Penalty after successful PAT

Question
In High School football should a penalty be called on a defender for roughing the kicker on a successful PAT? My son plays youth football and was blasted by a defender while attempting a PAT. They called a personal foul on the defender, moved the ball up 1 1/2 yards. This time he made the PAT but was again blasted by the same player. A personal foul was called on the defender but because the PAT was good we declined the penalty. This seems a little strange in giving the defender a free shot at the kicker knowing that if the kick is good he will not be penalized.

Answer
Hi Louis.

There seems to be two questions here (unless I have read this wrong). The first one is about roughing a kicker in HS on a successful PAT- and the answer is YES! This is a deadball foul according to the NFHA (National Federation of State High School Associations) and the penalty is enforced on the ensuing kick-off- placing the ball up 15 yards from the spot of the orginal kick-off line, which as you may know is on the 40 yard line of the kicking team side.

You then stated though- that your son "plays youth football and was blasted".... so this probably is a fine line within the Youth football side (and its appears you are in the State of California so am sure the refs out there have to follow the rukes in the State with respect to these issues (you might want to ask the league officals in CA if they follow the Pop Warner rules-or do they have a certain set of rules.

I do know that in HS there has been a recent rule change to what is called "Sportmanship and End of Game Management- where league officials have been told (and warned) that they have to take blatent and agressivve hits by oppossing players (especially if its a second time) more critical because it can lead to other altercations after the game by players, coaches and yes the fans.

If the facts as you presented them are correct, then the refs clearly missed this blatent attempt by this ONE defender to potentially injure your son-for simply doing his job. A deadball foul- regardless of the outcome is still a deadball foul- and as you state, since the PAT was successful on the second attempt (I am guessing your son missed the first attempt) the rules are that ANY deadball foul is assessed on the ensuing kick-off. The same would also be true if the foul was committed on your son's team-and in this case the ball on the kick-off would be moved 15 yards backwards.