ball boys

[Snake~eyes]

Agree with Theisy, if the ball boys are instructed to be behind the wing guys then they can bring the balls in and the BJ can throw the ball out.

[HossHumard]

Usually, there are seven us who work as "sideline" officials at CFL games, and all of us are officials from the local association. At our games there are seven of us, two chain guys, one downsbox, one picket, two ball boys (they relay a fresh ball in every down) and one spare who records penalties or fills in if one of the chain dudes gets smoked, which happened in one game I worked this year.

[ref18]

You guys put 7 on too?? In Hamilton we do the same thing, although the CFL only picks up the tab for 6, we pay the extra guy from our own association's funds to record the penalties.

[jimbulger1]

Originally posted by Snake~eyes
Agree with Theisy, if the ball boys are instructed to be behind the wing guys then they can bring the balls in and the BJ can throw the ball out.

We go six man so if the play is outside the numbers the wing guy puts the ball at his feet and the deep guy on his side goes and gets a new ball gets it to the u and then the wing guy throws out the old (or throws it to the deep judge who throws outthe old)

[Dommer1]

Picket? What does he do?

[ref18]

The Picket AKA lone stick

In Canada the benches are on the same side of the field and the sticks are opposite them. The lone stick is a yardstick that is not attached to anything and is placed directly accross the field from the target yardstick. It's not used in measurements, it's just to give the benches a general indication of the line they have to reach for a first down.

[Dommer1]

That's what I thought. I guess we call that the alternate line-to-gain marker, or something like that.

[HossHumard]

Hey ref18, the benches are actually NOT on the same side in all CFL parks, they weren't at the Grey Cup in Ottawa, and they are not in the Western CFL city where I work. In our park during the first half, we (chain dudes/downsbox) are on the home side and "the lonely stick" is opposite, second half we all switch. I like the change over as it ensures we get to enjoy the kaos of both benches throughout the game and get a good insight into the personalities of the other teams. Further to the picket, as you stated, it's not a part of any measurements, and is actually asked, when the ball looks close a first down, to walk away from the placement so all focus goes to the actual sticks. Working the sticks is probably the most active of all the sideline positions as it can involve quite a bit of running if a team is on an active drive and especially if there are alot of measurements. That number is usually three or four per game, but we had one game this season when we were called 4 times in the first half, 8 times in the second!!