Best Practices for Self-Officiating in High School Sports

Throughout her tennis career, which includes winning the past two Minnesota State High School League’s Class A individual state championships, Minnehaha Academy’s Chloe Alley has a three-strike policy when it comes to her opponents.

Strikes in a tennis match?

Call them chances, Alley says, to be honest, show integrity and the opportunity to show sportsmanship during the heat of competition. Tennis is among a handful of high school activities that require self-officiating to ensure the match is played fairly and with integrity.

“I’ve always just concentrated on what I can control,” said Alley, a senior at the Minneapolis-based private school. “That means my level of play and doing my part to make sure the game is called fairly. When there is a string of calls by your opponent that are fair and honest, that is really nice to know you are playing against a person with a high level of character.”

And if there are close calls that draw debate like a ball hitting the net on a serve or grazing the sideline or end line?

“In general, I think people are trying to be honest,” Alley said. “But if you are playing someone that is not completely honest, it is usually apparent when they consistently act dishonestly. I will show grace twice, but if it happens a third time, I will get a roaming linesman or a coach to assist.

“I’ve also discovered that at the state tournament level, integrity isn’t an issue. But in the heat of the moment, even an honest person can get frustrated. If you choose to play tennis, or any sport, it is important to have integrity. It just leads to a better experience.”

Golf, Badminton and Ultimate Frisbee are some other high school activities that are self-officiated.

In looking deeper into self-officiating, High School Today reached out to three coaches to discover what they are doing to help guide students through best practices for self-officiating. Their responses ranged from mastering the rules to being communicative and to implementing core philosophies of integrity, honesty and sportsmanship.

The trio included Dr. Monique Paris Anderson, head girls tennis coach at Freedom High School in Oakley, California; longtime tennis coach and administrator Hal Miller, a MSHSL Hall of Fame inductee; and Denny Goettel, veteran golf coach at Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Washington High School.

What are the keys to teaching self-officiating in high school athletics?

Anderson: “For tennis, there are a lot of rules and scorekeeping that can be a little complex. You must create opportunities for students to learn the rules and apply them prior to the first contact. Some of what goes on instructionally at practice is subjective and dependent on what level of players you are starting the season with. . . . Some things that are non-negotiable for the program are that players understand they are representing themselves, me, their teammates, school community, etc., and when in doubt if a ball was in or out, tennis etiquette is to give the point to your opponent.”

Goettel: There is simply no substitute for honesty. Golf is a game of integrity and being honest is mandatory to integrity. If you are not honest in golf or in life, it will eventually come back to bite you.

There are many ways to cheat in golf. People always think first that cheating occurs in scorekeeping by not reporting their correct score on a hole. Since scores are to be reported hole-by-hole, each score reported at the end of each hole must be correct. Anyone who tries to go back and change a score on a hole several holes later or at the end of a round has not been doing the correct reporting and recording after each hole.

Besides scoring, there are many other ways to cheat that must be monitored. If your ball moves when you address it, it must be reported and counted. Many do not report this to the people they are playing with. Bad lies can be subtly improved without reporting. That is cheating.

Someone may not be able to find their ball or may not like where it ended up and mysteriously replace that ball with another in a better location without reporting. Some people mark their ball on the green in front of the ball and then put the ball down in front of their mark, shortening the distance. Some may try to tee off in front of the tee markers. The spot where a ball enters a penalty area is often improved from where the ball entered.

Many times, these types of things are done incorrectly out of ignorance rather than by ulterior motive, but each demonstrates that we don’t have referees in golf or rules officials are seldom where these things occur. The other players in the group must be the officials and help to prevent rules-breaking occurrences. Often, fellow players are afraid to call out mistakes or intentional rules violations.

Miller: For me and in the sports I coached, I had expectations or foundation blocks that I shared, mentored and taught through the season and throughout the program. The players accepted these expectations and really understood just how important they were to our success.

Where did these expectations come from? I would say from my upbringing as a youngster on the ball fields, playgrounds, gymnasiums, and they were from my coaches and teachers as a youth, high school athlete and continued as I entered college athletics and beyond through my early years of teaching and coaching.

These mentors expected us to play the game the right way, become involved with the game in depth, they constantly talked about players who did play the game the right way. They emphasized hard work but only accept what you earned. They expected us to respect the rules of the game and for certain demonstrate sportsmanship and respect for our opponents.

Once the expectations were shared throughout the program, they became the cornerstones; and as I think back to 46 seasons of coaching, I firmly believe the vast majority of coaches felt the same way about the expectations their teams followed.

In the absence of an official, what strategies do you share with your participants that keep an event fair and respectful?

Anderson: Reminding players of etiquette during line up is a common practice for tennis. If you are unsure of your opponent’s call and they call your shot out, you ask “Are you sure?” and if it becomes thematic or they continue to have questionable calls, then they can call for a line judge.

Some athletes do not like confrontation and need to be taught to be more assertive with their calls and self-advocacy. I do see this more with my female athletes, so we discuss the need to self-advocate and talk about the difference between being assertive vs. aggressive.

Key tennis etiquette includes shaking hands before and after the match, server says the score out loud before their first serve every point, handing the balls to your opponent by placing them on the racquet during changeover, and when in doubt the point goes to your opponent.

Goettel: I stress to my players that they must watch every action and shot by all players in their group, whether they have that player’s scorecard or not. They must be the policeman in calling out mistakes. They should help with rulings by offering educated opinions on what is going on. If there is uncertainty about a rule, they should encourage the player to play two balls and inquire to a rules’ official about which procedure was correct.

The first time a player has doubt about the honesty of a player, I encourage them to say, “Are you sure?” in a polite way. If the opponent says they are sure and our player is also sure of something different, then enter a conversation recalling all the strokes on that hole or addressing the other sorts of violations mentioned above. Use others in the group to help settle the difference.

Miller: This became part of my discussion at our prematch meetings at each and every one of my MSHSL state tennis tournaments, along with my challenge and expectation that as a player your job is to represent your school and community with outstanding sportsmanship. I firmly believe if you set up an expectation or a challenge, our athletes will respond as they know there are consequences in the form of on-court officials.

At what point do you get involved in resolving conflicts?

Anderson: My players know if their opponent is doing things in the match that are questionable to stop the match and call over a coach. When players have disagreements over the score, the common practice is to come to the net and retell the points. Players start from the last mutually agreed point; if they are not getting along, I often step in here and guide the conversation.

I also support line judge requests. When in doubt we pull out the rules book, come to the net, and make sure both coaches are there. Some tournaments do have a USTA official, but they often roam the courts and are called over to contentious matches; it is not like the pros or college where they sit in the chair.

Goettel: I tell my players that I never want to hear something like “the guy I was playing with was shaving strokes all day.” The first thing I say to my player is that that was your fault for not getting it stopped. That stroke or strokes that you let him shave may have caused us to lose to them. It is your job to be each other’s official since no one else is out there doing that.

Miller: Your role needs to reflect more of a calming effect on the match, and I always preface to the players that we all have at times made a mistake calling lines and it’s OK to change a call if you’re not 100 percent sure you made the correct call. If I overrule a call, it was a mistake and not that any player was cheating, simply a corrected mistake. If the situation is clearly bothering one of the players, I would bring them together to discuss their differences and find a solution agreeable to both players. It is sometimes easier in my role as a site manager than to bring in an official.

Tim Leighton has been communications coordinator for the Minnesota State High School League since 2015 after more than 30 years as a sportswriter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota. He is a member of the High School Today Publications Committee. He can be reached at tleighton@mshsl.org.