Folks,

My local association is considering moving to a crew system in 2003 (maybe).

Consider the following question, and answer those that you feel you can address. I'm doing some preliminary surveying, in anticipation that I will be part of a committee, tasked with investigating the feasibilty of initiating such a system.

I appreciate ANY/ALL answers!

1. What are the positives of crews for high school associations?

2. What are the negatives of crews for high school associations?

3. What are the criteria used for selecting crews?

4. If coaches are allowed to "scratch" officials in your area, how does this impact crew assignments?

5. What is the best way to initiate a crew assignment system?

Thanks for your help! Have a great season!

As a new official and a member of a crew (just luck, not common for new officials), I had a lot of the same question and here is what I was told:

1. Crews are good because you work with the same people each week and learn the styles, strengths and weaknesses of each member and learn to compensate them as a team.

2. If you get a bad crew, it makes for a long season. Also, you don't have the opportunity to work with many different officials and learn from different people.

3. As far as crew selection for games, ours are assigned by our Assignment Secretary. As far as membership in a crew, all members in good standing are eligible and crew chiefs fill the slots on their crew by contacting potential members. Each crew chief has different criteria based on their personality, crew needs, other members, etc.

4. Coaches scratch the crews.

5. No earthly clue.

Familiarity with crew members.
Consistency from one week to the next.
The fellowship and comraderie that goes along with working as a crew.

You don't get the opportunity to learn what others are doing, or to help others grow and improve. But some of that is offset by switching officials around for JV games.

Our booking agent usually makes that decision, although he does usually consult with the white hat.

They are allowed to scratch three officials each season. Scratch three guys from the same crew and you're d@mn likely to see the other two guys somewhere before the season is over. Although our crew has talked about scratching a coach if he marked off a member of our crew, we have since changed that thinking, since it maybe the coach's intent to get rid of the entire crew.

How about a draft?

Overall, I really do think the crew system is the way to go. We use it in football and basketball. I've worked a couple of "big" games with other crews and just didn't enjoy it as much as i did with my regular crew.