Maryland high school football in March!

[TUPF]

My officials organization is gearing up for a very short 5 March-17 April "2020" varsity high school football season. Seven games only. Playoffs if any TBD. No JV. There were no winter sports. Information, guidelines, and standards are sketchy so if it all comes together it will be a miracle. I won't be surprised by game cancellations on short notice.

Such are the times we live in.

[Baywave1]

too bad about no JV. Two years between inter-school competition is a long long time in HS for the younger bench warmers. It's hard to like football practice that much.

[TUPF]

Agree on JV. I really enjoy those games and use them as a teaching tool more than anything since as an umpire I am right in the thick of things. I seldom throw a flag unless it's something I have warned a player about or it's a thrown punch. If I see two players getting close to losing their cool I'll call an officials time and talk with them which usually works.

Very few practices and no scrimmages before the varsity "season". It's going to be sloppy.

[Johnny Mac]

North Carolina is doing HS football now... the first games are next week and they are all playing 7 games

My buddy has a son who's a lacrosse player and I asked how the lacrosse players who are on the football team are doing both sports and apparently some of the kids are missing lacrosse games for football practice but still trying to play both... I imagine baseball is having the same issue.. if you are a back up on the varsity lacrosse or baseball team and the kid in front of you is a football player, this is your season to shine

[TUPF]

North Carolina is doing HS football now... the first games are next week and they are all playing 7 games

My buddy has a son who's a lacrosse player and I asked how the lacrosse players who are on the football team are doing both sports and apparently some of the kids are missing lacrosse games for football practice but still trying to play both... I imagine baseball is having the same issue.. if you are a back up on the varsity lacrosse or baseball team and the kid in front of you is a football player, this is your season to shine

It's a real muddle that's for sure but lots of occasions to shine.

My officials organization has only been doing weekly Zoom reviews of film and cases and we have gotten used to that but nothing beats getting on the field. I expect our first game on March 5 to be a cluster**** but at least all of us old guys have worked together. These kids will be playing a game right out of the chute without even a controlled scrimmage. I get why they do not want to not miss a full year but it won't be pretty.

[TUPF]

Officiated my first game last night in 15 months. Went better than expected even though all our preparations were only via Zoom however thorough. All players, coaches, and officials masked. There were a couple of minor issues getting whistles right while juggling masks (the hand held electronic whistles are suboptimal and were quickly discarded). The teams were better prepared than I expected and the mid-30s temperatures for kids who usually play in the 60s-80s didn't slow things down.