During the football season, Kevin Angell, director of the Bainbridge-Decatur County YMCA lives a busy life totally engrossed in football as he spends all weekends officiating at football games in the CFO (college football online), GSC (Gulf South College), and NCAA leagues.

On Tuesday he spoke to Rotary about some of his experiences. He has officiated at high school football games for 20 years. In 2001 he became a referee for varsity, college and semi-pro games.

He talked about the training and how difficult it is to work your way up to the big leagues. Even once you are there, you are constantly being tested and evaluated.

He showed videos that illustrated how some of the calls are made, and even proposed a few word problems where he asked the audience to give the right call. Angell said he must frequently answer 100 of the word problems, and score a 95.

He also addressed the college rulings on targeting, showing some videos of situations that illustrated targeting and also the definition of a defenseless player.

Each official is positioned to watch a certain player, and they communicate with each other by radio.

Describing a typical afternoon game, he said he will be in Carrollton by 7 p.m. Friday night to get ready for the University of West Georgia vs. Valdosta State game on Saturday, because at 7 a.m. Saturday the officials gather to watch the game films of the playing teams. They are also given a playbook and rulebook to study. At 10:30 a.m. they are ready to go.

The game balls (six for each team) are delivered to the locker room where their air pressure is checked. Angell said he either pumps them up or lets out air to reach his target of 12.5 lbs. Each ball is then dated and initialed before being locked up.

The teams do not use game balls for practice.

The officials are on the field at 1 p.m. where they meet with the television crew.

The players take the field at exactly 2:02 p.m. and the kick off is at 2:04, no later.

Beyond that, he said there is an evaluator in the stands at all games who analyzes every call made. They keep a rating sheet on every call, including comments. There again, the officials must rank high to stay employed. “We do not have the luxury of instant replay at our level of games,” he explained.

All of this has definitely affected his watching of a football game as a spectator, as he  calls out the fouls he sees. When his wife asks him how he sees them, he answers, “I don’t watch the game. I watch the ball.”