2 person varsity crews this year

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by UNIgiantslayers

... due to a lack of officials in our state.

Our fall training class for new applicants has several openings. It's usually filled to capacity by mid-summer.

During the recession of 2008-09 we were turning away dozens of applicants that wanted to be officials.

[Nevadaref]

Most of CA uses 2-man on varsity games, including the big schools (between 2500 & 3000 kids), plus there is a shot clock.
It is not that difficult to work these contests and this is not bad basketball. The officials have to be in shape and run to obtain proper positions for plays.
I've worked both 2-man and 3-man varsity over the years and don't grasp the prima donna attitude of those who will only work 3-man. 2-man isn't that much different if you have two officials who can move.

[ilyazhito]

Maybe those officials are guys who want to work in the playoffs, where it is 3-man only, college officials who are used to working 3-man more than 2-man, or officials who sincerely believe that 3-man is a superior system than 2-man, and refuse to work 2-man, so that they don't compromise their play calling percentages. 3-man is simpler, but it requires a greater level of discipline than 2-person, so I would be more concerned about 2-person only officials (with exception to those such as BillyMac, who work in areas with limited regular season 3-person opportunities).

Nevadaref, is it specifically your area of California that mostly uses 2-man, or a statewide thing? AFAIK, the Desert Valley Basketball Officials Association, and quite a few of the Northern California associations use 3-man for regular season games, enough so that Greg Austin, the owner of the A Better Official YouTube channel and website, has to make some videos about 3-person officiating. Maybe 3-man is also widespread in Southern California as well. It's been a little more than 10 years since I lived in the Golden State, so I'm not up to speed with how things are done there.
Is Nevada mostly 2-man, a mix of 2 and 3-man, or all 3-man at the varsity level?

[Nevadaref]

Northern CA is mostly 2-man. Several leagues in the Bay Area use 3, but almost all other varsity games are 2-man, including Sacramento. I don't know much about SoCal, but can't imagine that there are enough officials to cover all the games with 3-man crews.

Nevada uses 3-man at the varsity level for the two largest classifications and 2-man for the varsity games at the smallest two classes.

[BillyMac]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love the physical and mental challenge of a two person game. I love to sweat, the more the better. I want to be able to wring the sweat out of my black undershirt after every single game. Every single game, regardless of the interscholastic level, the gender, the matchup, or my partner, excites me. I get an adrenaline rush from the challenge to try to work a perfect game. And this happens to me every single night that I'm out there.

That being said, I'm pretty sure that the game of basketball is much better officiated when there are three officials.

Starting from the highest levels of basketball, the professional level, and moving downward through college, high school varsity, high school junior varsity, high school freshman, middle school, travel teams, and recreation leagues, is there some point at which it's definite that three officials aren't needed, or should there be three officials for every basketball game except the one in my driveway?

When the day comes (and it will soon) when I physically can't work a two person game, it will be time from me to hang up my whistle, it won't be time to look for the help of two other officials to keep working. I will not (physically) be the weakest link. I love the sport too much (player, coach, official), it's been great to me, it deserves better. I can still observe and train novice officials when it's time for me to hang up my whistle. Or can just sell raffle tickets at the door of our monthly board meetings. Anything to help the cause.

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away. (General Douglas MacArthur, 1951)

[ilyazhito]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love the physical and mental challenge of a two person game. I love to sweat, the more the better. I want to be able to wring the sweat out of my black undershirt after every single game. Every single game, regardless of the interscholastic level, the gender, the matchup, or my partner, excites me. I get an adrenaline rush from the challenge to try to work a perfect game. And this happens to me every single night that I'm out there.

That being said, I'm pretty sure that the game of basketball is much better officiated when there are three officials.

Starting from the highest levels of basketball, the professional level, and moving downward through college, high school varsity, high school junior varsity, high school freshman, middle school, travel teams, and recreation leagues, is there some point at which it's definite that three officials aren't needed, or should there be three officials for every basketball game except the one in my driveway?

When the day comes (and it will soon) when I physically can't work a two person game, it will be time from me to hang up my whistle, it won't be time to look for the help of two other officials to keep working. I will not (physically) be the weakest link. I love the sport too much (player, coach, official), it's been great to me, it deserves better. I can still observe and train novice officials when it's time for me to hang up my whistle. Or can just sell raffle tickets at the door of our monthly board meetings. Anything to help the cause.

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away. (General Douglas MacArthur, 1951)

Billy, I'd say that house league rec games up to the 8th grade level and middle school games do not need 3 officials. This is because the ability level of the players and officials working these games is too low for 3-person crews to benefit the game.

Freshman games can be adequately covered by 2-person crews, because freshman players are often slightly better than middle school players in terms of skills and athleticism. If freshman and JV games are played at the same location, but in order, and not at the same time, and the members of the freshman crew agree, a JV official can join them to practice 3-person mechanics. However, freshman games will be scheduled as 2-person games.

I would prefer to have junior varsity games covered by 3-person crews, to give JV officials practice with 3-person mechanics before they move up to varsity, and because JV teams often have some players who could be playing on the varsity team. JV teams will be playing a similar style to their varsity team, so officials can get used to the off-ball coverage that they will need to employ for their varsity games. The level of play will be higher than at the freshman level, with some teams comparable to varsity teams, so it would make sense to introduce 3-person mechanics consistently at this level. This may be the reason why some states, including South Carolina, set a pay scale for 3 JV officials, even though almost all subvarsity games use 2 officials, because they expect that 3 officials might occasionally cover a JV game.

Varsity games must use 3 officials, because the athletes tend to be too fast, big, and strong to be adequately covered by 2 officials. This is especially true for boys games. Off-ball coverage is critical in varsity games, because the teams use offenses that feature heavy doses of screens, cutting, motion, and/or post play, on its own or to set up outside shots, and opposing teams will use any tactics possible to defend this, including illegal tactics. 3-person crews are better at off-ball coverage than 2-person crews, because each official has a smaller area of coverage to focus on, and will not have to look across the court to locate the ball as in 2-person. 3-person crews can also rotate to balance the coverage in ways that a 2-person crew cannot. Because varsity teams can play quickly in transition, a 2-person crew can easily be caught out of position by a quick change of possession, where only 1 official might be in the frontcourt (the former trail/new lead) in a hybrid L/C position. A 3-person crew would have at least the Old T/New L and the C to hold down the fort while the Old L/New T returns to the proper side of the court. 3-person crews are also better in terms of press coverage than a 2-person crew, because the Lead does not have to split the difference between L responsibilities (be even with the last defender) and C responsibilities (stay with the middle wave of players) as he would in a 2-person crew. These reasons are why some states, such as Florida, mandate at least a certain amount of 3-person games in the regular season (3 home games per gender for each school), and others are exclusively 3-person for varsity regular season games (Georgia, NC,SC,VA, and others).

For non-scholastic games, I would recommend 3-person starting at the 8th grade level for travel games, at the high school level for house league rec games, and for any men's league games. This are because travel players, especially 8th graders and above, play at a more competitive level than rec players of a similar age, and would be disadvantaged from a 2-person crew not being able to be in positions as good as those a 3-person crew could achieve. The high school level rec and men's league games would benefit from having 3 officials because 3-person crews can provide better game management and dead ball officiating than 2-person crews, which is needed for games when tempers might run high and where players may not be evenly matched, to prevent unnecessary activity.

Why would I recommend implementing 3-person at the 8th grade travel, high school level rec ball, men's league, or JV levels? I would do this because these levels are competitive and would benefit from a higher level of officiating than 2-person crews can provide, yet with low enough stakes that officials can make mistakes and learn from them without the negative repercussions to their careers that might follow if they were to make similar mistakes in a varsity game (loss of schedule, low ratings, etc.).

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

I've worked both 2-man and 3-man varsity over the years and don't grasp the prima donna attitude of those who will only work 3-man. 2-man isn't that much different if you have two officials who can move.

I will put it plain and simple. When you know better, you do better. I simply do not have to work 2-person anymore and will not. The Chicago Public Schools hire 2 officials for many of their games. I simply will not work them unless it is a 3 person game. I do not have to and do not need to at this stage of my career. I will take a college game for much more pay and fewer people on purpose than work a 2 person varsity game. All the other conferences assign 3 person crews for all their varsity games. Call it what you wish. I also do not go a lot of things in officiating, because I do not have to. I know my worth and what I choose to do when I leave my house.

Someone told me a long time ago, "When you leave your house and you are dreading why you are leaving your house, it is time to change something." Well for me I will not work 2 person games or work men's leagues. And when I have to, then I will do something else. And obviously many people are choosing to do something else and we have many areas hurting for bodies.

Peace

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

Most of CA uses 2-man on varsity games, including the big schools (between 2500 & 3000 kids), plus there is a shot clock.

It is not that difficult to work these contests and this is not bad basketball. The officials have to be in shape and run to obtain proper positions for plays.

I've worked both 2-man and 3-man varsity over the years and don't grasp the prima donna attitude of those who will only work 3-man. 2-man isn't that much different if you have two officials who can move.

After 30 years of officiating, I will spend my time doing what I wish.

I feel I'm not as good going back and forth. So I will work 3. Only a few conferences don't hire 3 here and it's easy to simply not work those.


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