I heard a referee say in the pregame huddle with the captains/coaches "I'm not calling handballs unless the player catches the ball".
Dead serious. I bet Roger Hazel has something to do with this. I can see him telling the referees to speed up the play a bit by allowing bad throw-ins and being liberal with handballs. I can see the merit of this in some soccer-less parts of the state which is his real concern. I say this because the more whistle that comes the more likely the crowd, players, and coaches are to get irritated. This can potentially lead to some unfortunate incidents which have, unfortunately, marred the sport (in the SCHSL's eyes) for quite some time.
