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Youth football scrapes the bottom of the barrel for officials for several reasons, all related to money. One is that the scholastic programs outbid them money-wise for personnel. Another is that conditions are poor, with small crews, poorly marked fields, and uncertain times. By the latter I mean the start of games may be delayed because of a need to wait for the field to become available, but on the other hand forfeits are not uncommon. You may wind up with a game ending in near darkness, have to deal with people who wander thru the field because they don't realize a game is under way, be asked to enforce many local variant rules, all sorts of conditions that wouldn't come up often in scholastic ball.
Of course the coaches operate under those & other handicaps as well, not related to money. Talk about 12 on the field? Last year the Jr. Pee-Wee team I coached on had trouble keeping 11 on the field -- players kept taking themselves out or failing to go in! There were occasions you could've called USC on coaches on the same side cursing each other out.
Robert
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