In 2005, we expect to operate both 5-man and 6-man crews during the regular season. Generally, we will work with 6-man except on particularly heavy weeks of scheduling. In that case we will reduce the number of officials on the field to running a 5-man crew in some or all of our games. The idea is to not dilute the talent of the officials doing your games just in the name of having 6 people on the field.

Whether working with a 5-man or a 6-man crew, the official assigned as the Line Judge has the primary responsibility for communicating with the press-box (usually the home) sideline. He (or in some cases she) will relay information from that sideline to the rest of the officiating crew. However, their primary communication duties relate to passing you penalty information. Unless the flag is one they threw personally, they must get the particulars from other members of the crew. We will make every effort to get information to you concerning what the penalty was, who was the offending player, the status of the ball at the time of the penalty and the location of the foul on the field. In a 6-man crew the Back Judge will be available to help with relaying this information, as needed; and even in a 5-man, the Back Judge will still assist in relaying information whenever he can, especially to the team who committed the penalty.

While the Line Judge is relaying information to the coach on the press-box side, the Head Linesman should be doing the same for the team away from the press-box side (usually the visitors). In a 6-man crew, the Field Judge will assist with relaying information, as needed. In a 5-man, the Back Judge’s duties are split between sidelines.

Of course the Referee is the person in charge of the entire crew. It is he (or she) who is responsible for the overall management of the crew and the game. In addition, he must observe his own areas of coverage during that play, primarily the passer, runner behind the line of scrimmage or the kicker. Once he is made aware of penalties, he will confer with the crew as to the nature of the penalty or penalties and will give options, if any, to the captain of the offended team. One of the very first things he will do to communicate with you is turn to the press-box side (only) and give preliminary signals as to the foul or fouls that apply and to which team or teams they apply. If the foul is against your opponent, the preliminary signals give you some time to decide what option you want your captain to exercise. In addition, the Referee will also explain the penalty to the captain of the offended team in sufficient detail that the captain can understand obvious “take” or “decline” situations and can also understand more complex decisions will be in order. The Referee will give the captain time to look to the sideline, if needed, to learn your wishes. He won’t try to force the captain to do this, though. Once the captain has clearly indicated his decision to the Referee, the decision is final. For this reason, if none other, it is really important that your captains know their options and what you want to do with those options. To facilitate this, we will make every effort as a total crew to make it easy for both you and your opposition to get the information on fouls as soon as possible.

It has been our general experience that sometimes the head coach may want to have a word with the Referee. It also happens that the Referee may want to deliver information personally to either or both sidelines. In the case where the Referee decides to communicate something to either or both sidelines, he will typically take an official’s time-out to do this. If the Referee can speak with you briefly during the normal course of the game’s flow about something of interest to you without taking a time-out, we’re happy for him to do so. We don’t want to make a habit of this as repetitive trips to the sideline would inevitably interrupt the flow of the game. Most such communications are better handled through the wing or deep officials on the crew. Of course, if you have time-outs remaining in a half, you may always call a time-out and use that time for an official Coach-Referee conference. If you wish to question the application of a rule (not the judgment call of an official), this is absolutely the way to go about this. If your opinion of how the rule should have been applied is accepted by the Referee, the charged time-out will be converted to an official’s time-out. If it turns out that the previous ruling remains in force, your time-out will count as one of your normally-allotted 3 per half.

Two of the officials you’re not going to usually have much contact with during the game are the Umpire and the Electric Clock Operator (ECO). The Umpire’s main job is out on the middle of the field and it would be a rare time that you would find him on the sidelines. Even for the kick-off, he is out in the middle of the field to control the kicker just prior to the kick.

The ECO’s job is always well away from the field, barring a failure of the scoreboard clock. While we ask our ECOs to be friendly and polite to everyone they meet in the press-box, their job is exclusively to operate the clock. In fact, since they have no direct means to communicate with the crew on the field, we ask them not to offer any opinions or comments about the game to anyone. About the only exception to this rule would be to discuss specific questions asked of him/her by any GHSA-assigned evaluator who might be present. In that one case, we would expect the ECO to answer questions asked of him/her by the evaluator, only.