HS Varsity Crew Sizes

[bisonlj]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

In the case of football, I honestly do not see this as a big deal. Working 7 Man is much easier than working 5 man. Working 6 man contributes a lot more work for the Umpire but doable. If you have extensive training, you really make the work easier for the individual official to work the games. With teams passing much more than ever, I have no problem with added officials for that purpose in critical games. All the deep wings really do is help cover passing plays and deep runs. And they help the short wing on sideline plays. I do not see this hurting the game.

Peace

I think the biggest challenge with working 5-man during the year and then going to 6-man in a state finals is the mechanics are different for the short wings and the deep wings aren't used to working those positions. Coverage is probably better but you have to know what your keys are and how the mechanics work in order to do it effectively. My concern would be if the crew members could effectively learn those mechanics in a short period of time.

When I worked my first college scrimmage, I had a hard time getting used to reverse mechanics on turnovers, staying at the LOS on passing plays, and goal line coverage once we started getting close to a score. You can pre-game all that stuff but on the field, instincts take over and if you aren't used to it, it will take some getting used to. I'd hate to have to "get used to it" during a state finals game.