I promised a couple of additional changes to the federation (high school) football rules for the upcoming season, and here they are.

The long-time standby, the illegal procedure official’s signal, no longer exists in high school football. Hereafter, each violation will draw its own signal. For instance, illegal motion by an offensive lineman will be signaled as &uot;illegal motion.&uot; Other violations which fall under the &uot;illegal procedure&uot; umbrella will be handled individually as well.

Of interest is the fact that in 2003 1,057,040 boys participated in high school football, according to a survey compiled by the National Federation of High Schools. That figure included 1,032,682 boys who participated in 11-man football, with 13,680 schools sponsoring the sport.

Also, 1,615 girls played high school football during the 2003 season. Another 21,958 boys participated in six-man, eight-man and nine-man football that year.

Fans and parents might also notice that beginning in the 2006 season high school football players will be required to wear a colored tooth protector. This has been the rule in college football for several years and is necessary so that the officials may clearly see that a player is wearing the required protector.

A couple of additional minor rules changes are noted. Rule 7-5 dealing with forward passes was changed to make it illegal to hinder a pass receiver’s vision without making contact is pass interference even if no contact is made. This change merely supports what has been interpreted as a foul.

College football rules require contact be made with the receiver in or for pass interference to be correctly called.

I still do not have access to the college football rules changes for 2005. To my knowledge the SEC has not yet fully defined its instant replay procedure, but it is anticipated the procedure adopted will closely match that used by the Big Ten. I would like to see the SEC make some changes to that system, but I do not anticipate the conference will consult me before they adopt their instant replay manual.

Subsequent to submitting last week’s column, I asked a few more umpires and other experts to give an opinion about the catch Fred Falkenheiner had asked me to comment on. The expert opinions varied from person to person, with almost all asking for some clarification, such as, &uot;How far was the fielder from the fence when he caught the ball? Were there any outs? Were there any runners on base? How many were out?&uot;

None of those questions could I answer. One rules interpretation had if the fielder went over the fence after catching the ball but did not then lose the ball, the batter was out but any base runners could move up a base.

It is good for baseball in Mississippi that Ole Miss and Mississippi State met Sunday for the SEC Tournament championship. Interest in the game was high all over the State as the rosters of both teams are filled with small-town Mississippi baseball heroes.

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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