3 Man Mechanics

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by reff4e

Are any associations still working 3-man crews on youth and middle school games? If so, how do you set up for scrimmage plays? Although the 3-man mechanics on the NFHS website puts one wing official (L) on the LOS, with the R and U working wide opposite him in the offensive and defensive backfield respectively, most crews here (Charlotte NC area) work a referee and two wings.

Are there any other variations on these mechanics, and if so, what are the pros and cons? I hate the 3-man stuff (feel like our coverage is lousy), and would like to hear any ideas on how to provide better coverage in this system!!

CANADIAN MECHANICS:

We use R, U, and HL. The R and U both are on the non-HL side, so it's like we're triangulating the players, just as you do. The R has the LJ sideline if it is threatened. U goes deep on punts, but we don't see many punts for the ages we use 3-man.

Locally, we use 3-man for ages 6-8 and 9-10. For divisions of ages 11-12 and 13-14, we use 4-man crews.

I've heard of a mechanic where the short side has the LS guy: if the LJ side is the short side, the U swings to LJ and the HL swings to U. The R and U are always wide side in this mechanic, to give the R more time to cover the other sideline.

Cons for 3-man are that the crew misses stuff, but I think for the ages that we use 3-man, there is little need to use 4 officials: each official knows to split their duties to help cover for the 4 official's normal duties.

The pros, I guess, are that you can cover more games with the same number of officials. With twelve officials, you could cover four 3-man games instead three 4-man games.

I'm not an assignor, so that's all I have to say about that.