Multi-County, like many other local officials associations in the state, has adopted a policy of providing only 6-man crews for varsity games. This has multiple purposes. First of these is to improve the coverage of the “deep” judges, the Back Judge and the Field Judge. Having that sixth man, the Field Judge, allows the fifth man, the Back Judge, to move from the middle of the field deep in the defensive backfield to the sideline. This allows the “wing” officials, the Head Linesman and Line Judge, to provide better coverage on short passes and deep judges to be fully responsible for covering the goal line and the sideline deep. Also, this configuration allows for much better coverage at the sidelines by both deep and wing officials on passes thrown very near the sidelines. Quicker and more comprehensive coverage of the often-trouble-prone plays out of bounds is also possible because there are already two officials at the sideline even before the trailing officials have a chance to come up to the end of the play.

The second reason is that 6-man crews are required by GHSA for all playoff games. Use of the same configuration during the regular season gives everyone involved thoroughly-practiced experience at the positions they will be running in the playoffs. This is really important in that kicking game mechanics are vastly different between 5- and 6-man crews. Nothing has the potential for messing up a playoff game more than crews running unfamiliar positions with unfamiliar partners on the crew during the very plays that are the most difficult to officiate in the first place.

We are really fortunate in Georgia to be able to have the big majority of varsity football games called by 6-man crews. In large part because of this commitment to the 6-man crew, we’ve earned our place as a national leader in developing officiating mechanics for high school football. We’ll never be “perfect.” But, by sticking with the larger on-field crew, we give the teams for whom we call games the best chance we can to see what is important on every play. The 6-man crew gives us opportunities to better cover each of our 3 main goals: To keep play as safe as the sport inherently allows, to make the games as fair as possible for both teams, and to encourage the highest principles of sportsmanship among all the game’s participants

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