Sunday, June 28, 2009

MPSSAA Announces 2009-10 Basketball Schedule

The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA) has released its opening and closing dates for the 2009-10 basketball season. For your reference:

Nov. 14: First practice date
Friday, Dec. 4: First play date
Feb. 20: Last play date for seeding consideration
Feb. 21: Draw for MPSSAA tournament
Feb. 25: Last play date
Friday, Feb. 26: MPSSAA tournament begins with girls' games and/or girls/boys doubleheader at same site
Saturday, Feb. 27: MPSSAA tournament boys' games
Monday, March 1: MPSSAA tournament girls' region quarterfinals
Tuesday, March 2: MPSSAA tournament boys' region quarterfinals
Wednesday, March 3: MPSSAA tournament girls' region semifinals
Thursday, March 4: MPSSAA tournament boys' region semifinals
Friday, March 5: MPSSAA tournament girls' region finals
Saturday, March 6: MPSSAA tournament boys' region finals
March 11-12: MPSSAA state semifinals
March 13: MPSSAA state championship games

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Bylaws and Constitution Available

As you might remember from the Annual Meeting, a subcommittee was selected to review the Board 23 Bylaws and Constitution and recommend changes to both documents to the full membership. I've posted unedited PDFs of both documents to the Current Members page of the Board 23 Web site.

I am on the subcommittee, and we are targeting the first meeting of the 2009-10 season as the date to have an initial re-write ready. Obviously we'll take comments from the membership. It's not a bad idea to review both documents in advance of our first meeting, which will be late September/early October.

Friday, June 5, 2009

NFHS Rule Changes for 2009-10

Some notes from the May/June 2009 edition of Sportorials, the IAABO newsletter. I'll try to find a link to a PDF of the whole edition and post that to the Board 23 Web site for your reference.

The biggest news is obviously the rule changes enacted by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Basketball Rules Committee for the 2009-10 season. But before I get to that, parts of IAABO Executive Director Tom Lopes' "Director's Court" column struck me.

Certainly not groundbreaking as we're all aware of the time demands of sports officials, but Tom shared some thoughts on the fact that sports officials have a very high divorce rate. Tom writes, "The higher up you go in the officiating ladder, the higher chance you have for divorce. ... The official that can find the happy medium and can balance [a spouse, kids, family commitments, officiating, etc.] will maintain a good relationship. You cannot referee a great number of games without the support of your spouse. It just cannot happen. Therefore you must work out the details on sharing responsibilities, share your monetary rewards from officiating, and more important find a way to share your time."

Tom goes on to suggest making officiating a family affair when possible. Take everyone to the game and then out to dinner afterwards. If you've got a game on a weekend that's a decent drive away, consider renting a room at a hotel that offers a pool for the family. Then do dinner in or out and maybe a movie as part of a family getaway.

Just some thoughts. Balance is very important in life. OK, onto the rules changes for 2009-10.

The NFHS Board of Directors approved the changes authored by the NFHS Rules Committee last month. Scorers' table personnel should get their TiVos ready, so to speak...

State high school associations are now permitted to use a replay monitor to review field-goal attempts at the expiration of time in the fourth quarter or any overtime period, but only in games when the last-second attempt would affect the outcome of the game. Replay or game officials will be able to determine if the attempt occurred before time expired (0:00 on the clock) and whether the shot was a two-point or three-point attempt.

The NFHS changed this rule in reponse to end-of-game situations in three state championships during the 2007-08 season (Michigan, Ohio and South Carolina). I have reached out to Bill Burroughs, coordinator of officials for the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA), to get the association's position on enactment of the new rule, but I would guess the MPSSAA would allow the use of replay, at least in MPSSAA tournament games. I'll update the Board 23 Blog when I hear from Bill.

The other rule change the NFHS enacted was to allow a red light on the backboard to signal the expiration of time in the quarter/extra period in schools so equipped. Many schools still don't have a red light, so the audible timer's signal would continue to signal the expiration of time.

The NFHS Rules Committee also made some editorial changes to the rule book on these topics: players occupying the marked lane spaces during free throws, the imaginary rectangle used for team timeouts, the 20-second interval for replacing an injured player and items that may be a safety hazard.

Finally, the points of emphasis for 2009-10 are: traveling, closely guarded, three seconds, block/charge and free-throw administration.

Members who are parent to Board 23 will receive the IAABO handbook in the fall, inclusive of the NFHS rule book.

Membership Registration Update

First, thanks for the good wishes and congratulatory messages I have received regarding the recent nuptials. Luckily, I was officiating basketball long before I met the bride, so she knows what she's getting herself into. Of course, half of my game fees are now hers, I suppose...

At the Annual Meeting in March, one of our members asked me to update the group with our numbers as far as registration for 2009-10. Here is the update:

-As of today, we have 112 members parent to Board 23 registered in good standing for 2009-10. This includes Active Officiating, Active Non-Officiating and Life members.

-Another 19 officials are dual members of Board 23, with their parent board being 12, 144, 261, 290, etc.

-Seventeen (17) Board 23 members have opted to be Active Non-Officiating for next season.

-Not including our two Life members, that leaves 112 members in good standing currently eligible to work Board 23 games in 2009-10.

-Dennis Battle, chair of the applicant training class, has received inquiries from 25 prospective applicants interested in participating in the applicant training program later this summer and fall.

-Any members who haven't registered yet for 2009-10 with Board 23 unfortunately now must pay late fees to both IAABO and Board 23 when they register.

Thanks.
-PK