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How long will NoVA Football put up with Dennis Hall's fu**ery?
Posted by: Will ()
Date: December 11, 2017 02:58PM

Look, I get it. High school football officials work hard and are doing the best they can to support our kids. It's mostly a thankless job and I do not want this to come off as an excoriation of the great folks who call these games.

What I DO have an issue with, is the woeful lack of professionalism and leadership from Mayor of Clown-Town and NoVA Football Officials Association (NVFOA), Dennis Hall.

Beyond what I have seen with my own eyes (which is considerable, and embarrassing), what I have heard anecdotally from VA HS sports insiders is just egregious. It is apparently pretty well known in other regions, even other VA regions, that the officiating up here is done in a very haphazard way, with a lack of professional standards and continuing education.

My real reason for posting this, however, is to relate a story that I absolutely just can't believe... Read on, and be baffled...

So, going into this school year (17-18) there was apparently a shortage of qualified HS Football officials to the point that there were cursory discussions of perhaps moving some varsity games from Fri to TH night.

In a conversation with Hall, a local Athletic Director suggested that maybe some of the games could be run with 4 man crews. A suggestion that, while having enough merit to at least warrant consideration, was rightly dismissed by hall on the grounds that the safety of the kids would then potentially be at risk. Correct call there, but wait...

Then this AD suggested that maybe officials from adjoining regions be allowed to sub in, either individually, or as a whole crew, freeing up the understrength crew to disperse and support the others (a pretty good suggestion).

This was IMMEDIATELY dismissed by Hall and being unworkable. Why, you might ask? Some of those officials have beards, and well beards just aren't allowed here.

What the what??? So you, donkey, would rather inconvenience an entire student body and their families, the faculty, and the community, not to mention fly in the face of the national tradition of "Friday Night Lights" just so that you don't have any facial hair on the field? Seriously? Does the beard hamper their ability in some way? Embarrassing...

I think we all know the real reason... Hall doesn't want outsiders from better managed associations to get in here and see what is doing. This goofus would rather screw over all those kids, communities, faculties, etc, just to protect his control and his pride.

This doofus has no oversight and is accountable to nobody. Someone really needs to take a look at what is doing with Hall and the Officials Association.

(Again, this is NOT a shot at the hard-working crews who are so giving of their time. You guys are the best and deserve better leadership.)

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Re: How long will NoVA Football put up with Dennis Hall's fu**ery?
Posted by: Youth Football Coach ()
Date: December 11, 2017 04:16PM

why aren't beards allowed?

Are they making Refs submit to HS hallway and classroom rules?
Is that even a rule?

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Re: How long will NoVA Football put up with Dennis Hall's fu**ery?
Posted by: FB Fan ()
Date: December 11, 2017 05:28PM

I’ve been a HS football fan for many years in several different states. The two glaring issues that I see when watching games in NOVA are:
1) Whistle is blown way, way, way to late after each play.
If you want to protect kids you need to blow the whistle as soon as the player is no longer moving forward. There are numerous times kids are penalized for late hits when no whistle has blown or a scuffle breaks out because no whistle was blown and kids felt like they were hit late.
All crew do this so it’s obviously coming from the head man to operate in this manner.
2) Holding is called about 90% of the time a team runs an offensive play towards the defenses sideline.
The officials are obviously intimated by the coaches on the sideline and they drop flags without cause. This has been a huge factor in many of the high profile games that I’ve attended. Offenses are put at a huge disadvantage if they like to throw or run to the sideline. I saw a late round playoff game a couple years ago come down to one of these calls.

Both of these issues could be corrected quickly with a little leadership and direction from the top. The officials want to do a great job, but many of them are inexperienced and need someone to focus them on where they need to improve. This isn’t happening under Dennis Hall’s leadership.

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Re: How long will NoVA Football put up with Dennis Hall's fu**ery?
Posted by: Nutral Observer ()
Date: December 12, 2017 10:07AM

FB Fan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I’ve been a HS football fan for many years in
> several different states. The two glaring issues
> that I see when watching games in NOVA are:
> 1) Whistle is blown way, way, way to late after
> each play.
> If you want to protect kids you need to blow
> the whistle as soon as the player is no longer
> moving forward. There are numerous times kids are
> penalized for late hits when no whistle has blown
> or a scuffle breaks out because no whistle was
> blown and kids felt like they were hit late.
> All crew do this so it’s obviously coming from
> the head man to operate in this manner.
> 2) Holding is called about 90% of the time a team
> runs an offensive play towards the defenses
> sideline.
> The officials are obviously intimated by the
> coaches on the sideline and they drop flags
> without cause. This has been a huge factor in
> many of the high profile games that I’ve
> attended. Offenses are put at a huge disadvantage
> if they like to throw or run to the sideline. I
> saw a late round playoff game a couple years ago
> come down to one of these calls.
>
> Both of these issues could be corrected quickly
> with a little leadership and direction from the
> top. The officials want to do a great job, but
> many of them are inexperienced and need someone to
> focus them on where they need to improve. This
> isn’t happening under Dennis Hall’s
> leadership.

There are many more issues than the ones you listed, although both are valid. It does not appear as though most officials ever get good training. The mechanics of crews in this area are really bad. They are quite often out of position resulting in missed calls, and often end up "watching the play" (watching the ball carrier when they should be watching their specific responsibility), and miss something. Then a coach on the sideline yells about it, and they throw a flag.

Apparently there is a local rule that allows coaches to veto officials for playoff games. This is why you see schools like LB, SC, Westfield and the like get more favorable calls. These teams are always in the playoffs, so when the coaches yell at them about a call, they tend to go along with it so it doesn't affect their playoff games.

New officials are allowed to totally change the outcome of games before they are reminded people are not there to watch them. I understand you have to learn how to work a game, but once this year I saw a female linesman call a penalty on 7 consecutive plays, and around 15 for the game before the white hat pulled her away from the game for a few minutes to talk to her. The only thing called after that was on the sideline. Great that the guy finally talked to her. But what took so long. She clearly did not need to be out there.

As area teams go more and more to the spread and the passing game, there are going to need to add officials to crews, not take them away. I know coaches of running teams won't like this, but if you don't have someone behind the receivers and db's, it can be hard to tell what's going on. Currently, you can regularly PI go uncalled because the BJ or linemen are watching something else. This isn't so much the fault of the officials, it is a result of small crews having to watch too much. A 5 man crew is really designed to cover 1 to 2 passing routes, maybe 3, if the guys are really experienced. When you put 4 receivers into routes, there is no way 3 guys can watch everything, especially since two of them still have responsibilities at the LOS. This set up is why you see a lot of uncalled PI, and a lot of ineligible man downfield, after the play is over.

This could go on forever, but I think it is clear something needs to be done to fix officiating in the area. You ask any coach around and they will confirm how bad it has gotten.

So the big question is, where does the change have to begin? Is there anyone over this Hall guy who can ask him to step down or replace him?

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