How long to make it onto a varsity crew?

[jTheUmp]

I got put onto a varsity crew at the start of my second year, due to a combination of a shortage of varsity-caliber officials, getting noticed by a couple of white-hats while working JV games, and working my arse off learning the rulebook and working on my mechanics.

I have no idea if my experience is typical or not. I know there are some guys in my association who've been working for years who aren't on varsity crews. Some by choice (a guy on my crew last year took this year off from varsity work so he could watch his son play varsity ball... totally understandable), and some for other reasons.

[JRutledge]

I have known guys in their first and second year to get on a varsity crew. It depends heavily on the individual and the area. I do not know if there is a set average that is applicable nationwide.

[Rich]

I am a WH and crew chief and 3 of my guys worked their first real game on Friday night (not all the same season and years ago). I know this is not typical -- all of them had extensive officiating experience in other sports and are close friends and they replaced people I had to get rid of for varying reasons. I was the experienced guy with about 10 years of football (at the time).

Now those guys are in their 6th, 5th, and 4th years and they are all very good officials. And I'm much better as well, having to know all the positions and the rules, etc. inside and out in order to be able to lead them.

That said, we had some *real* growing pains as a crew. For 3-4 years, I felt like I was working R as well as 1/2 U, 1/2 L, 1/2....you get the idea. When we talked about adding a sixth official to the crew (to cover the occasional absence, etc.) the one caveat I added was I wasn't ready for another *new* official. I want to spend a few years not worrying about more than improving our current crew.

To answer the poll, when I started working football it was in an assigning association in Tennessee that didn't use regular crews. I was promoted to full varsity for my third season. I worked my first V game in year 2 as a fill-in. We had officials as clock operators there, so I got to be on the field my second week, but only starting and stopping the clock.