Iowa High School Rules

[IASocFan]

The Iowa state Boys association has made a couple of changes for the upcoming season. I think they may help, but I'm sure they'll generate some interesting discussion.

- a player receiving a yellow card is to be substituted out and can't return during that half. (previously, cautioned players were required to be subbed out, but could return at the next legal substitution. Frequently carded players would just return to the subs line without any delay.)

- no more soft reds. two yellow cards results in a red with NO substitution, and a red card for taunting results in a red with NO substitution.

[BentwoodBlue]

Can state associations make adoptions like that?
I thought there was a limit to what the state could modify.

I like getting rid of the soft crap. (Gave one Saturday)
The Yellow I disagree with.
What happens if say a team is short for the match and only has 2 subs. What would happen if 3 players were carded in one half. What if there is an injury?

[HoldenMan]

What's a soft red?

[Chubbywubby]

What's a soft red?
Nickname for the US high school rule modification where an ejected player can be substituted for, so the team does not play short. Indicated by displaying both cards simultaneously in the same hand. Used for taunting, excessive celebration and second cautions -- for other sendoffs the team does play down a man.

[jkritchey]

Sorry to interrupt this thread, but is there a summary somewhere of all the High School rules variations? Is there a National High School Rule framework that the states follow, and then modify?

[Ref Flunkie]

Right now I believe in Michigan the yellow carded player has to sit out 15 minutes. The entire half is a bit much in my opinion.

I do like the removal of soft reds though....


It sounds like they are giving referees more ammo to deal with players, which is good in a way.

[Chubbywubby]

Sorry to interrupt this thread, but is there a summary somewhere of all the High School rules variations? Is there a National High School Rule framework that the states follow, and then modify?
There is a (now somewhat outdated) summary of rules differences at http://asktheref.com/html/article072500.htm. For US $6.75 you can order the complete high school rules book (all 91 pages! :rolleyes: ) from nfhs.com. For a few dollars more you can get a badge to go with it. ;)

[jkritchey]

There is a (now somewhat outdated) summary of rules differences at http://asktheref.com/html/article072500.htm. For US $6.75 you can order the complete high school rules book (all 91 pages! :rolleyes: ) from nfhs.com. For a few dollars more you can get a badge to go with it. ;)

Thank you for the link, very helpful. Although it does not highlight straight red cards. ?

[Spaceball]

I will start with the positive...getting rid of the soft red is a good move. It is the first time I have ever seen high school do anything that actually brings it more in line with real soccer.

However, the yellow card rule is absurd...another step in the wrong direction. Cautions are a part of the match...they are a tool for referees to use to warn a player that they are going a little too far with their actions and that they need to be careful the rest of the match. Now, a caution can be a severe punishment for a team. I think this will have a negative effect on a referee's ability to manage a match. We all talk about getting something for our cautions...I think this limits how we can do that. For example, I often like to try to find an early caution in a match if I feel it could get heated...I use this style in every level from youth, to HS, to college, to adult, to professional. This is something I have learned from many of the national and FIFA referees that I know. It typically helps the game calm down a bit and sets a standard. Now, in HS I will avoid this if at all possible unless it is a solid yellow card where this is no way to avoid it. I don't want to give a message by sending caution in the 12th minute that is going to cause a team to be without a good or great player for 28 minutes. Instead I will try talking and hope things don't escalate.

I think HS will see the desired effect of fewer cautions...but not because there are fewer cautionable offenses but rather because referees will be much more hesitant to caution a player knowing that it is now a huge penalty to a team...which is not what a yellow card is supposed to be.

I think in general HS rules are terrible and often make little sense, but this is the worst idea yet...until the 3 whistle system shows up in which case I will no longer complain about HS because I won't be involved...

[Ref Flunkie]

I will start with the positive...getting rid of the soft red is a good move. It is the first time I have ever seen high school do anything that actually brings it more in line with real soccer.

However, the yellow card rule is absurd...another step in the wrong direction. Cautions are a part of the match...they are a tool for referees to use to warn a player that they are going a little too far with their actions and that they need to be careful the rest of the match. Now, a caution can be a severe punishment for a team. I think this will have a negative effect on a referee's ability to manage a match. We all talk about getting something for our cautions...I think this limits how we can do that. For example, I often like to try to find an early caution in a match if I feel it could get heated...I use this style in every level from youth, to HS, to college, to adult, to professional. This is something I have learned from many of the national and FIFA referees that I know. It typically helps the game calm down a bit and sets a standard. Now, in HS I will avoid this if at all possible unless it is a solid yellow card where this is no way to avoid it. I don't want to give a message by sending caution in the 12th minute that is going to cause a team to be without a good or great player for 28 minutes. Instead I will try talking and hope things don't escalate.

I think HS will see the desired effect of fewer cautions...but not because there are fewer cautionable offenses but rather because referees will be much more hesitant to caution a player knowing that it is now a huge penalty to a team...which is not what a yellow card is supposed to be.

I think in general HS rules are terrible and often make little sense, but this is the worst idea yet...until the 3 whistle system shows up in which case I will no longer complain about HS because I won't be involved...



Actually I have heard from referees who do HS matches around here that the 15 min send off because of a caution seems to get them more respect and less crap from the players. I wouldn't be more hesitant to give a caution if I knew the player would be off for X amount of time...it isn't my fault they are getting the caution, and I could care less who wins the match.

[HoldenMan]

Ihave to ask - why is high school soccer so different to regular soccer?

[romagol10]

As a former Iowa high school player I have to say the removal of the soft red substitution rule is very good. Teams should be penalized when a player recieves a red.

Sitting out a half for a yellow card is ridiculous, I always thought being forced to sub out for a yellow was ridiculous. America needs to realize being booked is not such a huge deal, it doesn't mean the player is out of control and needs to sit out. The officiating in many games is a complete joke to begin with, now that the refs decisions have more effect on the game it's only going to get worse. I forsee several coaches recieving yellow cards if not red ones for arguments with the refs that will arise after their players need to sit out a half after being wrongly yellow carded.

If they're going to change anything make the games 90 minutes long, there really isn't a reason to have high school varsity teams playing 80 minute games.

[romagol10]

Ihave to ask - why is high school soccer so different to regular soccer?
The people running the show don't really know jack about soccer. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think they have some ridiculous rules regarding red cards, such as multiple game bans and bans from playing in future seasons if too many are accumulated in a year. They act as if being red carded and removed from a soccer match is the same as being removed from a basketball game for 2 technical fouls or being kicked out of an American football game or baseball game.

[BentwoodBlue]

The people running the show don't really know jack about soccer. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think they have some ridiculous rules regarding red cards, such as multiple game bans and bans from playing in future seasons if too many are accumulated in a year.

Bans and such are decided by state associations. Here, yhey are dependent on the type of red card. VC gets you three, SFP gets you 1, and so on. Accumulation is something they are going to look into. I do know of one player that got carded for fighting in his last match of his senior year, exactly for that reason. State association banned him for the last 2 sports seasons.

They act as if being red carded and removed from a soccer match is the same as being removed from a basketball game for 2 technical fouls or being kicked out of an American football game or baseball game.

I'm not touching this.

[romagol10]

I'm not touching this.
Are you disagreeing? A keeper recieving a red card for missing the ball and bringing down a player in front of goal is completely different from a pitcher being tossed from a baseball game for throwing at batters heads. Sure in some situations red cards are comparable to being tossed in other sports but more often than not they aren't.

[GreatZar]

The idiots running this state (Colorado) are ignoring yellow card accumulation. I refuse to ref HS and upgraded to 7 without it.

I love the argument that entailed regarding USSF vs NFHS rules about a goal from a goal kick. Player on team A takes goal kick while player on team B is in the 18 and plays the goal kick to opposing team outside the 18. The ball is passed to the player that never left the 18 who then scores. Is this a goal in USSF or NFHS?

What about a throw-in that never comes into play on the first bounce. Is the throw retaken or given to the opposing team (USSF vs NFHS)?

Telling the scorekeeper at midfield to stop the clock because it's counting down and not on your wrist (HS).

I could go on and on. Freakin' idiots have made up a different game with the garbage rule changes. Soft red is just one of many things that ruin the beautiful game.

[Ref Flunkie]

I love the argument that entailed regarding USSF vs NFHS rules about a goal from a goal kick. Player on team A takes goal kick while player on team B is in the 18 and plays the goal kick to opposing team outside the 18. The ball is passed to the player that never left the 18 who then scores. Is this a goal in USSF or NFHS?

What about a throw-in that never comes into play on the first bounce. Is the throw retaken or given to the opposing team (USSF vs NFHS)?

Telling the scorekeeper at midfield to stop the clock because it's counting down and not on your wrist (HS).


Is this a pop quiz??

#1=Goal (I don't know if there is a difference or not, but that is my USSF guess)
#2=rethrow in USSF and turnover in NFHS. I actually like that it turns over in NFHS, it's a pet peeve of mine when people (older, not young kids) cant throw the ball onto the field.
#3=So? I take it you just don't like the fact that the time is kept on the scoreboard and not by you exclusively?

[tmaker]

HoldenMan being an Ozlander is fortunately not privy to the absurd state of American sports. The condensed version is this:

With the exception of baseball, every major American sport has come into prominence through American colleges. Basketball and gridiron football are the obvious. This goes a long way in understanding certain unspoken notions of sport in the US.

1) "My team is red hot, your team ain't diddly squat" is meaningless when matches are allowed to end in a draw.

2) Colleges think they are the hotbed of American sport, and indeed sport in the entire world.

3) The reason to finish high school, if you're an athlete, is to go on to a college sports scholarship; therefore high school athletics are a place
a) to socialize students into school notions of "team play";
b) for budding young stars to rise through the ranks in preparation for their professional careers.

High schools (NFHS) are thus preparation not for real sport, but for the college version of it. And if you believe the NCAA (college board), they are the only ones who understand the real version of every sport under their aegis. And every sport in NCAA should resemble gridiron football as closely as possible, since that's NCAA's cash cow.

This is why a Nationally ranked USSF referee is deemed to be "unqualified" to referee a collegiate match, until NCAA has put him or her through their own series of tests, and forced the referee to buy 8 new uniforms, usable only in NCAA games. (Don't laugh: I have seen this with my own eyes.)

This is why the clock counts down in NCAA soccer, and there are "official time outs". (Remember it wasn't until 1972 that NCAA soccer switched to two halves of 45 minutes, rather than FOUR QUARTERS of 22 minutes.)

This is why colleges and high schools allow for unlimited substitutions of players--or virtually so, in the case of NCAA, where a player may only be substituted once per half.

This is why high schools have red cards for "taunting"--because after all, athletes still need to be good little boys and girls, and high school is the last chance to show mommy and daddy that school still teaches their kids some manners. The fact that it is a "soft red", meaning that you haven't *really* been punished, tells you something about the ambivalence Americans have toward manners, citizenship and sporting behaviour.

This is why high school rules say that a player has been "disqualified" rather than "ejected" from a game. We wouldn't want to hurt the poor kid's feelings by telling her they she's been kicked out of a game for putting her cleats forcibly into another girl's stomach with no attempt to play the ball that is ten yards away by now.

This is why high school soccer has a "rule book" rather than "Laws of the Game," and why this rule book is written in Articles sections in which each aspect of the "Rule" is analyzed with examples of legality, rather than simple explanations of the Laws. And why in high school soccer, Law 18: "Common Sense" is replaced with "Rule 18": "Definitions."

I could go on, but you probably get the point by now.

Americans want everything to look like the crap sports they already know. Soccer is viewed as something foreign, and therefore in need of modification before it is suitable for our youth to play. Unbowdlerized soccer will never exist in the US.

Ditching the soft red is a great idea, except that it's simply coverage for an idea that's already bogus. And the idea of mandatory substitution for a caution (which, just this year, finally, Washington State abolished from its youth soccer) sucks pipe, too. While practically, it may give a coach time to cool down his player, it is completely out of line with the premise of High School rules, which are to teach the player sportsmanship and civic discipline (this is from the NFHS mission statement). To my mind, it does NOT teach good citizenship or sporting behaviour to tell a player

a) his actions have no real consequences in the game (i.e. "soft red");
b) that it is up to authority figures to discipline his behaviour, rather than up to himself.

In my mind, if you are dumb enough to get a yellow card for your own actions, you'd better be smart enough to *NOT* get the second yellow card for your own succeeding actions. Telling a player he *must* go talk to an authority figure (i.e. the coach) and calm down is positively parental, and as a referee, that does not fit my job description. It is learning that you are already in trouble that should make you stay out of trouble. This goal is, I think, better self-imposed without interference or cajoling--otherwise, what is the point of the citizenship lesson?

High school rules are a blight, but I have to live with them, because I live here, and that's the breaks. The only one I like is the throw-in rule, because I happen to believe that it doesn't take more than one chance to hit a minimum of 5,000 square feet of pitch. But I won't sacrifice the other 16 laws for that one change.

[tmaker]

The idiots running this state (Colorado) are ignoring yellow card accumulation. I refuse to ref HS and upgraded to 7 without it.

I love the argument that entailed regarding USSF vs NFHS rules about a goal from a goal kick. Player on team A takes goal kick while player on team B is in the 18 and plays the goal kick to opposing team outside the 18. The ball is passed to the player that never left the 18 who then scores. Is this a goal in USSF or NFHS?

What about a throw-in that never comes into play on the first bounce. Is the throw retaken or given to the opposing team (USSF vs NFHS)?

Telling the scorekeeper at midfield to stop the clock because it's counting down and not on your wrist (HS).

I could go on and on. Freakin' idiots have made up a different game with the garbage rule changes. Soft red is just one of many things that ruin the beautiful game.

Washington State are now assiduously tallying card accumulations. Finally. All cautions and "disqualifications" are to be reported online, cautions within 48 hours, "disqualifications" before the next morning. Apparently, they've finally discovered computers.

The quiz answers are:

#1 No goal--the ball hasn't left the penalty area before being played, and is therefore not in play (FIFA and NFHS).

#2 Turnover in NFHS, re-take in FIFA

#3 Sad, but standard in NFHS. The referee is not the official timekeeper of the match, and there is no added time, period. If a ball is shot on goal, and does not cross all the way over all of the line before the horn sounds--no goal, bucko. Tough luck.

[Ref Flunkie]

#1 No goal--the ball hasn't left the penalty area before being played, and is therefore not in play (FIFA and NFHS).


Actually I think in his question he said it did leave the PA, but it was a bit unclear from how it was typed.