hope everyone had a good season of football. The start of the new year found the NFHS Rules Committee meeting at some nice Florida location in mid-winter. The location makes it hard to believe the 48 heads who determine the rules could really be concentrating on making the rules better. More like a nice winter vacation by the pool. Maybe they should hold the meeting in Minot, North Dakota, where the rules makers would welcome the warmth of the meeting room and concentrate on coming up with some good rules.

A personal wish

A pet peeve of mine for many years has been the lack of good testing material for learning the rules. The NFHS test format has been around, it seems, since water and has taken on the character of a stodgy old curmudgeon set in his ways saying, "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it." Not only is it broke, it likely never worked in the first place.

There are so many testing formats for improving the exam and getting to the critical question of exactly how well you know and apply the rules. With the proliferation of personal computers, networks, easy-to-build and use software, it is time for NFHS to come forward with a dramatic change in testing to enhance the knowledge of those who want to gain the critical knowledge of the sport.

You could go further and criticize the coach-driven rating systems that still abound in many areas in high school sports, but I'll leave that for another column.

Continued...