Evaluation criteria
Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 10:04 amJust in case anyone is interested, these are the criteria on which COC officials are supposed to evaluate each other for MDIA games (I'm not sure if they use the same ones for NCAA games, but I suspect they do):
E-mail from MDIA NAA wrote: RULES KNOWLEDGE AND APPLICATION - No rules errors are expected. But if an umpire or field judge boots a rule, the referee must get it right. Keep in mind that the standard is not the rules that you like as a player or coach, but the current rules published by the NCAA. This is not a forum on rules opinions. Don't confuse rules knowledge with judgement (e.g. you disagree with a push or a slash call that you feel should or should not have been called).
JUDGMENT - Officials should call all clear personal fouls and apply appropriate penalties. Personal fouls relate to player safety or to serious conduct or serious fairness issues. For example, officials must have correct judgment as to whether there was merely contact to a player's helmet or a strike (a slash). In addition, not all technical fouls will result in calls by officials. The key element is to have the correct judgment as to whether the technical violation resulted in an advantage gained (by the fouling team, or lost by the fouled team). It is poor judgment to shut down a game if every technical violation were to be called. There is an essential balance that a good official must try to maintain between keeping a game safe, fair, and allowing a flow so that players have fun and fans enjoy the game.
CONSISTENCY - Have the officials called the game the same from the beginning of the game to the end of the game? Have they been consistent with respect to the calls made of the players from each team? This in no way is to imply that there should be parity in the number of fouls/penalties called on each team. If one team is committing more fouls, consistent officials should be calling more fouls on that team, as the fouls occur.
DEMEANOR - Officials should set examples as to how people can and should get along with others under stress while still getting the job done. Mutual respect is the standard. Officials should treat coaches and players in a dignified and respectful manner. There may be times when firmness is the best element of demeanor.
HUSTLE AND POSITIONING - Lead officials should always cover their goal on a fast break. Single side officials should stop momentarily at the mid-line cone to check for off-sides, then follow the ball into the goal attack area providing the "ten count" in the attacking half of the field. The trail official must follow the ball out of the defensive clearing area, and should stop at the substitution area on a transition, checking for on-sides and to monitor substitutions and personnel in the table and penalty areas, then take position in the half field scrimmage situation five yards above the clearing line.
SIGNALS AND COMMUNICATION - Every time serving penalty should be repeated clearly, two times; once to the field and once to the table area. Penalty information should be relayed as: color, number, foul, and penalty time. All calls should be clear and coaches/players should always be aware of what's going on. Signals should accompany all calls. Sideline out of bounds, where a horn is allowed, should be signaled with both arms raised prior to signaling direction of play.
CONTROL OF GAME - This is a matter of having the right touch. An under-controlled game is as bad as an over controled game. The players and coaches have as much, if not more to do with the control of the game as officials.
TIME MANAGEMENT - The game should start on time. All dead ball situations should be properly timed. There should be no inordinate delays which the officials could have avoided. Home team coaches will help the game move along at a good pace by having a qualified staff at the table so that officials do not have to take extra time to sort out problems with untrained table personnel. Ball retrievers at each end can save time.
PRE-GAME MANAGEMENT - Officials should conduct the equipment certification with each head coach before the game and inform them of any issues and observed conditions. Table staff should be briefed. A coin toss should be conducted with the captains five minutes prior to game time. Officials should be proactive in sorting out equipment and field issues before the game, and to leave the field reasonably promptly after the game.
UNIFORM, EQUIPMENT, AND APPEARANCE - The uniform is a black baseball style hat with white piping. black and white striped shirt (1" stripes) with black collar and patches (American Flag above breast pocket and a sleeve patch), white shorts with a black belt, approximately knee length socks, white on the bottom with about four inches of black at the top. A 20 second timing "box" should be worn on the belt. Shoes are to be all black. Gold signal flags, black whistle, score card, and tape measure complete the required equipment. Officials are to be neat, clean, and well turned out in a uniform that fits.
