what to do when you know you and your crew had an awful game

[ballgame99]

Somebody has to take control of the crew during the game. As described, the two of you with experience should have gotten your heads together early and agreed to carry the new guy's water. But after the game, talk to the coach and tell him you share his concerns and let him know it will be addressed. And then address it. Make sure your association doesn't drop a guy in a varsity setting never having done 3 man before, and let your assigner know this newbie is not ready for primetime.

Its either that, or have the newb fake an injury so you can close out the second half 2-man!

[Adam]

Originally Posted by ballgame99

Somebody has to take control of the crew during the game. As described, the two of you with experience should have gotten your heads together early and agreed to carry the new guy's water. But after the game, talk to the coach and tell him you share his concerns and let him know it will be addressed. And then address it. Make sure your association doesn't drop a guy in a varsity setting never having done 3 man before, and let your assigner know this newbie is not ready for primetime.

Its either that, or have the newb fake an injury so you can close out the second half 2-man!

I would never talk to the coach after the game to tell him this. If he insists, refer him to the AD. Refer the AD to the assigner. Get on the phone as soon as you're in the car and call your assigner.

If the AD did the scheduling, let him deal with the coach. If the AD scheduled one of you and that guy brought in the other two, then it is a learning experience. There's no reason a varsity games should have three officials with a total of 27 varsity games of experience. It's really two rookies and a second year guy, experience-wise.

Originally Posted by johnsonboys03

first time varsity official with no varsity or three man game experience.

Three man should be learned in 1) camps, or 2) low level games like Middle School. You should never have a guys first three man game be a Varsity game. I should know, my first three man game was a Varsity game. It did not go well.

Originally Posted by JMUplayer

Ask the AD for a copy of the tape and give it to the guys as a learning tool......

Do this today.

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

"Don't spend so much time worrying about where to be that you forget to officiate."

This is the hardest thing for guys just starting to do three man. They have all these two man tendencies that they need to relearn cuz the angles are all different. Three man also requires an awareness of where your partners are during a rotation. A new guy will be so overwhelmed with his new responsibilities that he will forget to officiate and thus make bad or no calls at all.

Originally Posted by ballgame99

Somebody has to take control of the crew during the game.

When huddling to count the shot you should have simply said, "the shot was good, go in front of the table and count it". Don't hang the guy out to dry in front of everyone.

[johnsonboys03]

You are correct. I guess I was just concerned that he waived off the shot and didn't want to over rule him. But thinking back yes you are correct.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by AremRed

Three man should be learned in 1) camps, or 2) low level games like Middle School. You should never have a guys first three man game be a Varsity game. I should know, my first three man game was a Varsity game. It did not go well.

I'm going to guess that less than two, or three, percent of the varsity games in my little corner of Connecticut, are three person games. I would bet my house that zero percent of subvarsity games are three person games. In fact, I would go as far as saying that there are more one person subvarsity games than there are three person subvarsity games.

My first, and only, experience with a three person game was a boys varsity game in a holiday tournament. It could be described as a "big game", which is why three officials were assigned to that game. Previous to that, I had only studied three person mechanics in the manual, never on the floor.

One year, we had a voluntary, preseason, one hour, "on the floor", three person demonstration by our interpreter. Only a couple of dozen officials showed up. This demonstration hasn't been offered since.

For some officials on my local board, their first three person game is a state tournament quarterfinal game. The only exception would be those officials that also work college games, and there aren't too many of those.

[frezer11]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

I'm going to guess that less than two, or three, percent of the varsity games in my little corner of Connecticut, are three person games. I would bet my house that zero percent of subvarsity games are three person games. In fact, I would go as far as saying that there are more one person subvarsity games than there are three person subvarsity games.

My first, and only, experience with a three person game was a boys varsity game in a holiday tournament. It could be described as a "big game", which is why three officials were assigned to that game. Previous to that, I had only studied three person mechanics in the manual, never on the floor.

One year, we had a voluntary, preseason, one hour, "on the floor", three person demonstration by our interpreter. Only a couple of dozen officials showed up. This demonstration hasn't been offered since.

For some officials on my local board, their first three person game is a state tournament quarterfinal game. The only exception would be those officials that also work college games, and there aren't too many of those.

Man, thats crazy!! In Wyoming, we've really focused on it, so much so that we do 3-man all the way down to the Middle School level! Now granted, that's our association, most places I traveled to for varsity games have 2 man on the JV games, but there are zero varsity games in this state scheduled as a 2 man crew.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by frezer11

Man, thats crazy!!

.. and that's why Connecticut is known as ...

[SCalScoreKeeper]

Here we don't do a whole lot of three man until the playoffs. One tournament in a three board area (which I am aware of) does 3-man for the finals. Section playoff Quarterfinals onward are conducted in 3-man.I like the idea of if you expect officials to learn and be competent in 3-man exposes them to it at the lower levels, that way it won't be a shock to the system when they have to do it at the varsity level.

[ronny mulkey]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

I'm going to guess that less than two, or three, percent of the varsity games in my little corner of Connecticut, are three person games. I would bet my house that zero percent of subvarsity games are three person games. In fact, I would go as far as saying that there are more one person subvarsity games than there are three person subvarsity games.

My first, and only, experience with a three person game was a boys varsity game in a holiday tournament. It could be described as a "big game", which is why three officials were assigned to that game. Previous to that, I had only studied three person mechanics in the manual, never on the floor.

One year, we had a voluntary, preseason, one hour, "on the floor", three person demonstration by our interpreter. Only a couple of dozen officials showed up. This demonstration hasn't been offered since.

For some officials on my local board, their first three person game is a state tournament quarterfinal game. The only exception would be those officials that also work college games, and there aren't too many of those.

Billy,

About 10 years ago, our association decided to assign all games as 3 person crews. This includes middle and sub-varsity games. The intent was to shorten the training curve. Works well down here.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by ronny mulkey

Billy, About 10 years ago, our association decided to assign all games as 3 person crews. This includes middle and sub-varsity games. The intent was to shorten the training curve. Works well down here.

Varsity coaches, especially those that win state championships with defensively oriented teams, and carry, with that, a lot in influence in the Connecticut High School Coaches Association (a strong organization here in Connecticut), don't want three officials. The Coaches Association has influence over our state high school athletics governing body, so the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC), the state governing body, hasn't pushed the three person issue. At levels lower than that, athletic directors, and principals, don't want to pay for the extra officials for subvarsity, and middle school, games.

Until winning, defensively oriented, influential, varsity coaches change their mind, retire, or get hit by a school bus, we won't have three person games in Connecticut.

[dee33]

It happens and I learned 3-man in camp but my first experience was horrific and a good friend told me that no official is perfect and if we watch the tape regardless of 2-man or 3-man we all could write a book of things that we could've done better.

[Remington]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Varsity coaches, especially those that win state championships with defensively oriented teams, and carry, with that, a lot in influence in the Connecticut High School Coaches Association (a strong organization here in Connecticut), don't want three officials. The Coaches Association has influence over our state high school athletics governing body, so the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, the state governing body, hasn't pushed the three person issue. At levels lower than that, athletic directors, and principals, don't want to pay for the extra officials for subvarsity, and middle school, games.

Until winning, defensively oriented, influential varsity coaches change their mind, retire, or get hit by a school bus, we won't have three person games in Connecticut.

That is almost laughable. Even here in our agricultural state with smaller athletic budgets, most of the coaches were sick of seeing fouls not being called (and they impacted the results of the game) because their seat on the bench was the same look as the "C." Often times they would watch tape and/or look at our correct positioning and see why plays weren't guessed on and called fouls or vice-versa where a foul was called because the official guessed when it was a legal play. I am glad we have made headways in this the last 5-10 years to where even many of our smaller schools have gond to 3-whistle coverage.

[Rich]

Crew dynamics are important.

It's important to have a very strong official on every game -- someone you can point at who you know will handle things when "it" hits the fan.

The second official should be at least solid enough to work his primary and get his calls right as close to 100% of the time as possible.

Unfortunately, it sounds as though your crew had 3 U2s.

I've been there back when I was just learning how to work 3-person years ago. Sometimes the best thing you can do as an individual is decide that if nobody else is going to step up, it might as well be you. Show confidence even if you don't have it and do your best.

But your assigner isn't doing you any favors.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Remington

That is almost laughable. Even here in our agricultural state with smaller athletic budgets.

Money is a only a very small part of the two, or three, person debate here in my little corner of Connecticut.

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Varsity coaches, especially those that win state championships with defensively oriented teams, and carry, with that, a lot in influence in the Connecticut High School Coaches Association (a strong organization here in Connecticut), don't want three officials. The Coaches Association has influence over our state high school athletics governing body, so the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC), the state governing body, hasn't pushed the three person issue. Until winning, defensively oriented, influential, varsity coaches change their mind, retire, or get hit by a school bus, we won't have three person games in Connecticut.

The coaches that win conference, league, and state titles are, for the most part, very defensively oriented coaches. Because they win, they carry a lot of power in the Coaches Association, and thus, the State governing body. These guys like to press, and trap, and fight through screens, and play man to man, etc. They figure that with an extra official out on the court, more fouls will be called, more players will be in foul trouble, more opponents will be be shooting free throws, etc., putting them, and their defensive style, at a disadvantage.

Coaches down in the southeastern corner of the state have "seen the light", and have encouraged their leagues, and conferences, to use three man crews for "big" varsity games.

But here in my little corner of the state, and in a few other parts of the state, coaches just don't want a third man, or woman, on court.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by ronny mulkey

Billy,

About 10 years ago, our association decided to assign all games as 3 person crews. This includes middle and sub-varsity games. The intent was to shorten the training curve. Works well down here.

Curious...how did you "sell" this to the middle schools and high schools for sub -varsity and get them to agree to pay for a third official?