By SEAN BARKER
Sports Editor
New Haven (Conn.) Register

Story posted on Aug. 26, 2008

Bob Barton's first recollection of seeing a high school football game was in 1948. Albany Academy vs. Bethlehem Central in upstate New York. Albany Academy won 13-6.

"It could have been 16-6 but they botched a field goal attempt," the 72-year-old Barton says now.

As a junior at Yale University in 1955, he covered the Eli freshmen for the New Haven Register. He started working with the Yale SID at the time, Charley Loftus, on compiling stats from the past and he was hooked.

Barton loves high school football. And he loves stats, almost as much as the written word.

A respected copy editor and news editor until his retirement in 1996, Barton sees between 30 and 35 games a year in a state that has 10 regular-season games. He also attends Yale's five home games each year.

He's seen games in Michigan (where he was a copy editor at the Detroit News from 1972-74), New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Florida (the coldest game on memory, with temperatures in the 30s, gusty winds and he only having packed shorts and t-shirts) and even Hawaii. He brought his wife to a Yale-Hawaii football game in 1988 and extends the trip into a vacation, but not before talking his wife of 36 years, Judy, into attending a Friday night game.

"I wanted to go see one of the powerhouses on the Thursday night," Barton said, "but I figured I owed her something."

Barton has been key in compiling a state record book for high school football in Connecticut and has developed a guide for keeping high school football statistics.

He understands almost everyone has their own charting methods for tracking high school football stats, but has wanted to clarify some common mistakes. So he has put together a cheat sheet of sorts based on the NCAA statistician's manual, which is used by the National Federation of High School Sports.

Here are his most common mistakes:

■ Putting anything other than rushing yardage and passing yardage in a player's total offense. Receiving does not fall under total offense. A category called all-purpose running equals rushing, receiving and all return yardage (kickoff, punt, interception, fumble).

■ When charting plays the biggest mistake takes place when the ball is further advanced beyond the line of scrimmage by another player.

An example:

On a play where an offensive fumble occurs beyond the line of scrimmage, and is picked up by a teammate of the fumbler, the player who caught the forward pass is credited with reception yardage to the spot of the fumble. The player who picks up the fumble and advances the ball is not rewarded a reception, but receiving yards for the amount he advances. If he should score a touchdown, he is credited with a touchdown caught. So it is possible for a player to have 0 receptions, 47 receiving yards and one touchdown reception.

This is also true on a lateral play after a reception.

■ People often use the pro rule on quarterback sacks, where yardage is deducted from team passing. In high school, as in college, the sack is recorded as rushing loss for the quarterback and the team. The theory is the player intending to pass always has option to rush.

Barton developed his charting system in 1959 on graph paper. It includes: Down, point play begins and ends, net yardage, type of play, columns for rushers, passers, punters and kickers, yard receiver caught ball, then columns for first downs, rushing yards, passing yards, passes attempted/completed/intercepted, fumbles lost/not lost and yards penalized He also keeps rushing yards for the top three individuals and tackles as best he can.

CLICK HERE to view Barton's breakdown of high school football statistics in a PDF format.

Sean Barker is the chair of the Northeast Region. You can reach him at (203) 789-5700 or via e-mail at sbarker@nhregister.com.

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