Minimum number of officials for a game

[CaUmpJW]

What is the minimum number of officials your association requires to start a varsity high school game. Our officials travel great distances at times to get to a game. We assign five officials per game. Sometimes an official is late or does not make it for a number of various reasons. We would do the game with four officials. Our number one concern is safety of the players. Would your association start a game with three officials? We are looking for guidelines and what other associations do?

[JRutledge]

There is no requirement. In my state all varsity games are 5 Man crews. I have never heard anyone not starting with 4 or 3 for some special reason. Of course there are situations with injuries or assigning mistakes. But if you are there, you work the game. Maybe if the coaches have a problem with working fewer than 5 officials, you might delay the game or reschedule the game. I have never heard of any game not being played because all 5 officials are not present.

Peace

[biglaz]

For Wisconsin's WIAA:

REQUIRED NUMBER OF OFFICIALS
(1) Four WIAA licensed officials are required for all varsity interscholastic competition.
(2) Four WIAA licensed officials are recommended for all nonvarsity contests, but only three are required.
NOTE: Five WIAA licensed officials will be used in all playoff games.


That being said, I've never seen a varsity game w/ only 4, but I'm sure it's happened.

[Snake~eyes]

What Rut said, but four officials could be done, just a little more hustle required. And three officials could be done with a lot more hustle required. Penalties would be missed but that's the cost of not having a sufficient number of officials.

[Forksref]

In ND we have 5-man crews but some schools will only pay for 4 so we go without a BJ. Playoffs, which are dictated by the state, assign 5. More schools are going to 5-man crews. We had a wide-open 'shootout' last year with a 4-man crew. The score was something like 42-28 at the half. Lots of long passes and there is one pass that we didn't get to as well as we would have liked. It may have touched the ground. After the game, I told the coach that this game was a good example of why you should pay for 5 officials. We shall see this year if they got the message.

I hope I don't sound too harsh but I believe if a man/woman takes a game they should arrive on time, every time (with only a few exceptions). I say if you think you might not make it don't take the game. In Georgia, we are required to be at the game 90 minutes before kickoff. If one of my crew cannot make it sometime in that window then there better be a death involved. By the way we use 6 officals in our association as do most of the Ga associations.

[Edited by goldcoastump on Aug 2nd, 2004 at 09:04 AM]

[PSU213]

Originally posted by goldcoastump
I hope I don't sound too harsh but I believe if a man/woman takes a game they should arrive on time, every time (with only a few exceptions). I say if you think you might not make it don't take the game. In Georgia, we are required to be at the game 90 minutes before kickoff.

I agree with the "not taking the game" part. Here in this neck of woods (PA) we are also required to arrive 90 minutes before a varsity game, although I do not know if that is a local rule or a state rule.

To my knowledge, our chapter does not have any rules about how many officials need to be present to start a game. A local conference does have a rule that 5 officials do need to be present to start a varsity game (and games are generally officiated with 5 people), but the game can continue if an official becomes incapacitated in some way.

[CaUmpJW]

I thank you for your responses. We always have five officials for a game. Some of our games require the officials to drive 70 miles.
Last year two officials of the five did not make to the game because of car trouble on the way to the game. That left three officials to do a varsity game. Our concern is the safety of the players and the potential liability of litigation because of having only three officials.
We have the same policy as all of you. If you accept the game, you work it. Sometimes in rare circumstances things happen beyond our control,

[SoGARef]

Depending on what time games start in California, I would consider 70 miles to be a close drive. Here in Georgia we sometimes have to travel 250 miles to do a game. Just like my collegue from the gold coast our association also uses 6 officials at the game. There is talk that the GHSA will be going to using 7 officials in playoffs and championships. We are using 7 officials for a few of our schools now.

I know I sounded pretty tough in my previous response but I think that we as officials should be held to a higher standard (ie, being on time). There will always be circumstances that happen but they should be few and far between. Here in S. Ga. we also have long drives to games but that means I leave in plenty of time to get to my games. I hope you all have great seasons and be careful out there.

[1AAUMP]

Min number in FL
Varsity - 5
Semi-Final and Championship games - 7
We use 6 for Varsity in our local association

Around our parts here, it depends on what level and whether it's 8 or 11-man ball, so here goes:

11-man varsity: 5-man crew
11-man JV: 4-man crew
11-man reserves: 3 or 4-man crew (depending on how anal the schools are about paying for the crew)
11-man freshman: tend to be 3-man crew, unless you have my crew cheif, who's a retired salesman and can convince the schools of the need for a 4-man crew!
11-man JH: 3-man crew. That's for tackle football. One public school system with about 10 junior high schools don't do tackle but flag, so they use 2-man crews for that.

8-man varsity: 4-man crew
8-man JV: 3 or 4-man crew (depending on the school)
8-man JH: 3-man crew

The state playoffs in Nebraska use 5-man crew, as does Iowa.