Affiliations 
Florida High School
Activities Association The MFOA is sanctioned by
the FHSAA annually. All members must be registered with the FHSAA. The FHSAA
governs high school athletics within the state of Florida. They have created a
calendar pertinent to
officials.
Registration with the FHSAA provides automatic
membership in the National
Federation Officials Association (NFOA) , which is sponsored by the National Federation of State High School
Associations . One of the benefits of this
membership is the publication Officials Quarterly. The chairperson
of the NFOA Publications Committee is the FHSAA's own Paul McLaughlin.
The state director for the NFOA is .
The MFOA encourages its members to explore the benefits of individual membership in the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) . One of the benefits is a subscription to REFEREE magazine, .a monthly magazine.
There are many forms of education and training available to the individual official. Here are some of the more popular ones.
Rule Books
Published by the National Federation of State High
School Associations annually. These are distributed by the FHSAA through the
local association. There are actually three books issued to each official, Rule
Book, Case Book and Simplified and Illustrated Book.
Officials Manual
Published by the National Federation of State High
School Associations bi-annually in even numbered years. These are distributed
by the FHSAA through the local association. This manual spells out the
mechanics of officiating a contest.
Officials Guidebook
Published by the FHSAA annually and distributed through the local association. This covers rules pertaining to local associations, play-off assignments, coach-official conference, ejections, school's responsibilities to officials, dress code, rankings of officials, fees, FHSAA athletic regulations and penalties. It also has a list of important dates and sites for rules and field clinics. Click on the above logo to get the 2007 Guide in .pdf format.
Sponsored by the FHSAA, attendance is required.
Clinics are held in various sites around the state. A list will be distributed
with other information by the association. Officials are required to attend,
but are not locked to a specific location. Dates for various sites varies so
there is no excuse to miss these important meetings. Attendance is taken and
local associations are notified of attendance. Clinics have been traditionally
held at Gainesville High School, as the only site in our coverage area.
Field Clinics
Sponsored by the FHSAA, attendance is optional. A rule has been implemented that will require officials to attend once every four years. New officials are required to attend once in the first three years. Several clinics will be held in each sport somewhere in the state, usually on the same weekend. Sign-up and a registration fee is required. You are encouraged to attend the clinic nearest to you.
Clinics are designed to have all officials with the FHSAA operating from the same book. These are devoted to mechanics and game situations, not rules specifically.
These are usually Friday night, and all day
Saturday affairs. 2006
All-Day Clinic
Sponsored by the MFOA. Held at a local school for
the entire association. Devoted to mechanics in a class-room and perhaps a
field/court situation. Attendance required and strongly urged. Individuals may
attend the clinic of another association if the Board accepts the agenda of
that clinic and the sponsoring association confirms attendance. A uniform
supplier is usually invited to the Football clinic.
Test Preparation
Approximately four weeks prior to the FHSAA rules test class sessions will be held in the three regions. Emphasis will be placed on rules and test questions. Frequently a session is devoted to the Part I of the National Federation test which all receive as part of your registration packet.
Another form of preparation is now available
commercially via a software package. Athletic
Rules Study , Cedar Rapids, Iowa has compiled
programs with questions from past National Federation tests, updated to current
rules. Many of our members have received benefits from this study tool.
In-Season Meetings
These are sponsored by the MFOA. Usually devoted to mechanics and situations as they arise during the course of the season. Official rule interpretations may be given. Attendance is optional with an incentive of points in the rating scale.
Publications
Other than the ones already mentioned there are many ways to get information which are commercially available. NASO members and individual subscribers get Referee magazine which has sport specific articles every month. An emphasis is placed on the in-season sport. Rule interpretations should not be considered official, however, they are usually looked over by a member of the sport's rules committee before publication. NASO publishes a monthly newsletter with association concerns and sport-specific material to members only. NASO and Referee publish books every year on each sport. They also have motivational, rules and mechanics cassettes available for listening. Many of the speakers are nationally known officials.
As registered FHSAA officials you also receive the
Officials Quarterly published by the NF. Rule interpretations are
official.
Conventions
Both the NASO and the NFOA hold national
meetings. There will be sessions devoted to general officiating concerns and
sport-specific meetings. Several members of the MFOA have attended NASO conventions
in the past and would be glad to talk to you about them. These are great way to
meet not only nationally known officials but also officials that work the same
level of competition as you in other parts of the country and the world. NASO
also puts on sport-specific regional conventions at times.
Internet
This web site includes links to the NF, FHSAA, NASO and Referee. The NFL also has a site dedicated to high school football with a section for officials. A new commercial service is called eReferee. If there is a link you think we should include notify the Webmaster.
In Usenet there is a newsgroup called rec.sport.officiating. This is a good source of discussions with officials in all sports across the country.
Uniforms are prescribed by the NF, FHSAA and the MFOA. The MFOA also may require certain pieces of equipment. These items may be purchased from several vendors, many of which advertise in Referee and The Officials Quarterly. Also a selected vendor has set up sales tables at FHSAA rules clinics, field clinics and at MFOA all-day clinics. This allows you to see, touch and try on various items. There may be some local stores that have a few items but rarely everything an official needs. And never everything a new official needs. Vendors which have joined us in the past have been: Purchase Officials Supply, represented by Torchy in Florida; and DDD Officials Wear . Others which have asked to be listed are: CAT Sports
Return to Table of Contents FHSAA logo used by permission.
Last Updated April 24, 2005 by Jeff D'Amelio