HS Varsity Crew Sizes

[voiceoflg]

Originally Posted by JugglingReferee

Ontario: each officiating group assigns officials based on the number that they have. In my area, we are lucky to have a large enough membership to use 4 for regular season games, 5 for county playoffs, and 6 for county finals, sectional, regional, and provincial playoff games and finals. (7 is used only in CIS (equiv. to NCAA).)

However, we sometimes put 5 or 6 on RS games - but these additionally officials are not paid - they volunteer for the experience of another game, or to gain experience in crew sizes of greater than 4 officials.

Five for 11 man football is hard enough. Four for 12 man football?

[Reffing Rev.]

In 5 years I've been in 4 states...

Illinois - 5 officials all the way through, and yes, downstate we have plenty of officials to go to more. (I did see a 6-man crew work a tv game, and they were as sloppy as could be, I think they added a 6th since they were on tv and made up the mechanics)

Indiana - 5

Missouri - 5 officials regular season, districts, and state playoffs.

Nebraska - Outside of the Omaha-Lincoln areas 5 officials has just recently become the norm. In fact there are still a dozen or so crews working 4 officials on 8-man games. The state only allows 5 man crews to apply for playoffs. Here schools pay the crew, so its $300 for the crew whether you bring 4 or 7. Since I just moved here, I was #6 on our crew, and we worked 6-man in the old Illini-Badger NCAA d3 conference, but I wouldn't try to teach that to a crew of 5 guys who have only worked 5 for 3 years in a pregame. We're now wrestling with school in basketball, state wants to go to 3 and schools who have been paying $100 for 2 are only willing to pay $120 for 3.

Having worked 6 man I enjoyed the dead-ball help on the sidelines, and the over-the-top help. I worked both a deep wing and an umpire, as a deep wing you have to be a little slower and trust your umpire to kill the obvious short-hop in front of the player. Umpire, has to do what he is suposed to do anyway, he just has to be more diligent about it.

All that being said, I would rather have 10 well trained eyes, than 12 so-so trained eyes.

[waltjp]

New Jersey -

5 man crew for varsity. There's been some chatter about expanding this to 7 man for post season play.

3 or 4 for subvarsity, depending on how many the league or school is willing to pay.

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by voiceoflg

Five for 11 man football is hard enough. Four for 12 man football?

Yes. Naturally, we do not see some things. But the number of times that a coach complains is very very minimal.

On a crew of 4, the limiting factor is when a newbie is on the crew. Sometimes, we have a senior guy as a volunteer 5th, working deep, and slightly favouring the newbie's (as HL) sideline. When I'm a U or R, I also favour the newbie's sideline.

In recent memory, I've had only 1 call that I saw that I didn't flag that I should have.

[GoodScout]

Originally Posted by bisonlj

I would guess the mechanics from 6 to 7 are much less dramatic than from 5 to 6. Anyone who has been through that care to elaborate?

We do four-man here on Saturdays (6th, 7th and 8th grade games) and six-man on Friday nights. It's a big transition, and the first time some of our younger officials get on the field after doing four-man for several years they're a little awkward on the mechanics. But they quickly pick it up.

[ajmc]

This may surprise many school and league andministrators, but the game of football has evolved, just somewhat, over the past 30 years. The way the game is generally played today, a 4 man configuration places coverage requirements on the wing officials, that is simply unrealistic.

The players are faster, the strategies employed are far more complex, varied and spread out and they develop over much wider portions of the field. Couple that with this increasingly nonsensical expectation of microscopic precision on the most minute detail and it's no wonder the frustration level is so high on the review of 4 man mechanics.

With the development of decades of youth football, the notion that sub-varsity contests are somehow less complicated or can be managed with a 3 man configuration is just wishful thinking. Added to that environment is the component of younger, less experienced coaches whose expectations are often "off the charts". There's simply no arguing 3 man mechanics, whether it's R-U-L or R-LJ-L or any attempt at a variation, you can't fill 4 holes with 3 pegs.

Advocates and critics agree that experience is beneficial. The more snaps, games and exposure the better. Unfortunately, snaps, games and exposure also naturally bring "years" with them, as the years increase so does age and one of the things that age doesn't mix that well with (in most instances) is continued or increased physical speed, which may be the greatest assest a wing official needs in a 4 man configuration.

Adding a 5th official (BJ) makes a big difference, although the coverage responsibilities of the wing officials remains considerable. The 6th man, makes a huge difference in the responsibilities, and focus of the LJ and L while the reduced coverage area suits a more experienced (older) official's physical capabilities (in general).

About the only things that have remained totally unchanged in the game of football, over the past 30ish years, is the mechanics for 3 and 4 man coverage, while the game itself has evolved dramatically. Doing an even outstanding job with a 4 man crew, isn't serving the game as well as the game deserves, which is not a negative reflection on the officials busting their tails chasing the game.

[Forksref]

Someone mentioned that the U has more responsibilities in 6-man compared to 5-man. Can you elaborate?

[GoodScout]

Originally Posted by Forksref

Someone mentioned that the U has more responsibilities in 6-man compared to 5-man. Can you elaborate?

U handles the kicking team on free kicks. After the kick, monitors action on the kicker and then watches initial blocks in center of field.

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by GoodScout

U handles the kicking team on free kicks. After the kick, monitors action on the kicker and then watches initial blocks in center of field.

More vs. different?

[chymechowder]

Originally Posted by OverAndBack

Illinois had five, but we also had five below varsity.

Five for subvarsity? wow.

in MASS, we have 5 for varsity. Mostly 3 for subvarsity. but some conferences only use TWO officials for subvarsity.

[RMR]

Originally Posted by GPC2

In Louisiana we use 5 for varsity games. Once the playoffs start, we still use 5 except for the "Dome crews", who have 6. All of the state championship games (Dome games) are officiated with 6.

Well sort of - don't forget that 6 man crews are mandated for all quarter-final and semi-final games also.

[bisonlj]

Originally Posted by chymechowder

Five for subvarsity? wow.

in MASS, we have 5 for varsity. Mostly 3 for subvarsity. but some conferences only use TWO officials for subvarsity.

We have a couple schools around Indy that will hire 5 for JV but most do 4

[Canned Heat]

5-man for Varsity FB here in WI...4 minimum in an emergency, I guess. Have yet to see a Varsity game with 4. 4 are recommended and 3 required for JV or Frosh games. Work AAYFL youth league games that use their own mixed with Fed rules and we've been trying like he11 to get 4 man mandated, but there's enough upside down offciating that they won't vote it in due to inconsistencies.....like QB's throwing the ball away under pressure and a white hat saying: "No, he was out of the pocket." Ouch.

I have heard of JV games getting worked with guys and their regular 5 man line-up, but that's rare and I don't see a trend to that. I've never worked a 6 or 7 man, but would be interested in seeing how it worked out. I ump on most Friday night JV/FR games and white hat the rest.

TWO...? Are you kidding me...?...and "kidding" is not the word I thought of here..

[parepat]

Originally Posted by mbyron

I have not done playoff games, but I understand that we use 6 for them. I have heard that we will go to 6 for all varsity games in the next 2-3 years.

Playoffs use 5in OH. The state (Hank Z) indicated that Ohio would go to 7 before it went to 6 at the state meeting in Columbus.

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by parepat

Playoffs use 5in OH. The state (Hank Z) indicated that Ohio would go to 7 before it went to 6 at the state meeting in Columbus.

I think my post got corrected last year, shortly after I posted it.