two man chop?

[26 Year Gap]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

It's a process that has had enormous growing pains for just that reason. Coaches and assignors complain because it seems each crew (that isn't a regular crew) has one "weak" official, so why don't we just work 2-man? And I've never seen a single subvarsity game played with 3 officials here, either.

So, it's trial and learning by fire. People working games that count 3-person when they simply don't have the experience to handle those games properly. And then everyone, including those officials, wish out loud that we'd just work 2-man and be done with it.

If the state would mandate 3 and suggest a pay cut for 3 years from $60 to $50 it would take 3-4 years for everyone to be proficient (and some officials may never catch on, but those guys weren't working a good 2-man game, either) and coaches and sportswriters would have to hold their tongues and let the process happen. But the state office hasn't shown a willingness to advocate three person strongly enough. It's frustrating.

In the meantime, all of the good officials' education being taught now in clinics and camps is 3-person. There are no good intermediate-to-advanced camps being taught 3-person, so officials are pretty much on their own in developing skills on the 2-person side. That shouldn't be developed anymore anyway, but I digress.....

That is too bad. Of course, some are weak officials, and some are learning officials. But as you said, the weak ones are weak in 2 person crews anyway.
One of the ways to develop a 3 crew official is to use Frosh DHs as a training ground IMO. A veteran can partner with two learning officials and split the fees 3 ways. That would also bring better officiating to frosh games from time to time and doing a double with 3 would not be as taxing as a double with two, of course. So, perhaps the smaller game fee would be the price of training and developing. All this is moot, though, if your state doesn't think it is important.