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Old Sat Jan 10, 2004, 11:56am
WinterWillie WinterWillie is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 263
Contact lenses

Quote:
Originally posted by BktBallRef
Quote:
Originally posted by WinterWillie
When you check the book at the ten minute mark before the game begins, you should ask each coach to put in the book contact lenses and inhalers by each player's name who uses them. If that is done and you have an incident where a player loses a lens or has an asthma attack, you do not have to charge a TO to team whose player may be involved. If they have not put them in the book, then you will have to charge a TO to the team. The importance of this cannot be overstated because in the late stages of a very close game a team that does not list these things could be charged a timeout when they don't have any timeouts left which could then result in the team being assessed a technical foul. Or on the other hand, if you have an unscrupulous, savy coach, he/she may have a player act like he/she has lost a lens during a close games if he feels he needs a timeout and he doesn't want to use the one he has left in an attempt to save it for the end of the game.
Willie, that's completely archaic. There's no rule to back up such a process or assessing a technical foul if the player's condition isn't noted in the book.

If a player says he's lost a CL, you stop play at an opportune time per the injury rule. If it can be secured, he secures it, and play continues. But you don't note this type of thing in the scorebook nor do you ask the captain these questions during pre-game.
I've been doing this for years since I was instructed to do so by our state interpreter and our local association interpreter. Our state athletic association directives supersede any NFHS rules. Our state directives often vary from federation rules such as the one whether to signal when the defensive player is not within 6' of the offensive player
Whereas, federation does not direct you to use , our state
directs us to use it. Our state athletic association also requires the home team to have an athletic trainer present at every athletic contest-a very expensive proposition. Let me
stress, the safety of the players is our first and foremost concern when we (as officials) are on the court. The purpose in requiring coaches to put this in the book is a preventative mechanic and I have NEVER had a coach (we only ask the coaches not the captains) object to it in all the years that we have used it. Why would the coaches object? It also lessens any liability that may arise from a negligence lawsuit. If you had a player collapse on the court, wouldn't you want to know he had an asthmatic condition. If a player tells you he has lost a contact lens how would you know if he was wearing lens and could be believed, after all, how many times have you called a foul on a player only to have them deny it. If they wanted to use a trick play out there, this is a way to avoid it. A technical foul is the least of our concerns!
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