Overdrive Reffing Sans-buttons?

[Tim Baird]

Hey guys,
Has anyone run an off-season so far this year without having the hand-held units for the refs? If so, what did you do/use?

I'm head ref for Mayhem in Merrimack next weekend and we're just trying to get prepared in case Murphy shows up instead of a 100% equipped field (been there, done that).

Our plan so far is to make up 4 white boards (2 for each side) where one will be for line crossing and one will be for ball hurdles/rolls just like the hand-helds on the official fields. We'll make a spread-sheet of sorts with permanent marker and then make tally-marks with dry erase markers and add up the scores at the end of each match, do the math, and then display.

Does anybody have any better ideas just in case this happens? Thanks!

[Elgin Clock]

Depending on the number of refs available (and I think I have an idea how many we have at Mayhem) we could use some hand counter devices like those to count crowds.

Just a thought, although it would involve a bit more of an investment than a few whiteboards.

There are advantages & negatives to any upgrades though...

Stop by & see me in Boston Saturday Tim.
I'm sure we can put our heads together & come up with something that will be a little streamlined, but very accurate as well.

[Carol]

At one of the early regionals, I think Peachtree but I don't remember for sure, the whole field went down due to severe storms in the area. The head ref, Jan I believe, ran the whole field manually. I unfortunately don't remember her name but perhaps she or someone who was there can tell you what exactly was done.

There also were some backup paper scoring systems that were available to head refs, but I didn't keep the link.

Instead of white boards, I would think pads of paper would be better - one sheet per match. This would give you a better tracking system if there was a mistake and you need to recreate the scoring. You would need a place to make a whole bunch of copies obviously of the scoring spreadsheet, preferably for free.