Standard Offical Uniform

Another major change approved by the committee was the adoption of a standard official's uniform for high school volleyball, effective with the 2005-06 season. The new requirements for the official's uniform will be:

1. an all-white, short-sleeved, collared polo shirt;

2. black slacks; and,

3. solid black athletic shoes and black socks.

"The committee felt that consistency with volleyball officials uniforms was essential and, thus, eliminated allowing state associations the option of modifying the official's uniform, effective with the 2005-06 season," Doyle said.

Other rule changes

Three other changes in Rule 5 concerning officials were approved, including Rule 5-7-2c, which, during time-outs, will require line judges to stand at the intersection of the attack line and the sideline on their respective sides of the court nearest the referee. Previously, the line judges stood at the midpoint of their respective end lines during time-outs.

"The positioning of the line judges near the referee provides opportunities during time-outs for the referee to communicate with the line judges and reiterates that they are part of the officiating team," Doyle said.

Rule 5-3-14, which required the official to notify the coach of an additional time-out in a 14-14 tied game, was deleted since NFHS rules do not allow additional time-outs during extended games. In Rule 5-4-3b 12, officials now will signal how many time-outs each team has used at the completion of a charged time-out rather than at the beginning and end of a time-out.

Two changes were approved in Rule 3 dealing with equipment. In Rule 3-1-3, language will be added to cover nets that are suspended from the ceiling, in addition to the more traditional nets attached to floor poles. Rule 3-2-1 will be rewritten to confirm that the ball shall be all-white rather than just 12 pieces.

In other changes, Rule 11-2-5 was deleted since rally scoring does not award additional time-outs. In Rule 10-3-6-(3), the committee confirmed that an exceptional substitution shall count as a team substitution if the team has not exhausted its 18 team substitutions.

Volleyball is the third-most popular sport for girls at the high school level, with 396,682 participants during the 2002-03 season, according to the NFHS Athletics Participation Survey. It also ranks third in school sponsorship among girls, with 14,244 schools offering the sport nationwide. In addition, 39,326 boys participated in volleyball in 2002-03 in 1,650 schools nationwide.