Each time I work an All-Star game I have a story to tell and last weekend's High School All-Star game is no exception. The story is... there is no story. No fights, no game ending brawl, no scar on the city's reputation. Absolutely nothing negative happened. The players played, we officials stayed out of the way, and the competition was evenly matched. The game was decided by an earlier 2 point Try which failed and a last minute TD pass. The final score was 20-21. If I were prone to clichés I'd call this game - one for the books.
But, there is always a story.
Our High School associations uses five man mechanics to officiate games. Most HS games across the country at the Varsity level use five man. But for this game our assigner said we would use seven officials. OK. I guess. My experience with seven man was limited to last weeks college camp and my entire college experience has been six man mechanics. Only two of us had any college level experience. The fans may get more than they bargained for.
So thirty minutes before the game, there was a covey of officials huddled around a book trying to figure out who does what on seven man.
I was originally scheduled to work Side Judge. Twenty minutes before game time we only had five officials, so I moved to Line Judge. With ten minutes to spare before game time the sixth man finally arrived. He went to the wrong stadium. The bottom line is the seventh guy never made it to the game, so we went to six man and I moved to Umpire.
Before the game we were instructed on some rule alterations. Such as no blitzing. What exactly does blitz mean? For this game it meant only five rushers and only those on the line of scrimmage. How about no rushing for 'three Mississippi' also? Like I have time to count five guys rushing and determine if they were on the LOS. No one said they had to be down linemen. The DB covering the wide out is on the LOS. A few of my crew mates threw flags for this 'blitzing' foul, and then we heard 'but I was in a three point stance'. We simply pointed out we knew how to count to five.
The format this year was different than previous years. Apparently the teams practiced together for two weeks before the game. They knew each other and seemed to respect one another. It had the feel of an inter-squad scrimmage rather than the East vs. West of previous years. This seemed to help keep the game under control.
The game sponsor spent a great deal of time with the young men explaining they would be removed from the game if they crossed the line. And he made the line very thin - zero tolerance for anything that would mare the game. No questions asked. I liked that.
For most of these players this will be the last time they will put on pads. They all played that way and most of them gave the game, and their fellow warriors, the respect they deserved.
The game was not perfect. I threw an Illegal Block Below the Waist on the Center against a blitzing Line Backer. I suppose those could have been offsetting fouls, but that would have been just weird. The LB never actually made it pass the LOS, so I guess what I called was right.
I also threw a flag for Holding. The Center again, grabbing the shoulder pads and then twisting the defender just as the ball ran by him. There may have also been a Chop Block I missed, but it was on the backside of the play.
Not a juicy story like last year, but still a story.
