Can you list for me, then, which rules that our governing bodies have put into place that you feel it's too militant to enforce? Thanks.

I did not say any rule was too "militant". WHat I said was that certain officials are militant about the enforcement of some rules.

And, I doubt you call the backside hold thirty yards behind the play in an eighth grade game. Instead, I'd bet that you use your judgment, hold the flag and use the opportunity to talk to the player. Likewise, I use my judgment in controlling my sideline.

OK, fair point. Although on your analagous point, I belive 99.9% of the officials out there would not call a backside hold 30 yards from the play. However, on keeping the sidelines clear, it seems to me that this rule is important (and not militant) to enforce, and that enforcement is made more difficult by the apathy of some linesmen. I believe it's a safety issue (for me, the unsuspecting coach, and potentially for players, both playing and not playing), and is important to enforce. There are polite ways and non-polite ways to handle it, but it must be handled, not ignored. Once you let the line of coaches creep up, the kiddos creep into the coaches box. And once a couple creep in, more and more do. If you don't enforce this rule, you are bound to have problems (or if you play so far into the field that YOU don't have problems, your successor will).

I agree. Apathy on the part of the official will eventually create a problem whether it be out on the field or on the sidelines.

Where you get it???

I'll defend parepat on this one. Working the sidelines is a balance. You need to maintain order but you also need to be considerate of the coaches opportunity to coach. In a lot of rural stadiums there is not a lot of room in which the team and coaches are able to comfortably move. If a coach is calling signals, he need to be able to be seen by the captain of the O or D. Betwen plays I have no problem with a coach moving out onto the field a little bit so that his team can see him.

Believe it or not, I've found that if you try to work with the coaching staff they are more than willing to be very cooperative and considerate of giving me room to work. It may just be my personality, but I don't want to create conflict when there really doesn't need to be any. There will come plenty of conflict during the game with calls and non-calls. Throwing the flag for a coach that takes a step onto the field between plays is not an effective way to work with a coaching staff. If I run into a coach, he gets a flag, but this is a situation that I have encounter only twice in the past three years I've worked LJ at the varsity level.

As for the "bane" of all officials, I have never, ever been bothered by the "they let us do that last week" line. I simply point out that this is the way that we as a crew work and that for this game thats the way were going to have to do it...solves the problem pretty easy. Sometimes I'll come up with a witty response to break the ice and put the issue to rest.

I'm sure that I'll be burnt for this reply...but when I look at what matters we've done a great job as a crew. The coaches have been pleased that the games have been well called and that they haven't had to endure the LJ nazi in terms of how they conducted themselves (and I know this from the returned feed back cards that we give out at the start of the game to the head coaches). The one thing that puts my relationship to coaches in perspective is the nature of what we are doing out there. For a coach, that coaching job is a significant souce of income. This is his job. I'm a chemist, that is my job. I put on the stripes because I love to do it...not for the money. Therefore, I try to give him the utmost latitude when dealing with him.