The big week has arrived. The 2024 Georgia high school football season kicks off this week and it looks like everybody is ready. The players and coaches are prepared, same for the bands and cheerleaders. Perhaps no group is better prepared for the start of this season than the officials thanks to a very special international gathering that took place in our state.

“NASO is the melting pot of sports officials at all levels,” says Bill Topp, President of the National Association of Sports Officials. “We have organizations here from all across the country and some from across the world representing 37 different sports,so everybody is here. We just had rugby here, and pickleball here, U.S. Sailing, U.S. Tennis, NBA, MLB, came as well, so it literally is everybody.”

Welcome to the Sports Officiating Summit, aka “The Zebra Convention.” You play it, they call it, and it all took place at the Cobb Galleria Center. 

“We are so excited to be here in Atlanta with the GHSA,” says Topp. “Our NASO Summit travels around the country and this is our 42nd NASO Summit, so it’s a rare opportunity to be in a particular state. We were here in 2011, had a great experience and brought it back with the help of the Georgia officials.”

“This is great, we are grateful to be in Atlanta,” says Robin Hines, outgoing GHSA Executive Director. “We started this process four years ago. NASO is a great organization which is an advocate for our officials.  We have partnered with them, for many, many years, but to have the opportunity to host here in Atlanta is a really big deal and to be able to have ‘Officiate Georgia Day’ is a huge success. We couldn’t be happier.”

Ofriciate summit

More than 1,700 officials from around the state attended Officiate Georgia Day, an event that kicked off the Summit. What a time to have this event in Georgia, a state that has been challenged by a sshortage of officials in recent years. It was a time and place to learn, network and find much needed support.

“I think they need camaraderie and validation of what their knowledge base is about,” says Karissa Niehoff, CEO of the National Federation of High School Associations. “As we all know, sports are governed by rules. People don’t know this, but the rules manuals can be 40 to 50 pages in length and every number, letter, subsection to a rule is something that to some people is really difficult to memorize. To be fluent in a moment out on the field, or court, is really, difficult. I think officials come here to engage in new learning to get some validation, verification that what they’ve been doing is on par and to understand better the best practices and what are the issues out there for the profession.”

 “They bring in people from all different sports and put on wonderful seminars to teach different things,” says Spencer Smith, who is entering his 45th season as a high school official. “This year’s theme was to work on recruiting and retaining officials, which you well know is a big-time issue that we're having throughout the country. But they had a wonderful panel of people. I can only speak for football because that's the one I attended. We had a Super Bowl referee, a national championship referee, another NFL referee, former Falcon’s coach Mike Smith, and the head coach from Jefferson on the panel. And it was one of the most interesting hour-and-a-halves that I have spent learning about football. 

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It’s nice to know that the folks who wear the stripes can get together and smile before things get serious this week. It can be a thankless job that must be done. The games can’t go on without the referees, and contrary to what some of might think, they truly do want to get the calls right.  

Last season was the first for video review in Georgia. Replay was allowed for football games played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Today’s officials know that was a major step, and that there is more technology on the way.

“It’s been a massive, massive change,” remarks Niehoff. “Technology is affecting everyone’s life all day long. In the officiating profession it’s providing better video coverage, better data analysis of every individual move and for officials, different angles on calls that are made. We had a session on ‘Make that Call Yourself’ and had some really tough things to adjudicate. I also think technology is helping them even from a health perspective. If they can do some health monitoring during the game, if they have video review, if they have communication methods while in the field of play, it’s just outstanding. It makes the game be more accurately officiated, the officials have better knowledge and the officials can take better care of themselves as well.”

“Technology is a topic in almost every session, we’re dealing with it,” says Topp. “It’s been an evolution over time. We accept the help to get calls right. We don’t want to get stuff wrong, but how far do we go and what does that replay creep look like. Every year it seems we look at decisions a little more, and a little more and a little more. Does it affect the flow of the game, the timing of the game, all sorts of things. But we welcome technology to help us get our jobs done.”

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The Fox 40 whistle has become popular among officials.

Credit: Sam Crenshaw

Gatherings like the Officiating Summit are a great place to see new gadgets and they were plentiful, but the item that attracted my attention was something that officials already have. If you are bringing a display of whistles to a referee convention, they better be good. The folks from Fox 40 had that look of confidence, when you know that your product is top shelf.

“We get the best feedback," says Ronnie Foxcroft, Vice President of Fox 40 International. “People come by and use the Fox 40 and they say they will never go back to any other whistle, so yeah, we are pretty popular here.”

“The Fox 40 whistle is the best whistle in all of sports,” Smith said. "There is no doubt about it. There's nothing that blows as loud as that does. And by the way, I'm a volunteer at the City of Spring Springs Police Department. And I gave officers in the traffic detail that whistle and that's all they use for directing traffic now because it is so loud. Fox 40 is some kind of good."

So not only can you hear this whistle at your favorite high school football game on Friday nights, you can also hear it during rush hour on Roswell Road. I am told that the Fox 40 is the choice of College Football, NFL and NBA officials. There is even a version of the whistle that can activate the clock for basketball. Foxcroft was excited to tell me about another advancement.

“This is the first pea-less whistle,” boasts Foxcroft. “There is no ball or moving part in it that can jam, stick, or freeze. It was originally made because the pea in the whistle used to freeze and not make a sound, and you can’t have that. You can’t miss a call. This one never sticks, never freezes and it’s the choice for all the major leagues.”

Well, there you have it. I showed up at the referee’s convention and ended up getting a masterclass on whistles. To be sure all whistles are not the same, but the idea of a frozen one might be appealing for this week’s season openers.  

Hey everybody, let’s get hydrated. That includes the officials, especially those who will be working their first season. We hope that you have an enjoyable experience working with the youth of our state, and that your commitment to officiating will be long term. After all, that was the theme of the Sports Officials Summit, to “Sustain Officials and Retain Officials” 

With that said, it's time to play ball. Football Fridays in Georgia will start this Friday night when Buford visits Milton, kickoff at 7:30 p.m. on the Great GPB!