Officiating at De La Games is Confusing

[CaliforniaFan24]

Having had the opportunity to attend many DLS games, including the 2001 DLS/Long Beach Poly game; trips to the State Games, and other key games against OOS opponents, I remain very confused on officiating.

All these big games have one common thread; well played games with few penalties on DLS. Then when DLS plays one of their regular Nor Cal games, such as last night vs. Clayton Valley Charter, the referees could not contain themselves in throwing penalty after penalty against DLS. We have seen this happen over and over throughout the years. The same well coached, disciplined DLS shows up in a state bowl game or on TV and few penalties, yet in all other games, it seems the officiating is heavily tilted against DLS.

Can someone please explain why there is such a discrepancy between high profile games and regular type games.

 

[John Mellencamp]

As an official in other sports, I can tell you that the best crews /officials get assigned to the toughest games. I would assume DLS games are thought of as a forgone conclusion that DLS will win, most likely by a lot, therefore you may get a more inexperienced/lower rated crew. The best referee/officials know that the less they are seen/heard from the better. Other officials look to make a point or insert themselves into the games.

 

[FBIQ]

You also have to factor in that DLS wins with discipline, so all of those years that you saw no flags probably coincide with superior discipline.

This years team was defeated in NorCal for the first time in decades, probably won't represent NorCal in the open, and you could probably point to a lack of discipline as this teams #1 issue. See the busted coverage on SF (mountain view) final TD to win the game.

I know refs are all over the place these days, but penalties usually come from a lack of discipline and the current DLS team isn't the same as the power house teams of the past from a discipline standpoint.

 

[Streak One]

I didn't see the game against CVC, but I can think of a couple reasons for why this is:

Less focus for a game that a team is expected to win
More amped to play local teams (and not always in the best ways)
A bigger, more atheltic team can be over officated against. DLS is rarely that in these national games, but is a lot of times in the local games

 

[1315]

A CCS official offers insight: there are associations who video rate their members every game. A higher rating gets you the more competitive /impactful games more often than not. Ladouceur’s teams were highly disciplined. So much so many officials were want to not call the rolling start. Eventually, to his dismay, they did slow it…mostly.
The OOS games at OO funded by Paragon/ESPN typically had Dave Cutaia in the white hat. He was a no nonsense cop.
Having seen most deLa games with Lad at the helm, I’d venture to say the opposite was true of the OPs sentiments, especially for the LJ with zero room between him and the machine.