News and Notes

Some dates were announced recently for the upcoming football season:

1. Pre-season football meeting for all officials

 The football annual meeting will be Sunday August 23, 2026, at the Brooklyn Park Community Center, 5600 85th Ave N, Minneapolis, MN 55443. Meeting will run from 6pm to 8:30 pm. Attendance is required for those who are committed to being a football official, but if you're curious about working football we'd love to have you attend the meeting as well. Reach out to George Winn and Rick DeGardner for more information at ghwinn@comcast.net and rickdeg@comcast.net.  

2. Scrimmages

• Saturday 8/29

• Start times vary 8:00 AM– 10:00 AM

3. Regular Season Varsity Schedule

• Thursday 9/3 – Friday 10/23

• NOTE: MEA week is our week 7. Games will be played Wednesday 10/14

• Week 8 games will be played Tuesday 10/20 – Friday 10/23

4. Summer training sessions will be announced soon

George Winn is dealing with some health issues during the lead up to the 2026 season. Consequently, The GSOA board is working closely with George to support him in whatever ways he needs. If you need to reach him, please do so via email rather than phone calls so he can focus on rest and recovery.  He will reach out to you when he can.

George remains the football assignor for Gopher State Officials and that has not changed. However, for the 2026 season, it is important for George to focus on his health and his recovery so he can kick his recent diagnosis. Gopher also needs to fulfill its obligations to the schools it covers for football. To that end, Rick DeGardner has graciously accepted appointment as Gopher State's secondary football liaison for the 2026 football season. Rick will be primarily responsible for the assigning of lower level football for Gopher this season. 

What this means for football officials: Please copy both George and Rick on all of your communications you would have sent to George in the past. Rick's email address is rickdeg@comcast.net, and his phone number is (651) 252-8197. George will be responsible for the varsity assignments this year, and Rick will be the backup for varsity assigning. To make it as easy as possible, please include both of them on any communications to the assignor. Again, this is just for the 2026 season only. We expect George to be back to full go for 2027, but want to be sure that he has the time he needs to focus on his health at this time.

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