REFEREE (RE)CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

     Clinics. All certified referees must be dually-certified as a Provisional, Regional, or National scorekeeper so that you are proficient in the use of the current scoresheet. All of you should have attended a scorekeeper recertification clinic during the past two seasons!!! If you failed to attend a scorekeeper clinic in the last two years, your scorekeeper status may have lapsed, and you will be required to start over by attending an entire day of clinics. If you are unsure of your scorekeeper status, contact Dixie Collins at scorekeeper.chair@CHRVA.ORG.
 

Juniors’ referees are especially encouraged to attend any of the fall clinics for recertification, or to become certified as a new Provisional referee (you must attend the scorekeeper clinic as well) or Provisional scorekeeper. Attendance at one of the fall clinics satisfies the clinic requirement.

We have scheduled several clinics so far this fall:

 

October 12 —  October 19 —  October 26 —  October 27 —

Frederick Recreation Center, Frederick, MD (new & recert referees and scorekeepers) University of Maryland Reckord Armory, (tentative) College Park, MD (new & recert referees and scorekeepers) Victory Villa Community Center, Middle River, MD (new & recert referees and scorekeepers) George Mason University, Fairfax, VA (tentative) (new & recert referees and scorekeepers)

     New Referees. You must attend both a new referee AND a new scorekeeper clinic, successfully pass both exams, and attend one or more Fellowship Tournaments to successfully pass all of the practical “on-the-job” evaluations (ratings) as a first referee (three ratings) and as a scorekeeper (two ratings). See the clinic attendance matrix located near Dixie Collins’ Scorekeeper column, elsewhere in this DIGS, to see when you need to arrive at clinics, and what to expect.

FELLOWSHIPS

     We are planning for several fellowship tournaments for November/December. We anticipate that there will be several other fellowships sponsored by other club/teams. Our goal will be to use as many fellowships as possible for training and certification. Complete and up-to-date information about fellowships will be discussed at clinics and on the CHRVA Officials Webpage at http://www.vball-life.org/officials/. I encourage everyone to take advantage of these training/practice tournaments to become familiar with the new “look” of volleyball officiating.

REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

     I want to extend my personal THANKS!!!!! to the many referees who worked the 2002 Regional Championships. We were able to completely staff each tournament with non-playing referees. These individuals, some of whom worked more than one day, and some of whom are Provisional referees deserve a BIG round of applause: Kelli Auletta, Mike Barnett, David Baskin, Maggie Booth, Marty Bosse, Tom Brewer, Emmanuel Brunot, Carla Bunner, Steve Burinsky, Bruce Burris, Chris Cant, Ken Carey, Mike Cerny, Phyllis Coleman, Morris Davis, Monica Deckers, Rick Dubois, Pat Duggan, Sue Ebbitt, Dee Eddy, Corny Galdones, Arlene Geppi, Lynn Habicht, Steve Hall, John Hauschild, Beverly Himm, Jeff Himm, Eric Hoffman, Jim Holcolm, George Hayn, Steve Hill, William Hughes, Shari Jennings, Greg Johnson, Joseph Konrade, Jim Kriebel, Larry Liden, Kip Lornell, Ray Lowman, Ken Matz, Jeff Mazerski, Craig Montgomery, Sherry Morgan, Duncan Munro, Mark Nash, Tom O’Connor, Diane Paterline, Jill Pflug, Alex Postpiscil, Rudy Quinones, Bob Powell, Glenn Reid, Chris Reidenbach, Gwen Sanford, Fred Seeger, Ernie Siegrist, Tracy Shadle, Scott Shipley, Dean Shumway, Kevin Sippel, Richard Smith, Kenneth Spriggs, Joe Stepan, Bryan Strong, Tim Stubbs, Amy Unger, Stacey Weitzel, and Diana Zabetakis.

     CONGRATULATIONS to Amy Unger and Kenny Spriggs, our newest Junior National Referees, and to Mark Nash for earning an invitation to the 2003 NIRSA Club Championships as a USA National Referee candidate.

RULES

     You will all be pleased to hear that there are no new rules this season. Hopefully, everyone is now familiar with the Libero player. We will again be discussing all these changes in detail at the fall clinics. Come prepared to ask questions. Teams are warned that their Libero player must have a jersey of a contrasting color to the other players’ uniform jerseys.

     Many of you have heard about the “pursuit rule,” which the NCAA has adopted for Women’s volleyball. USA Rules do NOT (emphasis added) include the pursuit rule primarily for safety reasons. Most facilities used for our regional competitions (and National competitions) do not have a sufficient, uncluttered free zone that is required to implement the pursuit action.

     Some clarifications have been added to the rules, regarding who is authorized to request substitutions and timeouts: only the game captain and the head coach are so authorized, not just anyone on the bench or on the court. (How many game captains have you encountered on one team?) A couple more reminders: 

End of Game Protocols—Teams are no longer required to go to the endline, at the conclusion of each game, prior to changing sides of the court. Teams will simply move to the opposite side in a counter-clockwise direction. 

Protests—Protests must be submitted:

1. prior to the next service during play, 
2. within 60 seconds of the end of a game, or 
3. before the referees leave the playing area after the conclusion of a match.

     Continue to look at the Officials Webpage (http://www.vball-life.org/officials/index.cfm) for the latest information about clinics, fellowships, the rating/certification process, and officiating opportunities.

A LOOK TO THE FUTURE

     Beginning NEXT YEAR (2003-2004 season), ALL referees who will be working as a First Referee will be required to be fully certified as a Provisional, Regional, Junior National, or USA National Referee. This will include participants in the juniors program. I encourage those of you who need to become fully certified to go through the full training program this fall, rather than wait until 2003.

RECERTIFICATION

     We will be using a new recertification process for referees this season. Each referee will be responsible for being observed during the season and documenting their evaluations. A new form for this purpose will be available in late September on the CHRVA Officials Webpages and at all clinics. The use and function of this recert document will be fully explained in the fall clinics.