Stars and Stripes Academy

The Nation's Premier Training Forum for College Officials

Gentlemen,

Thank you so much for your interest in SASA and the ongoing dialog relative to the upcoming Academy.  Some of you have committed to attend as non-field officials and others remain undecided.

I wanted to make you aware of an opportunity that has been on my radar for some time but was recently confirmed.  The Rocky Mountain Football League (RMFL) has asked me about providing officials for their championship weekend on June 27th at Weber State University (FCS - Big Sky Conference) in Ogden, Utah.  This is the same league for which SASA officials work games in May.  There will likely be three games, and possibly a fourth, at the end of the RMFL season.  The games will be the championships of the various RMFL divisions, as well as an all-star game.

I've been toying with the idea of putting together a smaller, more intimate version of SASA, built around this weekend.  We'll put together 3 or 4 crews of officials and have an intense day of classroom training (Friday) followed by on-field work on Saturday, then half a day of analysis on Sunday.  We'll use some of our current SASA staff to fill similar roles as crew mentors and position trainers.  College supervisors will also be invited.

 
We will not focus on the competitive aspects of SASA (position and crew rankings, test, video grading, etc.) or the months of training leading up to the event.  We will also not have non-field officials since we won't have sufficient staff to focus on as many students as we do at SASA.  The idea is that this would be a forum for those who attended SASA as a non-field official to apply what they have learned in an on-field setting.  Accordingly, I'll be initially offering these positions to registered and confirmed non-field attendees of the 2015 SASA.  We will take sign-ups on a first come, first served basis and will not be doing background work to determine the qualifications of applicants, as we do at SASA.  Financially my goal will be to just cover costs, so the registration fee will likely be in the neighborhood of $600 - $700.

So as of right now I'm taking sign-ups for this event from anyone currently registered and confirmed as a non-field official at SASA 2015.  Beginning March 1st I will fill any remaining positions with anyone else who is interested.

Please email the Academy Producer, Chase at [email protected] directly if this is something you'd like to do.

Best regards,

Karl Richins

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