[Rock Chalk]

Originally Posted by biggravy

This came up in another thread and rather than derail it, I'll start my own:

Last year I came close to a career ending injury working two man. I will never work V games two man again. In JV or lower I can see it, maybe. The crowds are not as thick, the action not as fast, but I ABSOLUTELY HATE having to run on the fast break and look back over my shoulder instead of looking where I am running. All our schools here V is 3 man. Except one cheapo school. I go there for a two man game and have this same fast break situation. I am table side ball coming up my line fast and under pressure keeping me right on the sideline instead of on the court. Next thing I know, I am looking at the ceiling. My knee collided with the forehead of a very stout two year old girl and I landed in an awkward pile on the floor. Game management in this place did nothing to keep fans from walking down that sideline in front of the benches. Somehow, we both wound up okay. It could have been a career ender for me. No more two man. O, and the ball went oob on my line. I think it went off of home, but not sure since I am now looking at the ceiling. I give it to V. Home coach goes nuts. I tell him keep your fans out of the way or don't talk to me about who's ball it is.

Fast forward to this year. Citing "budget concerns", many schools have opted for two man Varsity next year. In Kansas, schools are limited to 20 games per season. Half home, half away. We make $100 for two V games working three man, $115 two man. So school A has ten home nights x 3 officials = 300/night or 3000 a season for officials. Now they go to two man. They have 230/night or 2300/season. They save $700. I 100% GUARANTEE we can call a better game 3 man vs. two man. V games w/ 2 man seem more physical and border on out of control, imo, no matter how hard we work. So to save 700, we get more pissed off coaches, more pissed off fans, and I guarantee taking our third whistle will lead to more injuries, both officials and players. I don't know much about school budgets, but I can't see how $700 is going to break them. Raise the gate $1. Very poor decision by schools. Is anyone else seeing "the economy" force them back to two man?

in your math, did you include both boys and girls games? From what I can tell, you didn't. So that doubles the savings to 1400 a year. I think 1400 dollars for a public school district is a fair amount of money.