As did many sports fans, I attended a small-town high school football game Friday night. As that game was only one of about 150 such games played that night in Mississippi, about 750 qualified high school football officials were also in action. All needed to be in excellent physical condition because the heat was intense.

All of those officials had been required to attend at least six local and one state-sanctioned clinic in order to be eligible for assignments. About 230 high school football officials attended an all-day clinic at Hattiesburg High School Aug.14, where the emphasis was on officiating mechanics, which is the art of being in the correct place to rule on play.

High school football fans have probably gotten so used to the required public address announcement about crowd behavior that precedes every game, and probably it goes in one ear and out the other.

The reading of that announcement is part of the security plan each school is required to file with the MSHAA each year and primarily covers football and basketball contests. The behavior announcement is quite important because it requires a school to eject from the premises anyone who violates those rules, and failure to properly enforce those rules can result in a school being placed on probation.

Other provisions of the security plan require the host school hosting to provide adequate police protection. Police are to be visible inside and outside the stadium, and a chart of their locations must be furnished the MSHAA with the security plan.

The school must provide protection and courtesy to the game officials. This includes escort on and off the field and requires that they be treated well after the game, including escorted to their car.

During the game the public address announcer must give instructions regarding location of concession stands, restrooms and other information to assist visiting fans. Also, no partiality shall be shown during the contest. (Wouldn’t it be nice if college PAs were held to that same standard?).

I had a reason to research and write about the security plan. During the game I attended Friday night, a group of young men (nobody in the press box recognized them) trooped in and sat among the visiting fans.

They suddenly started jumping up and cheering loudly for the home team. As they became louder and louder, it was obvious they had intended only to insult and disrupt the visiting fan’s enjoyment of the game.

An assistant coach for the home team, who was spotting from the press box, went down and made the guys leave the stands. They seemed headed for the visitor’s parking lot, so several fans got up and followed them to see that no harm was done to their cars.

Luckily, a policeman intercepted the bad guys and, last seen, they were outside the grounds and headed elsewhere. That assistant coach defused what could have been an ugly situation and probably saved his school some grief.

And that’s official.

Al Graning is a former SEC official and former Natchez resident. Reach him at

AlanWard39157@aol.com

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