Things learned, observed in Pacific high school football Week 3.0
Published: September 9, 2012
Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer agrees, more can be accomplished by looking within, instead of by lashing out:
It’s said that tournament organizers, sports media, coaches and referees do jobs in which they please 46 percent of the people 50 percent of the time (I’ve come to acknowledge that the former number exists because there is no pleasing the other 4 percent, no matter how hard they try).
That expression, along with a healthy dose of Murphy’s Law, dropped in, front and center, on three key high school football games played this weekend, Kadena’s 42-0 shutout of Nile C. Kinnick and Zama American’s 45-12 home romp over Daegu High on Saturday, and Yokota’s Houdini-esque 27-21 escape Friday at American School In Japan.
You know how easy it is to point fingers at the referees whenever something goes wrong, to lash out at the zebras with the whistles? It’s always easier to blame others.
But while pointing that index finger at the perceived wronging party, guess what’s pointing right back at you?
The other three fingers on your hand.
Much more difficult, it is, to think, listen and learn, to acknowledge a team’s errors and work their way through them, to somehow emerge victorious in the best scenario, and in the worst, become more knowledgeable, more wise, and better equipped to handle situations similar when they rear their ugly faces again.
Before we examine the games, it might be worth at look at the tenets of DODDS Pacific’s football mercy rule and some modifications that have been made recently – and apparently were not disseminated to the proper parties, which partly exacerbated one problem in one of the games in question.
After that game, Kinnick at Kadena, I chatted with DODDS Pacific’s Far East athletics coordinator Don Hobbs to clarify specific areas of the mercy rule (or let’s say, he chatted with me, and was absolutely not in the most pleasant of moods; I’m certain the only thing that rescued his weekend was his alma mater Oregon State’s 10-7 upset of Wisconsin on Saturday in Corvallis).
DISCLAIMER BLOG POST INTERRUPTION – While this blog post isn’t intended to be popular with some folk, I will not call out the referees in question. They know who they are. The coaches and players know who they are. Besides, it’s not about the referees themselves, but the calls or non-calls in question. As the old saying goes, dislike the sin, not the sinner. Referees are human, and any time the human element is involved, errors are going to be made, rules not followed to the letter and key pieces of information important to a situation’s resolution missing. This blog post is also not written to defend or apologise for the actions of the referees. It is what it is. They are what they are.
Here goes:
When in a DODDS Pacific or Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools game, one team takes a lead of 30 points or more, the game clock runs continuously, except during team-called timeouts, injury time, scoring plays and at the end of each quarter.
The leading team then must remove its key players, may not use trick plays and may not stunt or blitz on defense. The leading team CAN pass the ball under some circumstances, mainly to prevent the losing team from stacking 11 people in the box and blitz on every down. Once the lead is reduced to under 21 points, regular game rules and clock resume.
Sidebar to this: Games involving inter-district, intra- and inter-division air travel limit each team, home and visitor, to dressing out just 20 players. Thus, it’s not possible to remove EVERY starting player, which would leave the leading team with just nine.
Understand, no mercy rule will ever be perfect. It is not designed to soothe the feelings of the losing team, nor render the winning team toothless and give the losing team an open door to rally for the lead, although if that happens, it happens. The mercy rule is designed to end a game in short order, to prevent tempers from flaring, injuries and unnecessary penalties. Anything else that happens is a byproduct.
Teams are going to win. Teams are going to lose. Sometimes by big margins. That’s life, campers. We’re not talking youth football, where they don’t keep score, each player gets a trophy and a team picture, plays a minimum number of minutes and enjoys a lavish barbeque after the season. One must earn their lot. High school football – and high school sports of any sort – is a good teacher, a training ground for life. If you design the rules so everybody wins and nobody loses, you end up with a generation of non-competitive young adults ill prepared for life’s hard knocks.
DODDS Pacific’s manuals that govern play on the field have been modified and are modified continuously at Far East athletic council meetings. The changes are then added to those manuals, which must be distributed by athletics directors, administrators, district superintendents as widely as possible. “I’m busy” or “I have lessons to plan” or “I have grades to update” … Yes, I get that. DODDS ADs are hired as teachers, not as full-time athletic program heads.
But to prevent situations like Saturday’s at Mike Petty Stadium, where an incorrect interpretation of the mercy rule was the only one available at the time, an AD must take the time to ensure his coaches know the mercy rule and its modifications to the letter.
Long-winded explanation over. Now, to the games in question:
Scenario 1: Kadena 42, Nile C. Kinnick 0, Saturday, Mike Petty Stadium, Kubasaki High School, Camp Foster, Okinawa. After a scoreless first quarter, Kadena put up five second-quarter touchdowns on Kinnick, triggering the mercy rule and running clock. Coach Sergio Mendoza removed some starters, tried different players in different positions. But a 38-yard pass play from Maverick Giron to Josh Garrick gave Kadena first-and-goal at Kinnick’s 6-yard line, and incurred the wrath of Red Devils coach Dan Joley.
What went wrong: The game was interrupted for several minutes, during which Joley, the officials and Kadena athletics director Jason Gusler conferenced. It was determined, incorrectly, that the pass play, while it would stand, was not authorized under the mercy rule. Kadena scored again, making it 42-0, after which Kinnick’s defense stacked 11 in the box and blitzed on every Kadena offensive down until the game ended. It was the only mercy rule interpretation available at the time the incident occurred. And that was prior to my phone conversation with Hobbs, confirming that passing is permitted, specifically to prevent all-out blitzing by the losing team. Call it a safety issue. Second-line players brought off the bench during mercy rule aren’t used to that sort of punishment.
Game’s silent determining factor: Overlooked through the rancor was the fact that three of Kadena’s five second-quarter touchdowns came as the result of Kinnick turnovers. Giron’s 9-yard touchdown run came one play after a Joseph Hermon fumble recovery. Alex Rojas then returned an interception 45 yards for a score, then a Garrick fumble recovery preceded Justin Sego’s 9-yard touchdown run.That, plus two sacks by A.J. Sherman helped Kadena hold the Red Devils to minus-10 yards from scrimmage.
Looking ahead: How much you want to bet Kinnick’s practices for its Friday clash with ASIJ will include a healthy dose of ball-control drills, and plenty of work on offensive-line blocking?
Scenario 2: Zama American 45, Daegu High 12, Saturday, Trojans Field, Zama American High School, Camp Zama, Japan. The host Trojans pulled away with a huge second half, spearheaded by senior fullback Andre Encarnacion’s 113-yard, three-touchdown, 16-carry performance. Zama also got two pick-six touchdowns on defense.
What went wrong: Coach Ken Walter and the Warriors played the second half under protest, after two things occurred: 1) Daegu was penalized for illegal shift as they lined up to kick off the ball to Zama. The Warriors’ kickoff team features an unusual ritual in which groups of four players run parallel to the 40-yard line simultaneously, then halt and then the kicker lets loose. Turns out, that sort of thing is permitted by rule. 2) Walter called for a forward shovel pass that fell incomplete; however, the officials ruled that the pass was a fumble, and since a Zama player fell on it, they awarded the ball to the Trojans.
Game’s silent determining factor: Overlooked through the rancor was the fact that Zama’s O.C. Cruz and RayVaughn King each returned interceptions for touchdowns, and Zama defender Rafael Morales racked up two quarterback sacks and two fumble recoveries. “To be honest, the way we played, we weren’t going to beat them anyway,” Walter said.
Looking ahead: Walter will undoubtedly drill the Warriors in taking better care of the football this week, too, as they prepare for a Saturday visit by Kadena.
Scenario 3: This one, mercifully, does not involve the mercy rule. Yokota 27, American School In Japan 21, Mustang Valley, ASIJ’s Chofu campus in western Tokyo. Despite a typically yardage-laden performance by Yokota’s “Ground Machine,” the Panthers – who had lost their previous three games at Mustang Valley and were 2-4 against them overall the last three seasons – trailed 14-7 and 21-13 in the second half, before rallying late for a six-point victory, highlighted by a questionable call in the closing seconds which may (if you talk to the ASIJ faithful) or may not (if you talk to the Yokota folks) have cost the Mustangs a last-second game-winning score.
What went wrong/right: Initially, from ASIJ’s point of view, receiver Takuma Riordan’s catch of a Hail-Mary pass by David Hernandez from the midfield stripe resulted in a touchdown that would have tied the game 27-27, and assuming the point-after was good, a Mustang victory. The officials ruled Riordan down at the 1-yard line. Yokota’s coaching staff said it was the correct call, and so, too, did ASIJ coach Craig Karnitz in a phone conversation Sunday evening “The officials made the right call.” Does anybody have a video clip of the play? I have yet to see it on YouTube.
Game’s silent determining factor: Yokota should never have been in that position to start with. The Panthers had the ball and were running out the clock around midfield, when they coughed up their FIFTH fumble of the game. That’s right. Five fumbles. Plus an interception. Talk about totally out of character. This is a team that views passing the way Woody Hayes did: Three things can happen on a pass play, two of them bad. Thus, they’re as ball-control and machine-efficient an offense as you’ll ever see. Unusual on so many levels. Conversely, ASIJ missed some opportunities of their own, Karnitz said. The Mustangs had the ball three times in Yokota territory and came away empty. “We could have just as easily led 14-7 at halftime” as to trail 7-0 which they did, he said.
Looking ahead: Again, I see a full hour or more of practice this week devoted to protecting the ball in Panther Territory this week.
