The 3-person battle continues

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Freddy

The dean of high school coaches in our area, who is also an AD as well as a state-tourney level football official himself, commented to me regarding 3-man recently:
"3-man is not going to go away."
I further probed for what seemed to be a negative opinion on 3-man vs. 2. What he didn't like about 3-man he summarized in two words: "More Whistles."
His point was not the occasional double whistle by good crews reacting to plays on the border of their PCA's, rather than he too often gets saddled with 3 guys who, as ballwatchers all, call violations and fouls at the same time. Triple whistles. That tells him that he, as an AD, was better off just having two ballwatchers cuz it's cheaper than having three.
Given the respected status of this veteran coach, I accepted this as somewhat a valid commentary on the state of 3-man officiating in our area and as an emphasis to continue in our scrimmages and rules meetings.
Some have simply gotta be doing a better job at PCA coverage.

It's a vicious circle.

People who don't work 3-person more than the occasional summer camp aren't going to feel comfortable. People who aren't comfortable are going to make mistakes, and coaches who see those mistakes argue they'd be better off with 2. The coach you talked to is right. If we don't have a third to get the off-ball stuff missed with 2 officials, why have a third?

What I don't see in this area are officials taking a third to JV or lower class games, splitting checks, and WORKING AT IT in an environment where, quite frankly, nobody cares. I know if I was a younger official coming up, I'd be doing this at every possible opportunity. And yet I'll work 50-60 varsity games this season and never see a JV game worked 3-person. And no freshman games being worked 3-person. And no weekend youth games being worked 3-person. And so on...

While I'm ranting -- I do work quite a few 3-person varsity games where people are clearly uncomfortable with it. They hesitate and then don't rotate when it needs to happen, they reach out of their areas -- or worse, they hold a whistle they should have because they figure someone else will get it.

If we're going to win this battle, we have to show we have a plan and are competent at every varsity level contest -- or why WOULD we get an extra official hired?