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I think that Tim C has a point. If one will take a look at the level of play and the level of officiating in his/her respective area and objectively ask which games warrant a third a third official, we may be able to have a civil an informative dialogue on this topic.
I can tell you my experience is that NV uses 3-man on probably 75% of varsity games for both boys and girls and that about 85% of those boys games and 95% of the girls games don't need the 3rd official. That is likely different in Vegas on the boys side.
For CA almost every game is 2-man and the quality of play is significantly higher, plus there is a shot clock. CA doesn't use 3 until after the first two rounds of the playoffs. I have far more games in CA for which it would be helpful to have another person on the crew.
Some people won't like me writing this, but I know several officials who are physically unfit and could not do a decent job in the 2-man system yet perform just fine in 3-person because the amount of movement required is so much less.
When the majority of the officials in an area fall into this category, it puts the administrators in a difficult situation. The leaders of the local officials association, the coaches, the school ADs, and those in the state office must consider what those working as officials are physically capable of and how that will impact the kids when choosing between 2 and 3. If a large number of officials will simply quit should the choice be made to use 2-person crews, the decision makers must understand the shortage this will cause as well as who will be available and capable of working the games.
Right now I don't think that my area could change to 2-man successfully. By that I mean be able to supply enough officials who are physically capable of handling the games properly. By keeping 3-person the area makes a trade off. They greatly enlarge the pool of those who are capable of providing what is needed, but pay a little bit more for it. Afterall these are HIGH SCHOOL officials. This is not the NBA or even college at which the officials make thousands of dollars. These are people who do this in their spare time and come to the games after working a full day doing something else. I believe that it is unreasonable to expect most of them to be 30-45 year olds in prime physical condition. You will have several who are much older and several who are significantly overweight. I believe that the 2-man vs 3-man debate must acknowledge what an area has to choose from. Some people are capable of doing certain things and others just aren't. Asking them to do what they can't and then complaining about it when they don't is truly absurd.
I don't believe that NV will switch back to 2-man because of the Vegas area having the need for 3 and thus it will remain statewide. However, this certainly opens the door for what Tim C called the "lazy officials" to work games. Perhaps that is why there are so many complaints about 3-person.
It has nothing to do with the system itself. 3-man is obviously superior to 2-man when done properly on the the necessary games. It has everything to do with who is out there and what perception that gives to those making the observations.
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