Halfway Through A 2-Person Varsity Season, and...

[Raymond]

I hate 2-man. There's nothing great about it, there's nothing nostalgic about it and there's nothing about it that makes me a better official. Additionally, if there's a two-man game that usually means it's a crappy game around here. Any official who works hard will work just as hard in three man as they do in 2-man and be just as tired at the end of the game And working two man doesn't make anybody any less whistle happy. Just means more off ball and dirty plays are being missed.

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[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Raymond

I hate 2-man. There's nothing great about it, there's nothing nostalgic about it and there's nothing about it that makes me a better official. Additionally, if there's a two-man game that usually means it's a crappy game around here. Any official who works hard will work just as hard in three man as they do in 2-man and be just as tired at the end of the game And working two man doesn't make anybody any less whistle happy. Just means more off ball and dirty plays are being missed.

Agreed. I cannot stand 2-person and if I had to do it for real games on a regular, I would just do college or quit.

Peace

[SNIPERBBB]

2man is a challenge. At least in 3-man if you have a partner or two that are just there, you can survive it mostly.

With a bad partner in two man, it feels like a dueling session.

[crosscountry55]

Originally Posted by SNIPERBBB

2man is a challenge. At least in 3-man if you have a partner or two that are just there, you can survive it mostly.

With a bad partner in two man, it feels like a dueling session.

Yup. Everyone in the gym can identify the distinction between a pair of officials who aren’t on the same sheet of music. When there’s three out there, chances are at least two are fairly aligned, which may take the pressure off the third guy who may not be (rookie, off night, doesn’t do 3-p often, just plain sucks, etc.).


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[Bad Zebra]

Originally Posted by Raymond

I hate 2-man. There's nothing great about it, there's nothing nostalgic about it and there's nothing about it that makes me a better official. Additionally, if there's a two-man game that usually means it's a crappy game around here. Any official who works hard will work just as hard in three man as they do in 2-man and be just as tired at the end of the game And working two man doesn't make anybody any less whistle happy. Just means more off ball and dirty plays are being missed.

Agree 100%. It’s the absolute worse. Fortunately I’m at a place in my career where I can avoid them in HS (sub-varsity only in FL). I’ll take them in youth rec only because the game is slower and generally a lot less at stake. There was a point about 8 years ago (crappy economic environment for school board) where they were considering reverting back to two man to save money. I was prepared to hang up the whistle. Fortunately it never came to pass.

[ilyazhito]

Subvarsity 3-man, what a great idea! Gives the young'uns doing JV a chance to develop before they do the big varsity games, and helps the older officials mentor them while still being reasonably similar to varsity.

I can work 2-man, but I would prefer 3-person if possible, for the reasons mentioned above. Maybe I'll get to that point in a few years from now.

[bas2456]

I'm in an area where anything sub-varsity is 2 man. I've gotten to the point where I'm working more than ten varsity games througout the course of my season, thus switching back and forth between 2 and 3 man mechanics.

This season, I've become so much more comfortable in 3 man, and I love it. Obviously, working with higher caliber partners helps, but I really enjoy having that much more court coverage with the extra set of eyes. I often stay and watch the varsity game after my sophomore prelim to try and pick up a thing or two from the varsity crew. I haven't worked enough 3 man games to hate 2 man, but if I had the option to add a third...

If I had my way in this area, Varsity and JV would be 3 man (here, JV games are comprised of varsity players who don't get a lot of minutes), assignors would have the option of adding a third official to boys sophomore games (there's a lot of games around here that could use a third), and freshman and youth games would remain 2 man.

[zm1283]

I'm fortunate enough to be at the point where the majority (Probably at least 2/3) of my games are 3-person. I don't have a problem with partners in 2-person, but I feel like I'm missing things and there seems to be more complaining during those games. That may be because the majority of the 2-person games around here are smaller classification games. They're usually rougher and less skilled to begin with. I have found that while working so few 2-person games, I feel like the game moves 200 mph during those games if I have not worked one in a week or two. 3-person just helps the game slow down and lets you actually see what is going on most of the time instead of guessing.