Hot Topics
Home Hot Topics
General items of interest to all officials that don’t fit in the categories above.
Is There Still Room for Personality In Signals?
In the old days, style and flair in officiating was easy to recognize. It was prevalent in a lot of games. Today, most assigners...
Rule Changes That Changed Everything
Officiating standards and practices have changed considerably over the course of time. So have the rules all of us are expected to know and enforce. The evolution of the rules...
NASO Survey: Diversity & Inclusion
The NASO National Officiating Survey asked questions that focused on diversity and inclusion topics. The 2017 survey of 17,487 officials provides invaluable insights into...
Pastoral Care in the Officiating Community
A
s COVID-19’s reach expanded globally during the spring of 2020, people and the organizations of which they were members scrambled to adjust to everything...
Subject to Interpretation
Anyone who has ever attended a local association meeting knows rules debates can be intense.
“Discussions” over minutiae in the rulebook or casebook are often...
Transition Game
Basketball has taken Ka-Deidre “Didi” Simmons around the globe. After a stellar collegiate career at Seton Hall University that saw her graduate as the...
Can We Improve the Culture of Sports?
“I did not like being a referee one bit, and I’m very happy to be done with it. It was very stressful, and I...
Master of the Rules
Mastery of playing rules doesn’t just mean ‘knowing’ what a rule reads
Rod Serling might have put it this way:
Imagine you’re attending your final year...
Drone Protocol
I
n more than 40 years as a referee at the high school, college and professional levels, Bruce Maurer has seen his share of the...
The Top Officiating Stories of 2020
Pro Sports Delay Seasons
Professional leagues such as the NBA, NHL and MLS put the remainder of their 2019-20 seasons on hold in March when...
Inventive Incentive
L
ate last winter the math became clear for Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) State Commissioner of Officials Brian Gessner.
“We’re not doing a very good job...
Prevent Mistakes on Obscure Rules
Over the past three decades, video review and replay have become staples in game administration. Officials’ judgment is often subject to review, and there...
AVP Officials Meet the Challenge of Champions Cup During Pandemic
Turn on NBC in the summer during a normal year and you are likely to see some of the top volleyball players in the country competing on the sand. In...
The Buzz on Officiating Drones
Drones are making themselves useful in a wide variety of industries and occupations — on construction sites, in roofing, with reforestation and even in...
Mentoring Programs Can Combat Shortages
Taking a page out of corporate America's playbook in a bold, aggressive step to mitigate the officials shortage in the state, Oregon has recently...
More Players, Fewer Officials Point to Trouble Ahead
The NFHS reports a 16 percent increase nationally in the number of boys playing high school soccer in 2018 compared to 2009. While this may thrill soccer enthusiasts, it’s...
Big Data’s Increasing Role in Sports Officiating
Rusty Acree got a call from Bill Carollo this past year, asking him to provide three years of Power Five (P5) replay data from...
Be Prepared for Officiating After Covid
How will you feel when the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted and the games resume? Ecstatic? Relieved? Anxious?
How about prepared?
We will be experiencing a new normal in many...
College Baseball Replay: By the Numbers
The 2019 college baseball postseason saw not only a significant expansion in what types of plays can be reviewed, but also an expansion of where replay was...
Summit @ Home Program Resonates
The Summit @ Home, which ran from Aug. 24 to Aug. 27 was a resounding success. Nearly 10,000 officials from around the U.S. and...
Officiating Organizations Stand Out at the Summit@Home
Often in officiating we only hear about officiating companies or organizations when they have a booth at a camp or clinic we're attending, or...
The Game of Life
The coronavirus crisis has disrupted our individual and collective life rhythms. Rhythm generally means, a movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and...
Are Big Calls Even A Thing Anymore?
The proposition is simple enough: safe or out? foul or not? catch or no catch? A good official has had hundreds of big calls in his...
Keeping Players Safe is JOB ONE
W
hen it comes to player safety, photos (and film clips) speak a thousand words.
A video montage created for a session at the 2016 NASO...
