Author Topic: Any Thursday / Friday Varsity Games?  (Read 4335 times)

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Offline FLAHL

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Any Thursday / Friday Varsity Games?
« on: February 08, 2018, 08:45:26 AM »
We have one private school that has requested a crew of 7 for all of their home games.  It's unlikely that our public schools will do the same because of cost.  We would struggle to staff every one of our games with 7 man crews because of the same shortage of officials that most of you are familiar with.  One way to get more games with the same number of officials would be to move some varsity games to Thursday.  Have any of you done that?

Offline SouthGARef

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Re: Any Thursday / Friday Varsity Games?
« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2018, 09:04:45 AM »
A lot of city teams in Georgia are in a situation where multiple teams share stadiums. It's pretty common for one of those schools to play a Thursday night game. I wouldn't say our local association has a Thursday game every week, but we probably have one most weeks. They kick at 7pm since it's a school night. Usually that crew is comprised of officials that - for family or travel reasons - can't work on Friday that week. A few people get two games that week.

Wouldn't say it really affects us too much. In fact, unless we reverse this trend of fewer officials - which is going to require work on many levels - I wouldn't be surprised at some point if schools are forced to do so in order to provide officials.

Offline Ralph Damren

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Re: Any Thursday / Friday Varsity Games?
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2018, 10:09:50 AM »
This would be a school's/league's call. Some may be concerned of a Thursday night gate may not be as strong as Friday night's. Another alternative might be, the ole' fashioned way, Saturday afternoon. The schools we work have several cross-over games with schools worked by other chapters and this sometimes provides us with more games then we can handle. We have asked schools to volunteer to move to Thurs. or Sat. but they seldom will. When this occurs, we'll approach the nearest chapter for help. This also occurs at their end and they handle it the same.

Offline bossman72

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Re: Any Thursday / Friday Varsity Games?
« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2018, 12:32:39 PM »
Schools would sooner drop the number of officials working a game rather than move the game time.

Offline KWH

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Re: Any Thursday / Friday Varsity Games?
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2018, 03:00:04 AM »
Schools would sooner drop the number of officials working a game rather than move the game time.

I agree with Bossman.
We have 58 High Schools in the Portland Oregon Service Area and all but 2 have a home field!  AND everybody plays on Friday night.
The two without a home field share a Public Stadium but they stagger their Friday nights.
We have a few Saturday games here and there but they are the exception rather than the rule.
 
SEE everything that you CALL, but; Don't CALL everything you SEE!
Never let the Rules Book get in the way of a great ball game!

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Offline bama_stripes

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Re: Any Thursday / Friday Varsity Games?
« Reply #5 on: February 09, 2018, 07:27:07 AM »
Another alternative might be, the ole' fashioned way, Saturday afternoon.

 :!#

That might work in the Northeast.  Any school around here that tried scheduling a Saturday afternoon game would be laughed out of the state.

Offline TampaSteve

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Re: Any Thursday / Friday Varsity Games?
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2018, 08:26:36 AM »
Really, you guys struggle to staff fridays?
I'd say pitch it to the school: "we'll give you 7 on a Thur or Sat, but Friday will be difficult."

Conversely though, I'm sure there's a week or 2 that the schedule may be lighter than the average week and hopefully they'll have a home game on one of those nights.
i.e. if generally there's 10 games, all is ok.  Sometimes there's 11-12, but sometimes there's only 8.  Maybe they'll have a home game on one of the 8-game weeks

If the powers that be have any idea of the schedules yet they could evaluate now. 

Shoot me a DM.  curious what school.

Offline FLAHL

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Re: Any Thursday / Friday Varsity Games?
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2018, 09:18:43 AM »
Just a point of clarification on my OP.  The majority of our games are with public schools and 5 man crews.  We're fine staffing all of the schools (public & private) that we work with.  Many of you talk about 6 and sometimes 7 man crews as the norm, and IF that happened with us, we might have to consider alternatives.  Given the cost of adding extra officials, I don't see that happening around here any time soon.

Offline FLAHL

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Re: Any Thursday / Friday Varsity Games?
« Reply #8 on: February 09, 2018, 09:24:14 AM »
Schools would sooner drop the number of officials working a game rather than move the game time.

Year ago, our WH got in a traffic accident on his way to the game and we weren't able to find a replacement on short notice.  (That's how I got my first game as a WH.)  I went to both coaches to let them know that we'd be working with 4 instead of 5.  Home team coach said "No problem - one less guy out there to throw flags."   8]

Offline Ralph Damren

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Re: Any Thursday / Friday Varsity Games?
« Reply #9 on: February 14, 2018, 09:23:22 AM »
:!#

That might work in the Northeast.  Any school around here that tried scheduling a Saturday afternoon game would be laughed out of the state.
We still have a few schools w/o lights where Saturday is the norm. It's probably more enjoyable under the sun in October in Maine than in Arkansas :).

Offline AlUpstateNY

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Re: Any Thursday / Friday Varsity Games?
« Reply #10 on: February 14, 2018, 01:04:32 PM »
The steady conversion from Saturday afternoon to Friday night High School football games AND the diminishing number of qualified Interscholastic Football Officials has been a looming collision, on a slow but steady, course for decades, that seems to be arriving in specific areas. 

The Laws of Supply & Demand, eventually, and unfortunately, supersede other factors and considerations and dictate a necessity of adjustment to deal with resulting imbalance.   

Offline bama_stripes

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Re: Any Thursday / Friday Varsity Games?
« Reply #11 on: February 15, 2018, 06:04:50 AM »
We still have a few schools w/o lights where Saturday is the norm. It's probably more enjoyable under the sun in October in Maine than in Arkansas :).

Well, I wasn't thinking about the weather, although that's certainly a consideration.  I was referring to the fact that College Game Day starts at approximately sunrise.   pHiNzuP

Offline Ralph Damren

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Re: Any Thursday / Friday Varsity Games?
« Reply #12 on: February 15, 2018, 06:29:10 AM »
Well, I wasn't thinking about the weather, although that's certainly a consideration.  I was referring to the fact that College Game Day starts at approximately sunrise.   pHiNzuP
The Crimson Tide certainly promotes more interest than the U-Maine Black Bears aWaRd. The challenges of Saturday football in Maine is deer hunting season which begins the first Saturday in November. Tuning up one's snowmobile doesn't usually begin until Thanksgiving weekend.