Working on a crew vs. working unattached

[Mike Simonds]

In our local association work in crews for the high school varsity. This year we are fortunate to have enough officials to provide a 7 man crew for high school varsity. The league agree to this because it gives better coverage (more teams are passing alot more and using every part of the field) and allows more guys to get varsity experience. In addition, the state play-offs use 7 officials so we don't have to relearn a whole new set of mechanics.

We also take this a step further and try to keep each official at the same position on the same crew during the varsity season.

Its amazing how much confidence in yourself and each other you develop over the course of the season working in the same crew and same position.

However, our state has also implemented an officials exchange program so we can have the experience of working with different crews around the state. Last year I got to travel to the neighboring county and work a game with a different crew. Its amazing what this weekend did for my officiating experience.

Now, for JV and Pop Warner, our association does things a bit differently. We try to maintain set 5 man crews for JV but sometimes we will work different positions.

And for Pop Warner, we encourage officials to work various positions in 3, 4, and 5 man crews to give us a different perspective and to keep things fresh during the season.