[ilyazhito]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Like any good partner, I've got your back:

Rich:

I assign for 24 high schools. I can tell you what would happen if we went back to 2-person crews.

(1) I would immediately lose all the better officials. They would work for conferences who hired 3-person crews.

(2) Physical play would increase and off-ball contact would lose the set of eyes a third official provides.

(3) You'd lose a lot of experienced people. I know a lot of experienced officials with good resumes who would retire before going back to 2-person mechanics.

I am old enough now to say I've officiated the Big 8 when 2-person crews were hired. In fast paced games, especially boys games, officiating was mostly running up and down the floor trying to keep up with play. Plays were missed, officials would have to guess occasionally rather than see and know what happened, and if there was physical or off-ball play? Good luck. Rebounds on a jump shot? One official with the shooter and defender and the other with 8 players to watch.

The game has changed in the last decade and even moreso over the 32 years I've been officiating.

Finally, counting the number of whistles each official blows shows that the writer has no concept of primary areas of coverage and what it means to not reach all over the floor to blow the whistle. I have gone entire halves not calling a single foul. It is a sign of a disciplined official to not feel he or she needs to reach just because the previous X whistles came from crewmates. We have primary and secondary areas of coverage and analysis has proved that officials get plays wrong when reaching out of those areas.

Finally, how are younger and newer officials supposed to learn how to work 3-person or even break into the varsity level if they don't get opportunities? Sadly, the coach quoted in the article seems to care only about his games, this year. Those of us who assign are seeing our officiating pools shrink and age. And in response, we see commentary that older officials who may have lost a step should be weeded out - and many of these people are the ones who have a ton of experience who can help mentor and teach the next generation of officials.

The solution to our shortages is not going backwards. The solution is to figure out why a majority of officials quit after 2-3 years and make it so they dont.

+1! I agree with all these points wholeheartedly. In my experience, 3 person is better for off-ball coverage and dealing with physical play, and overall game management than 2 person. Perhaps men's league games would be a better experience for everyone if they used 3 officials instead of 2. I would add that not only does 3 man need to be preserved in varsity games, it also needs to be expanded to the JV level, for the sake of development of officials.

BillyMac, from reading your posts about CIAC, they seem to have their heads stuck up their posteriors when it comes to officiating. If officials were somehow represented on the CIAC executive board, such as through an officials committee, we wouldn't have the asinine practice of using 2-person the entire regular season, then going to 3 for the playoffs with no additional training for officials assigned to those games. Maybe officials who work 3-person would be able to testify to the advantages of 3-person before such a committee, and the committee could then report on those findings to the CIAC.

Even the AIA (Arizona Interscholastic Association), which had 2-person exclusively in basketball games during the regular season up until now, has now (as of the 2018-19 season) allowed 3-person to be used in the regular season and postseason under its new commissioner, Brian Gessner, a former official himself.

If there was an officiating presence in the CIAC, officials might be able to persuade the others that 3 person is necessary for risk minimization and safe play in basketball, and we would start seeing more consistent use of 3-person, with officials not having to (illegally) join Boards in other states or try to jump ahead to college just to work 3-person.