V.S.O.A Annual Meeting

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Whitcomb High School

MINUTES

 

     The meeting began promptly at 9am called to order by President Jessica Christian.  Board members present – Tom Cook, Marty Adams, Terry Harlow, Eric Evans, and Joe Gonillo.  Jessica thanked Eric and Terry for their work this year as they will be leaving the board.

 

Thanks to vendor, Caleb Magoon of Power Play Sports, and Tom for supplying uniform, sweats, and gear choices.

 

Marty Adams presented rule interpretations – nothing drastic – with focus on offsides clarification, anchored goals, heat index/water break, thunder and lightning stoppage, head injuries, points of emphasis from our book, a video of rule changes on nhfs.org, and the return of his helpful emails during the season.  Feel free to email him and your assignors with any questions you may have during the season.

 

Three mini clinics followed.  Presenters had the opportunity to address our entire group for about 30 minutes in total. Steve Lunna explained game preparation – pre-game, prep and practice, and the importance of self-evals.  Craig Iverson discussed assessment – game control, player management, mandatory cautions and disqualification among other topics.  Pat Whalen covered handling and when to call a legitimate hand ball (for example, a deliberate play on the ball and hand in unnatural position).  Also discussed that it’s helpful to be on the same page as your partner and the guts to make to make the correct call.  All information was concise and well received.  Comments I heard during break and after the meeting validated this setup.  Feel free to email me opinions if different.

 

After the break our president spoke.  Congratulations to Jessica on being the VSOA’s first female president and for a job very well done.  If you have not read her President’s Message, please do so.

 

Out-going Secretary/Treasurer Terry Harlow gave his reports via email to the group.  They were informative and complete.  His practice of emailing them to membership will continue. 

 

Bruce Schmidt presented scholarships to Shania Lunna and Tori Svec in the amount of $500 each.

 

Bill Duval, always making his presence felt – helped with the directory – stated we were in good shape with game fees and proposed we remain at $75 for fee and dues.  Motion passed.

 

Training for officials, new and veteran for 2 and 3-person systems, are in place in various areas around the state (8/27 and 8/31).  Assignors Frank Martell and Gary Blodgett identified areas of importance, such as, working out for fitness tests, availability and contacting your partner the night before, always important game management, players flopping, and carding coaches when necessary. 

                   An incoming clinic will be held Friday, August 26 at Peoples Academy from 1-7pm.

                   An assessment clinic is scheduled for Colchester HS on Wednesday, August 31 

                   4:00.

 

 

Probationary members were accepted as were the officials who requested active status – Mike Brown and Perry Smith, and inactive status – David Blythe, Phyllis Colby, Bob Fletcher, Dianne Gingue, Kevin Paskiet, Steve Peck, Pete Roach, and Morgan Nichols.

Roland Laroache moved to Texas

Mentors and mentees were recognized.  Mentors dues are reduced to $25 for their work.

Rich Ogilive, Ron Svec, Steve Peck, and Carl Ross received 10 year awards.

Don Culver and Art Thompson earned recognition for their remarkable 50 years as soccer officials.  Thanks to Dave Zehnacker and Spencer Noble for providing inside information on both careers.  Amazing!

Congratulations to Bob Richardson and Pat Whalen on being named the Dick Stewart Award recipients.

The following 2015 Semi Final and State Final officials were recognized:

FINALS:  

D I Boys

Steve Lunna Center; Parke Fitzgerald, John Upham AR's

D2 Boys

Tom Cook Center; Matt Fitzgerald, Brian Barney AR's

D3 Boys

Gunther Sihler Center; Steve Peck, Brian Hurlbert  AR's

D4 Boys

Patrick Whalen Center; John Witalec, Marty Adams AR's

D1 Girls

Elvir Jandric Center; Jamie Falco, Rich Ogilive AR's

D2 Girls

Roger Ranz Center; Ron Larose, Jessica Christian AR's

D3 Girls

Ryan Gates Center; Dennis Fillion, Roland Billings AR's

D4 Girls

Kyle Wilson Center; Eric Evans, Chris Buckley AR's

 

SEMIS:

Jessica Christian, Rick Desorda, John Woodruff, Gregg Hartmann, Dave Barra, Bill Duval, Joe Gonillo, Scott West, Stu Maynard, Marvin Pritchard, Mike Clark, Miles Etter, Jim Mashia, Ron Larose, Roland Noel, Scott Dillon, Elvir Jandric, Sefik Gosto, Bill Edwards.

Bud Laudenslager, Randy Dewey, Jeff Reed, Mark Paquette, Jamie Falco, Patrick Whalen, Bruce Schmidt, John Witalec, Chris Buckley, Tom Cook, Randal Adams, John Pedone, Kirk Abrahamson, George Cook, Steve Biongy, Rich Ogilive, Kyle Wilson, Bob Bayer

Our Twin State officials this summer were Pat Whalen, Center, Kirk Abrahamson and Bruce Schmidt AR's on the girls' game. Bob Richardson, Center, Aaron Hawley and Mike Clark, ARs, on the boys' game.

Election of Officers saw Marty Adams remain as rules interpreter.  Dave Barra was voted in as Vice President.  Joe Gonillo takes over for Terry Harlow as Secretary/Treasurer, Tom Cook is now our President with Jessica Christian in the Past President role taking Eric Evans' place.

 

Terry Boone mentioned October 14^th and 15^th as the dates for Special Olympics at Norwich University. 

President Cook announced the opportunity to purchase new VSOA Warmups. 

Eric Evans was recognized for his May induction to the VPA Hall of Fame. 

Membership honored the passing of long-time official Norm Graves with a moment of sielnce.

 

   The Gavel was passed.  Our new president thanked our out-going    

   president for her diligent work this year.

Next year’s meeting date was set for Sunday August 13, 2017 location TBA.  

                       The fitness Test was cancelled due to weather conditions.  Dates and     

                       location for make-ups are as follows: Wednesday 8/17 Ludlow 6pm;   

                       possibly Thursday 8/25 at Mill River TBA; and Friday 8/ 26 at People's 

                           Academy 7:00.