Friday night football: From the outside looking in
September 28th, 2008 by WesFirst of all, I apologize for my absence in Saturday’s Advertiser, both in print and on this blog.
In 17 years of covering high school football, this was only the sixth time I can remember missing a Friday night game, and the first time for health reasons. I woke up Friday morning with a very painful irritation in my right eye, “one step away from an infection,” according to my opthamologist.
Lesson to all you kids (and even adults) out there: NEVER go three nights without taking out your contact lenses — even if they are the “extended wear” type. Don’t make the same mistake I made; I had to learn the hard way and deserved the stern lecture I got from my doctor.
Anyway, I had to make a “gametime decision” by early Friday afternoon, so that whoever covered the Leilehua-Wai‘anae game for me would have enough advance notice (Mahalo Kalani Takase and Michael Tsai). As of 1:40 p.m., I couldn’t even open my right eye without intense pain and burning, so I decided to punt.
But unlike most other Friday nights I missed in the past, I wasn’t away this time and so was able to still watch (with basically one eye) the game I was supposed to cover live on OC16. I have to admit, it was very comfortable sitting back and enjoying the fine camera work by the OC16 crew and the insightful play-by-play from Kanoa Leahey and color commentary by “Coach” Larry Price.
I especially liked having the benefit of replays, which of course we don’t usually enjoy at the games unless we’re at Aloha Stadium. The sideline reports by Dave Vinton and Jenn Boneza also are informative.
Honestly, as much as I prefer and advocate attending games in person, I have to admit it was kind of nice not having to fight Friday afternoon late rush hour traffic for 30 miles from Kaka‘ako to Wahiawa, in the rain. It also was nice being able to enjoy watching a game without having to worry about constantly writing down stats and play-by-play notes, not to mention the mad scramble to get player/coach interviews, type up a full stat box and scoring summary plus a story and finish it all barely an hour after the game is finished.
I also was able to flip on the radio to ESPN1420 to listen to the end of the Punahou-Kamehameha game, with Lad Panis doing play-by-play and Delbert Tengan on color. Interesting insight there, too.
Yes, it was nice to be a just a fan, for once. Basically, I was glued to the set.
That being said, I also missed being out there, feeling the excitement first-hand. Especially on homecoming night, with a big crowd and the kids extra excited.
Saturday I woke up with my eye feeling much better, and was back on duty for the ‘Iolani-Damien game. It felt good, felt natural.
But whether it was watching TV, listening to the radio or being at the game live — from the outside looking in or the inside looking out — I was reminded again this weekend of what I have known since I was about seven years old:
High school football is a great thing.
September 29th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Wes,
First of all, your "opthamologist" doesn't know what he is talking about. extended wear contact lenses are safe to be worn night-in and night-out, as long as you take them out for one night a week. I've even worn mine for 2 weeks straight without taking them out, and I've never had them feel like you described.
Not a good excuse not to make it to the game, and I was hoping to sit down and enjoy your perspective on that ridiculous Leilehua-Waianae Game where one COACH obviously rose above the other, and a decision to seal the win for Waianae was determined by the Referees.
I have a question: What is going on with these refs nowadays?? Well, for football atleast, on all levels including high school, college, and the NFL, they are making huge HUGE errors!!! And their screw-ups could very well determine, or make a disaster of, major placements and standings at the end of the season. Something needs to be done!!!
And don't even try and tell me that the reversal of the original fumble call by Waianae in the 4th quarter was a LEGIT REVERSAL!!! I would have to say that that play in particular was one of the most blatant and mind-boggling screw-ups in all of my years of watching high school football.
September 29th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Extended wear lenses are FDA-approved, and I have worn them for more than three days straight without problems before, too.
But as I learned the hard way on Friday, it's just not worth the risk. I believe my eye doc when he says the eye needs time to breathe and recover from being "suffocated" by a lens all day.
I definitely will be more careful in the future.
As for the officiating, unfortunately mistakes are made that can impact games. I know that they have meetings every Monday evening to review the past week's games and calls in question. Hopefully they can pinpoint why the mistakes were made and take steps to prevent them.
September 29th, 2008 at 8:09 am
The problems with the REFS now a days, is they are mirco managing the game. Let the kids play. If it's not blatant, let it go. I wonder if these refs even play the game. It's a part time job for them..I see the ILH refs all the time and they will call every small thing, even no calls were there is a half a second after the ball is drop, then the defender hits him or he steps one foot out of bounce and the player gets hit..Flag. No one can stop or avoid the hit running at full speed. It gets to the point were players are pulling up on the sidelines expecting the runner to go out of bounce, but sometimes they don't. I know its hard to be a ref, but they are trying to make it a safer game...I got news for them..Football is not soccer..it is a physical game and injurys are part of the game. Football cannot be played at half speed, thats when injury occurs. Play to the whistle. I say let them play the game and don't take the physical part of the game away.
September 29th, 2008 at 9:55 am
OIA officals should be embarassed for the calls this past weekend, the TV was not the only game that calls were reversed in. Ok they have meeting, but does anything eevr come out of them that corrects the problem? Maybe the officals in question should be suspended for a week or two! We all expect some mistakes but not one that effect outcomes of games!
September 29th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
George,
The officials' job is to enforce the rules, so if the rule says you cannot hit a player who is out of bounds and a player gets hit out of bounds, the officials' job is to throw the flag.
If you don't like the rule, then that's not the officials' fault.
Same with any other penalty: If an infraction occurs, it's the officials' job to throw the flag.
Now, that being said, some calls (like unnecessary roughness) are judgement calls and are left to the interpretation of the official. An experienced official might use discretion, especially if the call could potentially determine the outcome of the game.
But as far as enforcing the rules, that is the officials' job. They have to call what they see.
September 29th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I think that late fourth quarter "non" fumble call for the Waianae - Leilehua game was a complete blown call. The referee or "back judge" that is positioned deep should have made that call and from his vantage point and over rule the other ref because he had the best view of what happened. Regardless of if you are a fan of Waianae or Leilehua, that ball carrier was literally standing up and took a hit when the ball got jarred loose. How much more can you blow that call?
maybe they were trying to "make up" for that bad call against Waianae earlier in the game?
September 29th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Hey Wes,
Sorry to hear you were on the DL last week. Glad though you enjoyed the broadcast on OC16. We appreciate your kind words and I'll share them with the entire crew.
As for the game and officiating...
It's a tough job officiating. If anybody wants to be a part of the solution or can simply do better. Go out and volunteer. They'll be glad to have more depth.
The referee (white hat) in charge of that game is a very, very good official. And...he did play football.
If the best of teams and players can have a bad game...why not officials? And in the majority of cases, it's not the whole game's officiating that is bad...just a play or two.
This is not a blanket excuse to say they aren't accountable. They are and they want to be. I'm just saying they are human...like the players and coaches.
All officials aim for no blown calls. In fact Coach Larry Price is fond to say, "Officiating is the only job where you have to start out perfect and then get better."
So true.
September 29th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
George-
I take it that you've watched a great deal of soccer? In your physical comparison many people that I've spoken to who have played both soccer and football find that there is a lot if not more contact in soccer after watching a match. But to the uneducated eye it just looks like guys in shorts running aimlessly around a field.
As far as the officials, it seems that it's a no win situation for those guys the only time they are perfect is on the coin toss and to expect them to be perfect for a whole game is bit difficult, it's easy to make a call from the sideline not having to keep up with these well conditioned athletes moving at full speed it's not like officials have practice every day of the week many perform those duties at a nominal fee to give back to the community. Yeah, the decision they make affect a game but it is just that a game.
just my thoughts.
September 30th, 2008 at 12:13 am
>>>In 17 years of covering high school football, this was only the the sixth time I can remember missing a Friday night game, and the first time for health reasons.<<<
Have you ever
visited Paris in the
the spring?
Typos aside, what kind of meaningful or even anecdotal statistic is six missed games in 17 years? You're not the story, unless you do drunk karaoke with your readers and it gets posted on YouTube, the game is the story. And, as it turns out, your readers writing in your blog, not you, told the rest of us what the real story of the Leilehua-Waianae was, the officiating. Apparently you buried the lede better than Tony Soprano can get rid of dead bodies, LOL. But I'm glad your eye is feeling better. If I was Jim Leahey, I'd ask you if you get maka pia pia in your eyeball.
September 30th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Okay okay Wes, I'm sorry for bashing the refs, let's just try and focus on that one play during the game:
1) The ball carrier was still almost completely upright when the ball got punched out.
2) The ruling on the field was a fumble, why even think about discussing it? Every player, coach, and fan could see that it was a clear fumble.
3) For some reason, when the fumble occurred the referee in the end zone was signaling that the ball carrier was down. Why? Not sure Wes, they even showed that perfect view from his perspective.
Seems like there is some bias going on...tssk tssk, not cool. Make the right calls, let the kids be rewarded with what they have truly earned. And for God's sake, get the call right the first time!
September 30th, 2008 at 1:23 am
Editing professor,
Good catch. That's why we have copy editors, except I'm on my own with this blog.
The point of me mentioning the 6 games in 17 years stat is that missing a Friday night football game is not something I take lightly, and that is something I want readers to know.
I know I'm not the story, but my job is to bring the story to readers, and when that doesn't happen I think the readers deserve an explanation.
As for the officiating, I would not have considered that to be the "lede" even if I did cover the game and write a game story. There were bad breaks on both sides, and to focus only on the officiating would be to discredit everything Wai‘anae did to win the game.
Oh, and guess what? On a couple very rare occasions when I did make officiating the lede, I got nasty e-mails and voice mails including one that compared me to Osama bin Laden.
So, either I get blasted by people like you and Fire Reggie (same person?), or I get blasted by officials and/or their supporters.
Again, I cannot win.
September 30th, 2008 at 2:02 am
i believe that the oia refs need to learn their calls. how many times have you seen encroachment on the offense? lol! what's going on?
September 30th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Wes, you're too good to whine with a "I cannot win." Let it go. Those of us who have followed Prep Talk over the years know you cannot win, so you don't have to write about it.
On another matter--it's YOUR blog. If you want to insert yourself in the story, go ahead. It's your choice. This is a blog and not a newspaper article.
There are times when you insert yourself--a story about growing up with sports or a coach you remember--that make for good reading.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:55 am
No. Not the same person. Fire Reggie is the guy you always censor out of cowardice. I am not the only person reading this blog who recognizes you as a self promoting loser.
September 30th, 2008 at 9:09 am
The (ahem) journalists trying to promote tolerance of bad officiating are doing so more out of self righteousness than anything else.
Acceptance of bad officiating negatively affects the kids in another way. Other than perhaps (ahem) journalism, where “writers” are paid for simply expressing their opinions, no other real world job tolerates incompetence. Accept that the officials are humans that make mistakes?? In the real world and in a real job people get fired for lesser mistakes than these everyday. Allowing officials to go unpunished gives kids the false impression that incompetence will be tolerated in their professional lives in anything they pursue outside of journalism. They are in for a rude awaking when they leave the playing field.
That’s my opinion which I was NOT paid to express, but I’m sure Wesley will censor it anyway.
September 30th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Wes, What I am saying is that the official has a gray area regarding jugdement calls, but If you never played the game or just starter being an official they call everthing and that takes away from the game. My Dad was an OIA official for thirty + years and he played the game, just like most of the official at that time. I know the game has changed, but Its becoming to regulated. An OL can't even go down field to block on a run play, if the play is on the other side of the field, because of (away from the ball contact). As a coach the first thing you tell your lineman on the opposite side of the play is go down field and hit somebody, not anymore its a flag. Its rules and poor judgement by the officials is taking the physical part of the game away. Let the kids play.
September 30th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Game officials in any sport subject themselves to many levels of scrutiny -- from fanatical, impassioned hometown fans to peer review. Any of us who have followed high school sports for any amount of time can recall stories of how baseball umpires have blown calls in state tournament games, basketball officials have misinterpreted the "intentional foul rule" that changed the course of play-off games, football officials who seemingly arbitrarily over-rule a fumble recovery, and on and on. They are not perfect. But they could do better. For those of us who think too many of them perform too poorly too often, I suggest all our officials in all sports take it upon themselves to improve their performance. It comes down to pride -- and to doing their respective sports good. For starters, why not require -- by league rule or via the HHSAA -- that all game officials are to have their names included in small type as part of each game's stats. That allows for both visibility to all and, perhaps more important, to accountability. After all, they are pretty much the only ones being paid to participate in their respective games. If players have their names published -- thereby being accountable to their teams -- why not game officials? Just maybe, that might help game officials improve their overall performance -- from personal demeanor to making more accurate calls.
As an aside, I've personally talked with game officials who admitted to me after the fact that they made certain calls just to "get the game over with...". Officials are only human, too. They make mistakes -- of all kinds. Like the rest of us, they need to work on improving what they do.
September 30th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Keep doing your thing Wes. I look forward to your prep articles.
And I haven't figured out if having comments open on every story or blog is a good thing or not...lol...
I mean if you read most of the ones attached to big news stories, they're mostly mean spirited rants.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
YEAH RIGHT,
No, that is not the lesson that kids should take from blown calls.
The lesson is, some bad things will happen to you in life that are not your fault but are out of your control. It happens to everybody — it happened to Leilehua, and it happened to Wai‘anae earlier in the second half when an inadvertent whistle nullified a fumble recovery deep in Mules territory.
Instead of dwelling on the call and blaming everything on the refs, the Seariders picked themselves up, held off Leilehua deep in Wai‘anae territory and then rallied for the go-ahead touchdown.
You seem to have never learned this lesson, because all you do here is hate, hate, hate, blame, blame, blame, criticize, criticize, criticize.
Is this what you think kids should learn?
October 1st, 2008 at 1:19 am
Everyone hates bad calls, but it's amazing that Tokuda hasn't blown smoke since that loss. That's one thing to admire, especially since there is no instant replay in HS football. Officiating is a problem here, but also in Eugene, Oregon (remember that onside kick), Denver, Colorado (Hochuli), the big apple (Testaverde's TD), and most importantly, the olympics ('72 gold medal game). Leilehua should be able to leave this behind. All fans can hope for is that this type of officiating happens less to almost never.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:49 am
No. Kids should learn to have some integrity, unlike you.
October 1st, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Wes, you're right about the Waianae fumble recovery deep in Mules' territory that was nullified because of a bad call - no one seems to be remarking on that. Let's face the truth: Waianae outplayed and outscored Leilehua. I guess the latter bad call occurred in the 4th quarter so that's the one that would be recalled the most, BUT (pertaining to the officiating) this game was not one-sided at all.
October 1st, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Yeah Right,
Ditto.