Harold Mann Visits With Chad Cooper Of The Texas Association Of Sports Officals

• Harold Mann and Chad Cooper with The Beaumont Chapter of the Texas Association of Sports Officials talk about recent rule changes and the need for more officials in Southeast Texas.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
And starting off on this week's accessprogram, high school football is back beginning
this coming week. We are joinedby Chad Cooper, who's with The Examiner
also the president of the Southeast Texaschapter of the THASO. First off,
Chad, welcome aboard. Thank you, Harold. It's about that time.
Football season's a mirror days away,it isn't. Let's talk real quick.

(00:23):
We'll go over some of the ruleshere in just a couple of minutes,
but first off, I want totalk to you about the extreme heat.
Yeah, we've been experiencing as anofficial, what do you look for if
you might see a player struggling?Yeah, you know, several years ago,
you know, we were we weretaught to look for players that could
have some sort of concussion type issues. And so we've been not trained like

(00:50):
athletic trainers, but to see signsof staggering dizziness when it comes to concussion,
especially after a real hard hit.But kind of the same is true
with he We've been through multiple scrimmagesnow, uh, those scrimmages start around
five or five thirty, and we'veseen a lot of kids go down.
We've seen a lot of vomiting,we've seen a lot of just multiple cramps.

(01:12):
So it's it's pretty easy to spota kid who is having some trouble
because we're talking to these players throughoutthe game. You know, hey,
you can't do this. Hey canyou tell this kid not to do this?
Uh? Do you want to acceptthe penalty? To decline the penalty?
When you look into their eyes andyou start seeing them struggle, they
can't really talk, they start staggeringa little bit, they go to a

(01:34):
knee, we don't take it.We don't take anything likely, and we
immediately stop the clock and bring bringtheir respected athletic trainer out to the field
to get them some help. Kindof what coat tails on one. Next
question, is there a point whereyou'll see a young man out there and
say, hey, coach, oh, yeah, you need to take a
look at this player. Absolutely.You know it used to not be that

(01:57):
situation for the officials. We onlyhaveiated the game. We were not going
to police uniforms and we were notgoing to police health. But you know,
as the sport became faster, evenat the high school level, and
more violent, these kids, youknow, sometimes running to each other like
runaway runaway trains and there's a lotof crashing involved in helmet to helmets,

(02:20):
hence why we got targeting. Butwe see those signs and if somebody,
if somebody gets hit really hard andwe help him up or a player helps
him up, we know to seethe early signs that this kid may you
know, may have some cobwebs,stop it. Worst case scenario, he's
walked off the field. We don'twant him participating in another play. Talking

(02:42):
with Chad Cooperer, of course weall know Chad from the Examiner, but
Chad a long time football official herein Southeast Texas, the Southeast Texas chapter
of TASSO White Cap. Yeah,yeah, is there a little more pressure
there for there is, because thereis. You're the spokesperson on the crew.
Yeah. We we have a whitehat meeting, crew chief meeting every

(03:05):
Monday after our general rules meeting duringthe season, and you're the face of
the crew. If the Empire hasa bad call, or the line judge
or headlinesman or back judge, oneof your other officials makes a bad call,
you know, people don't remember it'sthat line judge. They remember all
the Cooper crew got us there theother one that really got us. But
yeah, you know, I joinedright out of high school eighteen years old.

(03:28):
This is my thirtieth year officiating highschool football. This is probably my
sixteenth as a as a white hat. So yeah, it's a little it's
a little pressure. Talk about theneed for officials. Oh man, uh
you know, years and years ago, Harold, when I joined what was
then called the SFOA, the SouthwestFootball Officials of America, that's what this

(03:53):
was called back in nineteen ninety three, and the the quote unquote Beaumont chapter
had close to two hficials. Iremember joining the chapter in my first year,
getting one or two JV games andgoing, oh man, you know,
I want to do one. Iwant to all the chains. I
want to run the clock. Andover the years, not just football,
but every sport involved. You talkabout soccer, baseball, basketball, volleyball.

(04:17):
I hear even water polo that that'sdone in certain areas of the state.
With the UIL, there is amassive shortage for high school officials and
the need is greater than ever rightnow for football officials, and we try
to do everything we can, fromgetting the PA announcers at home stadiums to

(04:39):
read a PSA asking you know ifyou're interested from Facebook posts, doing things
like this with you Harold with iHeartMedia, putting things in the newspaper, recruiting
officials. If you like football,you want the best seat in the house,
you want to make extra money.Look, you hear a lot of

(05:00):
things. Oh, the coaches aregriping at the officials. That's kind of
overplayed a little bit. That's somethingcomes with it. You know, you'll
get used to that, but youhave the best see it on the field.
Even if you wanted to hold thechains or run the clock. That's
seventy five bucks just for doing that. We'll train you, we'll get you
started. You can come right in, we'll get you a uniform, and
you can go to work in junior, high, jav and even varsity games

(05:21):
your first year. That pretty muchone. Next question for you, how
do you become an official? Yeah, there's a couple of different ways.
The easiest way is just go toTASSO dot org. That's the Texas Association
of Sports Officials TASO dot org.There's a couple of things you click on
Member Services, uh, then membershipRenewal. You can click on that and

(05:42):
register and boxes will come down.You'll go through a process and you'll click
on the Southeast Texas chapter as yourhome chapter, or can you can just
text me four h nine three sixthree twenty nine thirty and I'll get you
set up. You know, ofcourse, you got to work your way
up ladder. Or for sure,if I become an official next week,
I'm not going to do many madness. Well that's true, but Harold,
you've been around the game a longtime, so you know the rules.

(06:04):
But yeah, that's interesting because weget a lot of former coaches that are
no longer coaches that have time toofficiate, uh, former dads who have
been coaches of their sons and watchthem go through high school and even college
football and they say, hey,I want to officiate football. They get
out there and they think they knoweverything until the quarterback takes that first snap

(06:27):
and you're just kind of like asitting duck. You know. It's it
can be a little intimidating, butwe get you. We get you good
and ready, but yeah, we'renot going to stick you out there with
with P ANDNG and Needland on yourfirst leek talking with Chad Cooper and again
looking for some officials here in acouple minutes, we'll talk about some new
rules we're looking at, and they'repretty much mirror insidable labor. There are

(06:47):
a couple of adjustments that UL makes. Let's talk about Chad Cooper calling football
games. Yeah, there has beena time he went, oops, I
miss that one. Oh yeah,yeah, you know that's That's one thing
you learn over the years is Haroldis accountability. And the first thing that
you know we teach as officials andtasso in any organization, not just football

(07:10):
but basketball and others, is holdyourself accountable when you when you get a
crew and I don't know every rulein this rule book. I know a
lot of them. I know themajority of them. But there's guys that
are on my crew that know allthe passing rules, all the running rules,
all the kicking rules. So yourely on stuff like that. But
there have been times I raise myhand that I have blown a call.

(07:33):
There have been times in nature itis and the first thing you do as
an official is don't lie about it. You go over there and tell the
coach, hey, I blew thatif it was in the first half.
You go in the locker room,you look up. You know everybody looks
up in the rule book or ifit's after the game, and if you
miss it, you miss it.And coaches will respect that so much more

(07:56):
if you tell them, coach Igot that wrong, then say, oh
no, coach, I got itright. Didn't to come to find out
it's wrong. It's not in therule book. So yeah, absolutely,
of course, family show here,keepa kind of clean. What's the funniest
thing a coach has ever said you? Oh, well, you know I
got to officiate during the Dan Hooksera. You know, Cordell Thompson.
There's been some really really good things, as as many as the people that

(08:20):
do know me. I went toLCOM. I graduated in ninety three,
and I'm not gonna aid you,but I think one of my my senior
year in high school or junior yearin high school, we came running out
of the locker room to play PNGto warm up, and there's a broadcaster
sitting there waiting to broadcast it.And it's Harold Man with black hair,
with black hair, and as youcan see, all the grade that's in

(08:41):
my back world. Yeah, soDan Hooks had some had some funny lines.
Of course, Uh, Cooper RayCharles could have made that call.
That was a pretty funny one.But there was. I was back judging
one day on a crew and itwas when West Orange had moved down.
This was and they just had oneA to five A and West Orange was

(09:01):
five A and they moved down toor they be four they moved down to
three A. And they were playingAnawak in a district game, and Hooks
was there, and we were inAnnawak and I missed a call and he
said, Cooper, your your headlinesmanover here is the best one on this
crew. He has carried you andthis crew longer than your mother did when
she was pregnant with you. Sothat was a pretty good one too.

(09:24):
So there's always some funny stuff thatcoach is making. You just have to
laugh with him and we laugh.Well, we got about ten hours.
We could tell some dan our Hooks. Yeah we could. All right,
let's talk about some rule changes thisyear. Yeah, you know, Harold,
there's not a whole lot every twoyears the NC Double A rules every
year they get together, but everytwo years, and I'd like to compare

(09:46):
it to the the realignment. Sonext year, when high school realigns,
the NC Double A will have abig set of rule changes this year.
It's in the off season. Wedon't have a lot of rule changes.
We have a few looking at someof these, you know, and I'll
talk about some NC Double A andhigh school. Of course, they've added

(10:07):
some stuff to the drone policy forthe NC Double A. Of course,
you can't have drones at all inhigh school. They've done some stuff in
NC Double A with the halftime intermissionbecause I think it's shorter. Kickers can
come out earlier now for NC DoubleA. But here's one that affects both
college and high school. The extensionof periods. So when you have a

(10:28):
play at the end of the firstquarter or at the end of the third
quarter and there's zero time left onthe clock and you have a penalty,
the old rule was we're going todo one untimed down. We're not going
to do that anymore, not onFridays and not on Saturdays. The only
time you're going to do an untimeddown is in the at the end of
the second quarter, going in beforehalftime, or at the end of the

(10:50):
fourth quarter if it means something inthe game. Okay, So we're not
going to extend at a period inthe first quarter. So if the the
zero zero zero into the first quarterends in a penalty, you just carry
that over to the second quarter.We're we're going to mark the ball on
the other end, mark it off, and then start the second quarter.
Okay again, those are some ofthe rule changes. Visiting with Chad Cooper.

(11:13):
Yeah, as always, Chad,thank you for stopping by. Let's
talk about your bread and butter,The Examiner. Yeah, coming out this
week is tell us about your footballguide. And I'm not saying this because
you're sitting to my right budgets.It's it's it's the best one that you're
gonna see. Man. I appreciateit. I put a lot of effort
into it. I know. Twentyone years ago when I started at The

(11:33):
Examiner, I told my boss Isaid, hey, I think you're missing
something here. And he says,what's that? And he said, we
need to cover We need a highschool football magazine that covers it. And
he gets, oh, okay,and I said, I think you could
probably make a lot of money withit too. Stand up and it Dad.
He goes, well, I don'tknow a whole lot about sports,
but I know a whole lot aboutmaking money exactly. So here we are

(11:58):
twenty one years later. This thingis now seventy two pages. I do
believe it's expanded, full color.Every team players to watch, schedules,
Experts like yourself has given their predictionsfor district championships. Look at the bottom
of the list and you'll see myname. No, it's it's It's always

(12:20):
a tough deal, especially when you'retrying to predict what kids are going to
do on a Thursday and Friday night. Full color, uh, just cover
to cover all things high school football. We did great photo shoots and the
great thing about it iss iHeartMedia hasbeen a fantastic partner since day one,
and this thing has gone from newspaperprint now to a high end glossy magazine

(12:46):
which is going to be available thisweek for free at every market Basket location.
Correct and award winning, award winning. We've won several first place awards
from the National Newspaper Association with thismagazine, and also the Press Club Southeast
Texas several first place awards with it. Chad, thank you for stopping by,

(13:09):
I mean you caught us up ona lot of good information. Hopefully
we get some more officials out thereand looking forward to the twenty twenty three
football season. Of course, yourguide coming out this week, check out
your local market basket stores and asalways, thank you for what you do,
because I mean you're helping our youthin the community. Absolutely, Harold.
It's an honor and a pleasure,and it's fun to get out there
and think you're young again and runningwith these players.