Tonight I have my first varsity game. It should be one of the better games of the area. 1 team is slated to go to state and has all their starters returning while the other team has quite a bit of height and speed. I'm looking forward to it and I'll let you know what happened :-)

Congrats. Just relax and have fun.

Yes, by all means have fun! My first game is on Thursday. I plan to have fun myself! Good luck!

I turned back three games to take my family on vacation, so my first game is tonight. Boys varsity nonconference, the first 3-person HS game I've worked in the state of Wisconsin (I work about a dozen boys varsity games a year in IL and they are all 3-person, but 3-person is just trickling into my area of WI for varsity games). Then because of a scheduling quirk and my company's annual big convention, I don't have another game until December 9th.

Nonconference 3-man in WI? Is that the norm? In most parts of MN it's al 2-man until the state tournaments. However down in the MSP/St. Paul area I believe some conferences do 3-man.

It will be weird getting used to the 4 extra minutes and going to halves. But yet if I work in WI it's quarters there. I love the difference. :-\

Are you still talking about high school games?

Yes... High school in MN (MSHSL) Even though we go by NFHS, We have adopted to play 2 18-minute halves. They claimed that the coaches wanted this because of minnesota hockey got a change similar. Plus I guess they jsut want to play more like college ball... It's weird and all of us have mixed feelings...

EDITED for spelling

Yeah, Tommy. Minnesota is apparently going to 18 minute halves for their HS games. No idea why. Essentially, they will play OT (4 extra minutes) in every game. I hope the refs get paid an extra 12.5% per game. Yeah, right.

Chuck, So far up in my neck of the woods the game fee is still the same... Perhaps 1 or 2 dollars more... But I think they increased our mileage. Which is lame because not everyone gets that mileage check... I guess details need to be ironed out. Either way I'm excited for this.

BBall--> Who do you have tonight? I will look for the score later!

The state of Minnesota has left it up to the individual associations to decide their rates. If you work as an independent contractor with schools, you are pretty much at their mercy. Unfortunately, our association set our rates in the spring before the rule change was made. However, we have decided to readjust our rates after this year, instead of waiting our usual two years.

But then, I'm one of those guys to which the money isn't really that important. In fact, I'd be more than happy to split the check three ways if I could work 3-person every night.

Trigger, I got Grand Rapids/Hermantown girls. Hermantown has a couple phenominal players. I think they will have a good chance to go to state. I'm excited.

I don't care too much about the money either. I'm not sure how our association negotiates fees... Just as long as I can work my games! :-)

I work in the Saint Paul/Minneapolis Metro Area. The contract that was agreed on for three person is $58.00/game this year and $60.00/game in 2006-2007. The Ad's wanted fee's in the $55.00 range but we accepted $2.00 less per game then the two person fee. Roughly 15% of all Metro Games will be three person and then all playoff/state tournament games will be three person. Four years ago we had no HS three person officiating. Since we are about the only part of the country that still uses two person officiating I've told all my fellow officials to shut up and be happy the powers that be have finally seen the advantage to three person. It's coming-just very slowly. Good luck to everyone this year!!

I wish 3-man would be come standard.. But I have a feeling (in MN anyway) due to school budget constraints we won't see that for a while yet.

We don't have enough officials in the Rochester area to cover 3 for every game. We barely have enough qualified guys and gals to cover 2. 3 is a luxury on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Just to clarify, the above comment by twref. All State Tournament games in Minnesota are 3-person. For playoff games , called sub-section and section games, the crew is determined by the sub-section or section. I work with Trigger and in Southeast MN, sub-section and section games are still 2 person crews for all 4 classes A to AAAA. Without these games going to 3 person crews there is little motivation for schools to use 3 person for regular season games. Lots of motivation for officials, where possible, to work 3 person as that's what is used at State.

I had a double girls varsity tournament on Saturday and those extra 4 minutes suck for blowout games. also, really strange to look at clock in high school game and see double digit time left.