Had our first meeting of the season and we are doing the hand up at 10 secs and counting down the last 5 secs.

Arizona started this year. Based on scrimmages, I don't see a problem with 25/40. Ball boys WILL be an issue. They want 3 balls from each team and 2 or more ball boys. 3 balls on H side, 2 balls on V side and game ball. It will undoubtedly be a cluster "#$@&"...

We've been using the 40 second play clock in Indiana for 2-3 years now. The state had originally told us they wanted a ball boy on the opposite team's sideline. We did not like that and never did it.

We throw incomplete passes off to the nearest sideline and get another ball in rather quickly. We have radios to communicate with each other and if a ball goes off the field on the wrong sideline will have the ball boy of that team run the opposing team's ball behind a goal post. The ball boy of the team the ball belongs to will then go and recover it.

Keep one ball boy right next to sideline official and another 20 yards up field who runs and collects game balls as they come off the field. If there is a pass heavy team then three ball boys will help things run smoother.

This is not always the case, but what happens if the ball is literally thrown out of bounds on the other side of the team on offense? Who gets those ball in your system? That is the biggest problem as I see it. We had a playoff game here where the a team near the end of the game had an exchange problem and they lost a game and that was the blame. And we are lucky if we even have an on-field clock. I am under the impression that Indiana has mostly on-field clocks. Is that correct.

Peace

Yes, I think I've maybe worked one varsity game in 10 years that did not have an on field play clock.

So your question is a ball is thrown out of bounds to team B's sideline? In that situation the official on team A's sideline would quickly grab a ball from their ball boy and team B's ball boy would run the out of bounds ball under a goal post for one of team A's ball boys to go pick up.

In the past 5 years or so, we have had maybe 5 field clocks. And we had the same team a couple of times over that time so it was the same school. But we are lucky if we get one. Unless some of these schools add a clock this year, we do not have any games with a field-play clock at this point. I think this rule will help with that changing, but it is going to take awhile.

If they do that it would be better for sure, but we do not have a policy here at this point to make that happen across the board. But we will find out here very soon. The season starts in about 2 weeks. ;)

Peace

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If they do that it would be better for sure, but we do not have a policy here at this point to make that happen across the board. But we will find out here very soon. The season starts in about 2 weeks. ;)
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This is just how our crew does it. We found it's the best way to do it and the ball boys usually do a good job for us. The state originally wanted a ball boy from each team on both sidelines....The coaches did not want that and we thought that caused more confusion. We do a good job of getting the ball set and there is usually at least 30 seconds on the play clock by the time I (I'm the umpire) back off the ball.

Tomes1978, are you a 5 or 7 men crew?

We are 5 man crews.

Another issue is getting a chain crew that will hustle. That's the hard part!!!!!

I agree! I have a 3rd concern, Mobile BJ. We don't have set crews and guys can get assigned different positions. Last year, I had some slow BJs and wings guys. This new rule makes it tough.

For the non-field clocks, how did you handle pumping up the play clock on delays? Not having a physical clock or using the Ref Smart.

I like the Ref Smart, but that would be the only negative is not knowing how much time is left.

It was never a requirement but it was an option given. In the 3 years of the experiment we've maybe had 1 or 2 games each season where the coaches did not want balls on both sides for both teams. We didn't push it, but it definitely hurt our flow. It's more efficient to do it with balls on both sides for both teams, but it can be done the traditional way you explain. You are more likely have delays in getting balls back to the correct side.

But they've been doing it for 30 years...

The NCAA games around here all have at least 4 ball people (honestly, the softball/women's basketball players seem to be the most attentive... good luck if it's the wrestlers).

Two per sideline, one standing with the LOS official, one near the deep official. Ideally, each one will have one ball for each team. Ball goes OOB, the wing official turns and gets a new ball from the nearest ball person (usually the one nearest the LOS official) and relays it in to me, and the other ball person gets to hunt down the one that went OOB. We can get away with as few as three game balls per team (one per sideline, plus the one in play. For Team B, keep the 3rd ball on the pressbox side, since we always get a new ball from the pressbox side after a change of possession)

Of course, this requires 4 attentive ball persons, and 5 game balls per team... neither of which are going to happen in a high school game.

That's how our college games go as well although each ball person will have balls for the same team. That way the wing can turn to the right official and reduce the likelihood of getting the wrong ball. If the ball boys have to keep track of which ball belongs to which team they will send the wrong ball in a couple times. But both systems work fine.

We usually have 2 or 3 ball kids on each side for HS games and most teams check 3-5 balls each game so it's definitely possible. It's been that way for my near 20-year experience of officiating HS so we are used to it. It could be hard if you have no ball persons today and each team only checks one ball. But it's definitely doable because there are plenty of kids who would love to do it and each team has 8-10 usable balls. Just go to a practice to know that.