I'm sure there are many variations depending on crews, but for 5-man crews I'm curious if most crews follow the book to the letter, and only have the WH and Ump present at midfield, or do any of you involve the wings and BJ at least to be present at the flip? We had each wing bring out captains from their sides of the field, WH made the introductions, U flipped, etc. This is not how the NFHS book instructs (exactly). We agreed that some things we can be flexible with as long as we are consistent and professional. Any advice would be appreciated.

J

Honestly, for varsity games, almost always the flip is done BEFORE the meeting at midfield, and everything determined then ... the meeting is a formality for show, and only R and U are there.

For Sub-V - we usually have the R, U, and L there. H is usually rounding up a chain crew and teaching them what to do... if he's got that handled already, he may or may not be there for the flip. (And for 7th and below, we often have coaches there, just within earshot, in case a kid's going to screw it up.)

3 mins prior to kickoff the R and U will escort the captains to midfield and conduct the toss. The Back Judge and Line Judge will stop at the 9 yard marks to ensure no other player goes beyond the 9 yard mark.

That's a local variation, as is ours. We flip the coin at midfield, live. I am already at midfield and the other officials bring out the captains when I call for them. Only the U joins for the toss while the other officials stand at the hashmarks.

I know I do one thing differently than some -- I make the kid call it before I toss it and I let the coin hit the ground. I see some guys catch the coin in a weird way and it makes me cringe.

--Rich

We do it live. R is facing scoreboard and U and BJ facing him. The wings bring out the captains so that the wings end up next to the BJ and U. The R introduces the rest of the crew and tosses the coin. I ask the visiting capt. to call it before it is thrown and the rest of the crew echoes the call.

JasonTX's sounds like the NCAA mechanic, which, being in TX, would make sense.

For us, we're following the Fed to the letter. Just the R and U out at midfield with everyone else on the sideline (BJ and HL on visitor, LJ on home).

I had stopped introducing the rest of the crew as the players don't really care and they're usually getting announced anyway. It's a pain to have them run in now, though.

Forksref--- your way sounds nice----
back in CNY, the R,LJ, BJ escorted the home team
captains; U and HL escorted the visitors--- R flipped
live after introducing the crew.
Here in SW FL only the R and U actually meet at
mid-field, the crew is not introduced and the coin
is still flipped live by the R.
I Always liked the crew introduction, and I'm not sure why
there are all these variations in this mechanic.

Hey SWFLguy,

Worked the Carrier Dome last week for the first time. Big HS football Kickoff Classic deal. For a dome named after an air conditioning company, it is quite warm in there. About 81 (sans breeze) at kickoff.

Otherwise, quite pleasant. Hard to hear in there.

REPLY: We do it the same way as Rich described above.

Georgia
 

R and LJ escort the hometeam to the hash and the R continues with captains to middle of field. U and HL escort the visiting team to the hash and the U continues with the captains to the middle of the field. FJ and BJ stay on the sidelines with the rest of the teams. R flips coin with U observing. A crew card is given to the PA announcer by the ECO to announce the officials of the game.

I worked one game years ago where the PA announcer asked for the colleges we attended. Then announced the colleges with our names for the whole crowd.

Hey, ABoselli,

81 degrees is considered to be a cool fall game in the South! Humidity was what, 45%?

We kicked off last night with a temp of 84 degrees and 97% humidity. Felt like 98 degrees!

SWFL - Good luck to you and yours with this hurricane stuff. My mom used to live near St. Pete and she is up here now, thankfully.

Yes, I like the crew introduction. It is professional-looking and makes the crew feel good.

Hang in there.

Hi JasonTX,

We are also using NCAA rules (and mechanics), I have a seperate question for you (maybe for everyone).
In NCAA the rest of the team is not allowed to come in further that the 9 yard mark - due to pregame problems is the past (baseball equivalent of a bench-clearer) I believe...
Sometimes (in Germany) the captains come out with helmets in hand. There is no guidline for this, but if the rules worry about teams attacking each other at the coin toss, would it not be smart to have the captains leave the helmets on the sideline?
Do your captains bring their helmets? Do you guys in Texas have any guideline about this?

James

I don't think that's why they have the has mark deal. I think it's just there so that the coin toss can be conducted between a small group of people, that way there isn't a lot of chatter and everyone can pay attention. I don't think there is much worry of teams attacking eachother before the game.