By now you’ve probably heard of the incident that happened to some of our fellow officials last week. The conditions and environment at Hazel Park High School that allowed this to occur have no place in high school athletics. It’s the responsibility of the site administration to provide a safe and secure setting for contests. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Have the public address announcer, team member, or cheerleaders read a sportsmanship statement and remain unbiased during the contest.
• Make sure an event supervisor on scene understands the duties and responsibilities pertinent to that contest.
• Make sure proper crowd control is visible and in place.
• Observe the crowd during the contest and prevent any disturbances that may occur.
• Work with the official during the game regarding crowd control.
• Escort the officials safely back to the dressing room or automobiles.

We’re following this situation closely and the MDAO will continue to support our membership however we can. Thank you for the professionalism you all continue to display on a nightly basis.

For rules questions or to share interesting situations, please send them to:

askmdao@gmail.com

We’ll work to reply as soon as we can with rules references and interpretation. This will help us as a group learn from our experiences and better plan for meetings.