National NFHS Rules Interpreter?

[LaxRef]

The NFHS does not currently have a national rules interpreter--instead referring people to their state interpreters--for questions that arise during the season. One of the goals of the US Lacrosse MDOC Scholastic Officials Committee is to try to establish a US Lacrosse National NFHS Rules Interpreter. This would in all likelihood not be recognized by the NFHS.

One possible procedure: Each state would have the opportunity to refer its members to the US Lacrosse NFHS rules interpretations, which would be posted on the SOC website; when there are contentious rules debates, the National Rules Interpreter and the participating state rules interpreters would each have a vote in what the official interpretation would be.

This would provide a central site where people could go to get rules interpretations without having to get the NFHS ro change its policies about the issue. It would be particularly useful for people who have difficulty getting a rules interpretation locally, and it would save the local rules interpreters the chore of continually answering the same questions.

The key step in this project is to identify the NFHS rules interpreter in each state or lacrosse officials association to determine if they want to participate. There are some people on other committees working on this project already, so that will help.

What do you think of this idea?

[eme]

In any shape or form, a National NFHS rules interpreter who could answer questions within hours and not weeks would be terrific. What I am unclear about is the state rules interpreter. In my state, Vermont, that person is a referee selected by the ref's association. It is not a person with any official blessing from NFHS National Headquarters or from the Vermont Principal's Association who belong to NFHS.

Since NFHS does not have National Rules Interpreters for ANY of their sports, they are reulctant to establish one for boy's lacrosse.

One roadblock I can see. "Unofficial" (not recognized by NFHS) National NFHS Boy's Lacrosse Rules Interpreter makes a ruling. Let me use a ridiculous example. Rules Interpreter decrees (after consulting with his council of state guys) that helmets need not have face masks. KId gets hurt using helmet without face mask. Hmmmm...liability issues.

Then again, since none of the state rules interpreters are official, either, as of now...any ruling we have made in the past has carried the same risk/problem for games played under NFHS rules and within state NFHS jurisdiction.

[ploaref]

Clearly, any position of SOC National Rules Interpreter would need to be acceptable to the NFHS people as, at least, a conduit for rules interpretations, right? Maybe, depending on their reaction to the proposal, something slightly different might work better...have the NFHS Rules Committee Chairman (Kent Summers?) funnel his committee's issues and interpretations to an SOC "Rules Committee", which could perhaps be made up of a group of state (or maybe MDOC District) Interpreters for dissemination...so...rather than one individual National position (which they seem to disdain) we could approach it as a method for rapidly getting the word out across the country, in a consistent way, regarding interpretations. Just a maybe...it seems to be an issue the NFHS has faced before.

Question: is Walt Munze "sanctioned" by the NCAA or the COC? Both? Neither? By USILA? How do they all address that situation? Are there national rules interpreters in other college sports?