SCPrepTalk

In the first half, a ref high fived at Viking player and later, the same ref gave a Viking player a hug.

NO, I'm not saying that played a part in the final score, just saying that I'd never seen that type of familiarity between an official and players.

I believe there was once a poster named Goldflag on the old PFT. Always a pretty interesting perspective. Referees knowing playing is probably pretty common. Openly demonstrating it is pretty peculiar, but probably a sign of the times.

golfflag was the head ref of all the refs, used to talk to him a good bit.

LOL.

I saw the hug. I believe it was after a player had been down for a while and finally was able to get to his feet. I'd never seen it either but after the injury, I just thought the player was being charitable to the ref or something. Seems like the high 5 also happened then.

I see exactly what you're saying and get the tone of your post though. The optics were NOT good but really...I think that game should have been a blowout. One thing that really helped keep the score in check, aside from the excellent red zone defense from the Strike Force, was all the laundry the refs were throwing at the Vikes all night long. I thought it was a well refereed game except the two pass interference calls, the one to the sideline and the fade pass to the corner of the endzone. Both balls looked completely uncatchable to me.

Clearly Spartanburg has a discipline problem on their O-Line with the false starts and illegal procedure calls.

If the flags would have been more lopsided against Byrnes, that hug would have looked a lot worse but 95 was actually complaining about not getting enough "home-cooking" last night.

I had a 30 min ride with the mayor of Blacksburg a few years ago who is also a high school referee. Got a LOT of good answers from him about high school refs during the trip. Hmmm....

This gives me an idea. Has anyone ever heard of an interview with a football referee? That might be fun!

I took it last night as sportsmanship but it's entirely possible that the ref and the player were familiar with each other. I'd say it's bad form to hug and high-five refs which is probably why you have never seen it before. Then again, the last thing you're going to do if you're in cahoots with a ref is high-five him and give him a hug. I generally try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

When the Gators played Greenwood for state, one of the Greenwood players on defense stopped a play before the ball was hiked to go help the Gator opposite him with his helmet strap. That's something else you rarely see but obviously, no one thought anything nefarious was going on.