Using technology to their advantage

MARQUETTE — When it comes to sports, athletes and coaches are mostly willing try anything to give them an edge against their competition. The same can also be said for the people on the field who manage the games.

For the last two months, Steve Holman’s football crew wore lapel mics on their shirts and IFBs in their ears. The five football officials purchased a set of radios to see if the technology would make a difference when it comes to officiating games.

After eight games with the new equipment, the crew is happy that they made the investment.

“The advantages that we saw right away is when there’s an issue in the game with a player or a coach, we can communicate that to all five in the crew,” said Barry James, the Back Judge on Holman’s crew. “If there’s a problem with a player, we can say (for example) that #6 Blue has been warned, so we can communicate a lot better than when in a regular situation when you actually have to walk up to somebody and talk about it.

“For us, our crew isn’t getting any younger, so as far as covering the field and communicating, it works extremely well for us,” said James.

James added that the radios improved their communication with the coaches. The radios work on their own unique channel. The whole system cost the group a couple hundred dollars.