials think that these are of value to them and will participate.
Continue to improve your communication with coaches and players.
The Referee should wind the clock quickly after a ball carrier runs out of bounds. You need not wait for the chains, except in the last two minutes of each half. The LOS official with the chains can drop a bean bag at the spot to let the back stake know where to go. When time is critical, the Referee should do what he can to get that last play snapped. Don’t rush to start the clock if the time is critical.
When a player’s helmet is off, he can no longer participate in the play. (Rule 9-1-17) This would result in a personal foul, not an unsportsmanlike conduct foul. The player must leave the game for a down or their team must take a charged timeout to keep the player in the game. (Rule 3-3-9-a)
I am seeing officials who keep their whistles in their mouths throughout the play. My tip would be to hold the whistle until you need to blow it, as it gives you an extra millisecond to avoid an inadvertent whistle, of which we had two last Saturday. LOS officials may want to start the play with the whistle in their mouth (in the case of a dead-ball foul), but I would let it drop at the snap.
After a score, it is not a charged timeout. Get the teams out and ready for the kickoff by one minute. (Rule 3-3-7-h) Never call a delay on a kickoff. Get the teams ready to go.
If you have any connection with one of our colleges (i.e., you attended, your daughter or son attended, your significant other works there), please do not accept the assignment. Coaches are Googling and finding out some information about you. It is hard for me to defend clear conflicts of interest. It is on you to know if you have anything that may cause someone to believe you have a conflict of interest. If there is any possibility that someone could question your integrity due to a conflict, let me know of such a conflict.
An illegal block in the back is a 10-yard penalty. (Rule 9-3-5) The contact must be in the numbers area, which will generally create a north-south block. If it is close to the shoulder, it is usually a side-block (unless the blocker is in “chase” mode). Clipping is still in the Rulebook (a block below the waist from behind), but I haven’t seen one in years. (Rule 2-5-1-a)
When there is a fumble and players diving in to gain possession of the ball, we would like officials who are digging into the pile to communicate with an official in the area and have that official signal the correct direction. Nothing loses credibility more than when we signal in the wrong direction in this situation, or even worse, we have two officials signaling different directions.
I would like to thank Jack Wood for all the work he’s done for this association since its conception in 2008. He is responsible for the annual clinic, and produces the qualifying exam as well as a weekly test. My last email mentioned a newly created position of instructional chairperson for new officials. Some of you thought Jack was retiring. He is not and he will be back in 2023.
Video has become essential to both coaches and officials. I would like to thank Ryan Castillo, who is our video coordinator, and Greg Truex, who helped organize weekly video clips.
Sadly, I must report that two of our colleges could not complete the season due to lack of players. It is very sad for those players and their opponents, who lost 10% of their games. Our constitution bylaws state that if student-athlete participates in one intra-collegiate class/practice, that is the only college for which that such student-athlete can play for that year. Legislation was drafted to give the athletes the ability to start at school “A” and after 5 days, if it's not a good fit or they realize they're not good enough to play, they can transfer to another school during the same year. This was voted down during the last legislative process. I personally think this would help the survival of some of our colleges with low participation rates. I suggest we try again next year.
Coaches, athletic directors, trainers, eligibility specialists, academic advisors, and officials, thank you for your cooperation. We truly appreciate all your efforts in helping us improve the game experience for our community college student-athletes.
Good luck to the teams going into the playoffs and our bowl games. I hope to see everybody back in 2023.
“People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.” – Anton Chekhov
Rich Kollen
Director of Football Operations
Subject: SCCFOA
Date: Friday, November 10, 2022
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION
2022 WEEKLY BULLETIN #9I hope you have enjoyed these weekly informational bulletins on Southern California community college football. I try to keep everyone informed on football rules and officials’ responsibilities. I also like to show appreciation to the people who make all this happen for over 3,500 football student-athletes in Southern California. As we prepare for this Saturday’s games, there are eight colleges competing to get four spots in the state playoffs, and thirteen colleges hoping to be invited to five bowl games.
A shout out to SCFA commissioner, Jim Sartoris, who yearly develops a competitive game schedule in our two divisions, approves eligibility for all our players, and interacts with our college presidents and athletic directors. He also addresses administrators’ and coaches’ concerns on a weekly basis. Jim started as a football player at Glendale College, and then played at the University of Washington. His coaching career started at Glendale, where he was the head coach for 25 years, and Athletic Director for 15 years. In 2006, Jim was a leader in starting the Southern California Football Association and became its first commissioner.
A player picked up a scrimmage kick, rolling on the ground 9 yards deep in his own end zone, and returned it for a 109-yard touchdown return, tying a state record. Unfortunately, the ball becomes dead when it touches Team B’s end zone untouched by Team B. (Rule 6-1-7-a) The record stays in the books for now and, hopefully, this mistake will never happen again. I respect the Referee for sharing the play as a teachable moment. We used the play in our weekly training video and more than 24% of the respondents did not know the rule. We need to hit the rule book during the off season, and keep in it during the season. This is a fairly easy rule to remember.
Without replay, the toughest call for our Referees to make is whether an attempted pass from a pressured quarterback an incomplete forward pass or a fumble. On these tight plays, I would prefer we call them by our “When-in-Question” philosophy: incomplete forward pass. (Rule 2-19-2)
I want to thank all of our 185+ officials who attended our training program and participated in the weekly testing and video reviews. My goal each year is that you have a good experience and will return the next season. My plan is to continue some of the zoom trainings by using videos during the off-season. I hope officials think that these are of value to them and will participate.
Continue to improve your communication with coaches and players.
The Referee should wind the clock quickly after a ball carrier runs out of bounds. You need not wait for the chains, except in the last two minutes of each half. The LOS official with the chains can drop a bean bag at the spot to let the back stake know where to go. When time is critical, the Referee should do what he can to get that last play snapped. Don’t rush to start the clock if the time is critical.
When a player’s helmet is off, he can no longer participate in the play. (Rule 9-1-17) This would result in a personal foul, not an unsportsmanlike conduct foul. The player must leave the game for a down or their team must take a charged timeout to keep the player in the game. (Rule 3-3-9-a)
I am seeing officials who keep their whistles in their mouths throughout the play. My tip would be to hold the whistle until you need to blow it, as it gives you an extra millisecond to avoid an inadvertent whistle, of which we had two last Saturday. LOS officials may want to start the play with the whistle in their mouth (in the case of a dead-ball foul), but I would let it drop at the snap.
After a score, it is not a charged timeout. Get the teams out and ready for the kickoff by one minute. (Rule 3-3-7-h) Never call a delay on a kickoff. Get the teams ready to go.
If you have any connection with one of our colleges (i.e., you attended, your daughter or son attended, your significant other works there), please do not accept the assignment. Coaches are Googling and finding out some information about you. It is hard for me to defend clear conflicts of interest. It is on you to know if you have anything that may cause someone to believe you have a conflict of interest. If there is any possibility that someone could question your integrity due to a conflict, let me know of such a conflict.
An illegal block in the back is a 10-yard penalty. (Rule 9-3-5) The contact must be in the numbers area, which will generally create a north-south block. If it is close to the shoulder, it is usually a side-block (unless the blocker is in “chase” mode). Clipping is still in the Rulebook (a block below the waist from behind), but I haven’t seen one in years. (Rule 2-5-1-a)
When there is a fumble and players diving in to gain possession of the ball, we would like officials who are digging into the pile to communicate with an official in the area and have that official signal the correct direction. Nothing loses credibility more than when we signal in the wrong direction in this situation, or even worse, we have two officials signaling different directions.
I would like to thank Jack Wood for all the work he’s done for this association since its conception in 2008. He is responsible for the annual clinic, and produces the qualifying exam as well as a weekly test. My last email mentioned a newly created position of instructional chairperson for new officials. Some of you thought Jack was retiring. He is not and he will be back in 2023.
Video has become essential to both coaches and officials. I would like to thank Ryan Castillo, who is our video coordinator, and Greg Truex, who helped organize weekly video clips.
Sadly, I must report that two of our colleges could not complete the season due to lack of players. It is very sad for those players and their opponents, who lost 10% of their games. Our constitution bylaws state that if student-athlete participates in one intra-collegiate class/practice, that is the only college for which that such student-athlete can play for that year. Legislation was drafted to give the athletes the ability to start at school “A” and after 5 days, if it's not a good fit or they realize they're not good enough to play, they can transfer to another school during the same year. This was voted down during the last legislative process. I personally think this would help the survival of some of our colleges with low participation rates. I suggest we try again next year.
Coaches, athletic directors, trainers, eligibility specialists, academic advisors, and officials, thank you for your cooperation. We truly appreciate all your efforts in helping us improve the game experience for our community college student-athletes.
Good luck to the teams going into the playoffs and our bowl games. I hope to see everybody back in 2023.
“People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.” – Anton Chekhov
Rich Kollen
Director of Football Operations