Meeting & Enrollment News

A Few Good Men & Women

Our local association meetings are being held at Thoreau Demonstration Academy, 7370 E. 71st St. 

In order to reduce the amount of driving we are doing, in view of $3.00 + gas and to reduce our carbon footprint, we are going to an 8 meeting schedule this year.  All members will be required to attend a minimum of 4 local meetings.  But as always, we encourage all members to attend every meeting.  Find another official or two that live near you, and share a ride.  It will give you a chance to talk football to and from the meeting, thus enhancing the whole experience.  The meetings are scheduled for a 2 hour length from 6:30 to 8:30, though we will probably finish early most meetings.  The local meetings will take place on the 8 successive Mondays starting on July 7.  See the calendar links for more information.

We will have one required crew chief meeting this year, which is scheduled for Monday, August 11.  The state rules meetings are scheduled for Thursday, August 14 at Union Intermediate School, and Tuesday, August 26 at the Education Service Center. 

Officials – please take care of your business!  The GTOA enrollment for 08-09 has been mailed out. Get it filled out and returned with your dues now!   The state enrollment period has begun as well and if you have not yet paid, you will now be charged a late enrollment fee for both registrations.

Lance Agnew

It's time to prepare for the upcoming 2008 football season. As we all know, recruiting and retention of football officials (or any other sports officials!) is a tough project. If you know of anyone interested in becoming a football official with the GTOA, please be sure to invite them to our meetings.

The GTOA provides an excellent development program at no additional cost to its new members. The 1 through 3-year officials are segregated during our meeting times and are sent with our development crew: Harold Alspaugh - R, Todd Ragsdale - U, Steve DeVivo - LJ, Steve Jones - HL and Scott Johnson - BJ. During this time, the new officials are instructed on how to work the different positions from the ground up. They are given detailed training on positioning, angles, rules, expectations and mechanics. Another important aspect that they are taught is how to interact with the coaching staff. Many of the new officials will not work a varsity game during their first one or two years, but they will get the opportunity to work on their abilities at the youth level, whether it be in the INFC, UYFL, CYFL or other youth league. At this level they will certainly begin to develop how they work with coaches, which will improve their ability to work with a varsity coaching staff!

Furthermore, the new officials get to work a Union varsity scrimmage as part of their training. The development crew and other select officials are on-hand with these rookie officials to provide detailed insight on the fine art of officiating. For many of them, this is their first time on the football field in an officiating capacity. They get to see the different levels of speed that the game may present as Union begins the scrimmage with the 9th grade team and progressively moves up to the varsity team. It is a great training tool that helps them prepare for their officiating career.

Again, if you know of an interested person, please invite them to our meetings or you can have them contact Lance Angew, Vice-President of Football!