[Rich]

The problem with experience is that you have a lot of officials with one year of experience 15 times and others who have a lot of great experiences in many fewer years of officiating. It's not always a terribly good indicator of ability or performance.

And yet, when the (stuff) hits the fan, I want someone with me who's experienced some bad situations and had to work through them. Surprise is an official's greatest enemy.

I didn't work my first varsity game until my fifth season of officiating and it probably took eight years before I worked a full varsity schedule. Moving to a new location every few years can stunt the progression of officials who are considerably better than me and it certainly affected me. Different locations have different needs for officials, so if it took you 2 years to reach varsity, fine -- if it took you 10, so what?