If I say our association, Suffolk County (NY) and our brethren in the next county of Nassau, are the only two associations that work all their regular season games using only four officials, how wrong would I be?

What other associations are working varsity with just four officials?

I believe we go 5 on all our varsity games, but there may be some four games, but only because of # of officials. I think if we had enough we'd go 6-man.

Louisiana:

Class 1-2: 4-man crews
Class 3-4-5: 5-man crewws
Qtrfinals - Finals: 6-man crews

Up here in Hamilton, all high school games are officiated with a 4-man crew except the finals which use 6.

Section IX and some of Section I.

That means in NY sections VIII, IX and XI and some of I are the only ones going with four?

Does IX go to five for playoffs?

That's pretty shocking to me that Long Island schools won't spring for 5 guys. It can't be a money issue, can it?

I was just in Merrick and Oceanside last month - it aint cheap. It seems like Long Island has become a extension of NYC price-wise.

Every time I go to LI, they seem to have squeezed more people in there. Yikes, it's crowded.

By the way, Sections IV, V and VI are 5 man (unless there are leagues within them I don't know about who are still going with four).

In Texas we use 5 man crews for varsity and 4 man crews for jr. high and sub-varsity. For 6 player football we use 4 man crews for all levels. With the growing number of teams that are starting to run a spread offense it is almost impossible to cover the field with only 4. It is even difficult to cover it with just 5.

Kansas
 

Many if not most leagues at all levels (6A down to 8-man) have allowed or required 5-man crews. There are still some out there that do only pay for 4 or will allow 4-man crews to work. In the playoffs 5-man crews are required for 6A down to 3A this next season. 2A and 8-man only use 4-man crews in the playoff even when they used 5-man all season.

Here in Kitchener-Waterloo, an hour's north of Hamilton, we use 4 on all high school games, with some games using 5 to train a new official. The person who is the 5th is usually a vet who does not receive a game fee. This is one way to contribute back to the association. On some HS games, we use 6 as a training ground for 6-person mechanics (with 2 officials, and maybe a good 3rd official, learning the 6-person mechanics). On HS semis, we use 5 vets (4 paid, 1 volunteer) and 6 (all paid) for finals.

yes. Makes it rough on a B who might be doing his first game downfield. In the past, you wouldn't believe who they used to put there.. Right!, an "R". More recently they have been using wings as they are more conditioned to be able to recoginze and call the various flavors of PI and handle scrimmage kicks downfield.

It *IS* a $$$ issue here.

What's the per man fee? If it's ~75, that's an extra $300 for 4 home games to added to a multi-million dollar annual school budget. That's a couple mileage reimbursements for some administrators to go to some fluff conference!

B does take some getting used to, that's for sure.

REPLY: Here in NJ, it's pretty much standard 5-man for varsity; 4-man for sub-v. We even stay with 5 for the playoffs. I know some states have gone to 6 (or even 7) for the playoffs.


That's why it's strange that they'd put an R back there. It's a whole different ballgame when it's coming at you rather than going away from you!

We need officials.
 

We are doing 5 man for JV and 7 man for varsity. Most other associations in the state are using 4 or 5 man for JV and 5 man for varsity.

I do prefer working 5 man especially in set crews when you have 5 guys who love working together... 7 man is great for the play-offs.

The main issue is recruiting and retaining qualified officials. I don't understand how schools can use the budget argument when officials are such a small percentage of the total as AB mentioned.

Our association last season had to cover 2 JV and 2 V games per week, including timers and chain crews. But now the same number of officials (about 25) will have to cover 3 JV and 3 V games per week. There will be Friday and Saturday games which should help somewhat.

But the problem I see is recruitment and retention.

Nebraska: For varsity (for the most part) 5-man crews. Some schools (especially at the 8-man level) might use 4-man crews still. Sub-varsity is usually 4-man crews for JV games (at most places) and 3-man below that. Playoffs are all 5-man crews.

Iowa: Speaking varsity only, it's pretty much 5-man all over, although there are a few schools who go 4-man crew. Playoffs are all 5-man crews.