Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
... we have to tell them they are out of timeouts ...?
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By rule, absolutely yes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
How in the world do you know who was informed or not informed?
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It's actually quite simple, if one of the officials informed the team/coach that he had no timeouts left, as required by the rules, then the officials would know
100% for sure who was informed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
It is your responsibility as a team to keep track of things in the game. If you don't, then shame on you.
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True, but also, shame on the official (in a hypothetical situation, not like the one in this thread) for not knowing the rule, or (worse) choosing not to do what officials are
required to do by the rule, after being informed by the table that the team has used all of their allotted timeouts and then informing the team/coach of the same.
It's not a flexible mechanic, it's a rule.
The scorer shall: Record the time-out information charged to each team (who and
when) and notify a team and its coach, through an official, whenever that team is
granted its final allotted charged time-out.
This isn't some type of courtesy that officials extend to teams and coaches, it's a long recognized
rule that most of us have followed dozens (maybe more) of times. In my thirty-six years, as the calling official granting, and reporting, the final allotted timeout, and being informed as such by the table, I have never, ever, failed to inform the head coach, either during, or immediately after, the timeout, or, failing to get the attention of the head coach without interrupting his huddle, informing the assistant coach. As the non calling official, if the situation presents itself, I have asked my partner, "Did you inform the coach?".
If the officials are informed by the table and they
choose not to inform the team/coach, then they have simply kicked a rule (and in 99.9% (maybe more) of all cases, this doesn't result in any negative ramifications).
Now, some officials do go beyond the rule and extend the courtesy of communicating to teams/coaches how many timeouts (before using all of them) they have remaining, "Coach, you have one sixty second timeout left", but that's outside of the rules, isn't required by the NFHS, and is more of a personal and/or local custom (maybe for building good rapport with the coaches). I don't do that, and my local board officials are instructed not to do that. It's a classic "When in Rome ..." situation.