And So, It Begins

Today is a momentous day...it is Meet The Sooners Day, which also signifies the traditional start of OU's fall preseason practices. As a Sooner fan, I am thrilled about our prospects this year and very excited to see how things begin to shake out here in the preseason. We've got some good buzz going so far, and I think that we're going to have a great season. In fact, I'm going on record right now to say that I fully believe we will beat Texas this year. That's right, I am predicting a Sooner win against Texas. One more time...OU WILL BEAT TEXAS THIS YEAR. In fact, I am so confident that OU will beat Texas this year, that I am trying to plan out a way for Heidi and I to go down to see the game. I've never been to OU-Texas before, and I certainly want to go to see a win. I am fully convinced that this is the year for it to happen.

But that's not all. I've already had football meetings and such, for my own new season of officiating, going strong for two weeks. In fact, three weeks ago I went and worked at the big 7-on-7 tournament up at the Edmond schools. That was great, and a big confidence boost. I'm looking at a real possibility of semi-regular varsity work as a fill-in this season, and also at getting on a full-time crew for next season at the end of the year.

Let me explain a little bit. I don't remember if I've talked about this before, but when you start as an official, of course, you do "easier" low-level games, like youth league and junior high. In baseball, you're only working a two-man crew (one behind the plate, one on the bases) in every game, regardless of whether it's 1st-year kid pitch or high school varsity (or even junior college). So you just kind of float around and work with whoever the assigners put you with. Football is different, though; in youth league ball, you run a three-man crew: you have two "wing" officials, the line judge and head linesman, and a referee, or "white hat". Next time you watch a college or NFL game, or even a high-school varsity game, you'll understand why he's called that. So you get put with whoever the assigners pick, just like baseball. Junior-high and JV games use a four-man crew: the three guys mentioned before, plus an umpire. (In fact, go here for the basic names of the seven different available positions for football officials.)

In varsity, though, you work a five-man crew, and you really are a crew. Crews are teams who stick together from season to season. You do all of your football-officiating-related stuff with the guys on your crew. You take rules tests together. You sit together at association and rules meetings. You go out to eat together. In a big-time game, your only friends are the other guys in the striped shirts, and you have to have each others' backs. You end up spending a lot of time together during the football season, so you really build relationships there. Some crews have been together for 10 or 15 years, and only lose guys if someone retires.

Being part of a crew is a big deal, as it means you've really "arrived" as a football official. Some guys go their entire career and never make it to a crew, but spend all their time in youth-league and sub-varsity work. Others work on crews but never move off of a crew that does anything more than low-level varsity like 8-man, class C, B, A, 2A, or 3A. The really good guys eventually end up on crews that do the heavy-duty stuff, the 4A/5A/6A varsity and (you hope) get to work the state playoffs and championship games every once in a while. Finally, being on a varsity crew not only means you're at the top of your game, but also that you're making more money. You're working Friday nights, which you almost never do when you work only sub-varsity and youth league, unless you're filling in. And varsity ball pays about 50% more even than JV pays. So obviously, your first goal as a new football official is to get on a crew.

Oh...and I nearly forgot to mention the most critical part: getting on a crew is basically by invitation only. You don't get assigned to a crew, and you certainly don't ever ASK to be on a crew. You have to be seen by veteran guys, and not only that, but you have to be seen as a good official by veteran guys. You do this by working as much sub-varsity as you can, where you're working with other veteran officials, so that those veterans can see you, get to know you, and see how good you are. You also go to observe their varsity games, so that they can see you're interested (plus, they get to know you that much more, which is always good). They might also call you to fill in, if one guy on the crew has an emergency or simply can't make a specific game for some reason. My one varsity game last year, an 8-man game in tiny Kremlin, OK, I got to work that game because because I had worked with the guys on the crew and they had a slot open that night while the usual guy was out with an injury. The point is, they have to see you, they have to like you, and they have to remember you, so that when they have an opening they'll say, "Hey, why don't we call Chris Mallow? He's a darn good official and would be a great fit for our crew." I've already had some subtle initial interest, and the assigners are mentioning that there's a 95% chance that I'll be on a crew next year (in fact, that chance was why I got to work the 7-on-7 tournament at all, because that's usually only reserved for veterans).

So this is a big, big year for me, and I need to work my butt off for it so that I don't end up making that 95% chance a 50% or even a 0% chance.

You might recall how last year, I basically gave up blogging during the football season, primarily because I was so busy doing football stuff. I even put the DO on temporary hiatus. However, this past baseball season was twice as busy for me as last season's football was, and I still managed to get in regular posts, so I definitely plan to keep that going. Being an official in football has a lot of similarities to being an umpire in baseball, obviously...but there is also a lot of contrast that make the entire game and attitude of football a completely different experience (like the crew aspect mentioned above). I'll touch on some of the similarities and differences as we go, so please keep on reading.