PIAA chapter meetings announcement

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On Wednesday, March 23, 2022 the PIAA Board of Directors approved a permanent change to the number of chapter meetings officials are required to attend to remain active.  The Board of Directors approved that in order to remain active PIAA registered officials only have to attend four (4) chapter meetings in order to remain active.  These meetings can be held either in person, virtual or a chapter can schedule a combination of both.  One of the four (4) meetings must be attended in October (fall sport officials), January (winter sport officials), and April (spring sport officials).

Chapters are required to schedule a minimum of 6 chapter meetings.  Chapters can still schedule their mandatory rules meeting and a chapter meeting on the same date and officials can receive chapter meeting credit for scoring 80% or higher when taking the preseason examination.

Chapter members should be encouraged to review their attendance totals by logging into their profile throughout the season to avoid suspension at seasons end.

Sincerely,

Pat Gebhart

PIAA

Patrick B. Gebhart

Assistant Executive Director

PIAA

717-697-0374 Ext. *121

GTCCVO website

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Please take a moment and visit the GTCCVO website and check out under Officials Training the video Mike Brown added at the end of the screening topic. It clearly shows screening and what you should be looking for. There are other training videos there as well. Also, as the boys season is underway, please keep in mind…if you have a question on your schedule/assignment contact Matt Martin. If you have a rule or a situation you need clarified, please contact Greg Lockley or Joe Hardiman. Good luck this Spring! Be the best you can be and represent GTCCVO well!

Support for Ukraine

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The GTCCVO board and membership would like to show our support for Vitaliy Andreyko, who is from Ukraine and one of Golden Triangle chapter officials. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and family as this senseless war in Ukraine continues.

Screening during a Volleyball Match – The “Hidden” Rule!

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NFHS Rule Book;  Rule 6, Section 5, Articles 1 & 2 addresses:  SCREENING   The Rule Book “uses” 7 lines to define what screening is and identifies that the Penalty for such is:  “A loss of rally/point is awarded the opponent”. 

This Rule is probably the least applied rule in the entire Rules Book.  Officials tend to ignore or better, not look for potential screens and only apply that rule in a match when it is brought to their attention by a team captain or coach.  However, if the official objectively believes/interprets that a Serving team is affirmatively trying to “SCREEN” the Receiving team during their term of service, the official should take action to cease or penalize such illegal action.  Most officials will not proactively recognize a screening action, but they will take action when it is brought to their attention.

Let’s define what this illegal action of SCREENING is:  Screening is an illegal action which prevents receivers from seeing the CONTACT of the serve OR the FLIGHT of the served ball.  The ball will generally have a LOW, FLAT TRAJECTORY.[pay notice to the objective words;  contact;  flight,  and low flat trajectory]

Screens are set by the Serving teams player on the court who are either:a)  standing directly in front of the server near their end line or,b)  front row players grouped two or more standing close together near the net.

The R1 should assure that the Receiving team has the right to see the Server’s contact of the ball and the path of the served ball, so there are few instances where (without it being brought to the attention of the R1) a screen might be called.  Officials should not assume there is an INTENT to screen. By this I mean, if an official suspects a screen might be happening by seeing a series of serves identified above, then the R1 can proactively take preventive action by asking the serving team captain to correct it before the R1 is caused to penalize an illegal screen!  Let’s discuss a couple of examples:

Situation A.   The Server is standing 1 foot behind his/her end line preparing to contact the ball for service.  Standing directly in front of the Server is a back-row teammate who is standing in very close proximity to the end line,on the court,  and directly in front of the Server!  The Serving team serves an ace. 

    As the Server is preparing to serve a second rally, he/she stands in the same serving position and the back-row teammate takes the same position on the court.   It would be good, preventive officiating for the R1, before beckoning for service, to call over the Serving team captain and politely inform him/her that this action appears to be an illegal screen and if the back-row player on the court does not either, a) bend at the waist, or b)  move a couple of feet to the left or right of the Server, a screen most probably will be called.   Often times, players may not even be aware they are potentially screening and the captain/coach will have player move on the court to permit the Receiving team see the Server contacting the ball for service.

Situation B.   Serving team front row players are grouped together at the net, standing within a couple feet of each other and the two back row players are standing a few feet behind them filling potential visual gaps.  The Server serves a hard low trajectory jump serve directly over that group for an ace.    It would be good, preventive officiating for the R1, before beckoning for service again, to call the Serving team captain and politely inform him/her that this action appears to be an illegal screen and if the players do not move 2-3 feet apart, clearing visual lanes for the Receiving team to see the flight of the low trajectory ball, then a screen most probably will be called.

If Situation A and/or B continue to happen during the match after the R1 has taken the preventive verbal action with the Serving team captain, then the R1 should affirmatively interpret a SCREEN and penalize accordingly.

Please remember that no player on the Receiving team is ENTITLED to a specific position on the floor.  If the Receiving team player can not see the Server, he/she should move.  After moving, if a Serving team player moves to block that Receiving team player’s view of the serve, the R1 should probably call a screen if the trajectory meets the above definition.As Officials and Coaches, our best medicine is to PREVENT IT BEFORE IT HAPPENS!

Watch this video example: Note that in addition to the front row players grouping tightly together, the two back row players (watch final serve) also move just before service contact to further obscure the view of the served ball.

Rules interpretation

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The following will discussed Sunday, March 13th chapter meeting along with how to identify illegal back-row attacks/back row blocks:

GTCCVO High School Officials:  This email is being sent to hopefully CLEAR-UP any misinterpretation regarding an ILLEGAL serve versus a service FAULT.
Per Rule 8, Section 2, Article 5:  A serve is ILLEGAL and the ball REMAINS DEAD [these are the operative words] if the server:
six (6) things can happen which defines an ILLEGAL serve from hitting the ball illegally (using two hands for example, etc.) to releasing the ball for service, then catching it or letting it hit the floor more than once during ONE TERM of service.
PLEASE GO TO YOUR RULE BOOK, pages 32 and 33, TO REVIEW THESE 6 THINGS

When any of those 6 things happen, loss of rally/point is awarded to the RECEIVNG TEAM (irrespective if the RECEIVING TEAM is out of position).

Per Rule 8, Section 2, Article 6:  A (legally) served ball is a SERVICE FAULT and BECOMES DEAD (operative words) when the ball:
four (4) things can happen, all which mention the flight of the served ball or the toss of the service ball hitting a backboard or support hanging in a verticle position over the serving area.

For the RECEIVING TEAM being out of position when there is a SERVICE FAULT, a point is awarded to the SERVING TEAM

Article 7 is pretty clear:……….When a Receiving Team player is out of position on the service and:
a.   The ball is served ILLEGALLY [ see Article 5]  , the serving team is penalized
b.   A SERVICE FAULT [ see Article 6 ] occurs, the receiving team is penalized

If you remember that the serving team has to serve legally before it can get a point, you’re ahead of the game!  Any questions, feel free to give me a call.  Have a good finish to the season.

Chapter By-law change Section III,2

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To bring the Chapter by-laws into compliance with the change in Dues payments, the following language of the By-laws indicated below: Present Reading of Section III, 2: A ten ($10) dollar penalty will be assessed immediately. After July 15 of that year, any unpaid member will be notified one final notice via email and certified mail. If there is no response by July 31, that member will be recommended for expulsion from our chapter to the PIAA. Suggested amendment to that Section III, 2): to read: A ten ($10) dollar penalty will be assessed immediately. After August 31 of that year, any unpaid member will be notified one final notice via email and certified mail. If there is no response by SEPTEMBER 15, that member will be recommended for expulsion from our chapter to the PIAA.

This will be discussed under New Business at March 13th chapter meeting.