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Life on the Sidelines With a Veteran Chain Gang
Pete Snitzer holds the "box," which marks the down and the location of the football. Snitzer has been working the chains at Annandale High for 19 years.
(Photos By John Mcdonnell -- The Washington Post)
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The most important attribute of a chain crew member?
"Somebody who listens," said Dennis Hall, commissioner of the Northern Virginia Football Officials Association. "Sometimes it's even better to have people who don't know the game because they'll definitely wait for the official to wave them on. But most experienced ones are very good."
Chain crew members are in an awkward position. They stand on the visitors' sideline, because that's opposite the press box. But that puts them in the thick of the opposing teams' players and coaches. So rooting is a no-no, although sometimes a cheer might slip out.
Bartnek recalls one season when Annandale was clinging to a thread of a lead in the final minute against Gar-Field. His son, Chris, boomed a punt that was downed inside the 10-yard line, coaxing a curse word from a visiting coach. "That's my boy," Bartnek could not help but utter, but probably not so loud that the coach heard him.
In a recent change, chain crews must line up two yards behind the sideline, pushing them deeper into the opposing coaches and players. "If you've had beans and hot dogs for dinner, you can usually keep 'em back a ways," Rosenberg jokes. That can make sideline navigation difficult. It also can expose the crew members to key information that they are powerless to share, not that they would.
"When you know they've got a trick play running and there's nothing you can do about it," Burney said, "sometimes you want to scream, you see it coming the whole time. Or the players behind us are getting excited [saying], 'Here it comes, here it comes.' "
There are physical dangers, as well. Bartnek bruised both hips and hurt his hand this season while trying to elude a player headed his way on a tackle out of bounds. Sympathy? His crew mates accused him of trying to get attention from a female athletic trainer.
The reward is knowing you did a good job. After one game this season, an official approached the Annandale crew and said: "Hey, I have to go to Emory & Henry tomorrow and do their game. Want to come down and do their chains?"
That was nice to hear. But for now, and perhaps for years, they will stick with Annandale.
"Angelo keeps asking us if we want to come back," Rosenberger said. "You either die or resign or move out of the neighborhood before you break up a happy home, I guess."
Varsity Letter is a weekly column about high school sports in the Washington area.
