[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

I am not going to address the coach's injury prevention theories, but rather the official intercepting the coach and preventing him from going to the injured player.

NFHS R3-S3-A5: A player who has been injured to the extent that the coach or any other bench personnel is beckoned and/or comes onto the court shall be directed to leave the game, unless a time-out is requested by, and granted to, his/her team and the situation can be corrected by the end of the time-out.

NFHS Casebook Play 3.3.5 Situation B: A1 appears to be injured and an official properly halts play and the Team A coach rushes onto the court to check A1. Howeve, A1 is OK and seems ready to play within a few seconds. RULING: A1 must be removed as the coach came onto the court. A1 may remain in the game if the coach does not come on the court and A1 is ready to play immediately. If the coach or other bench personnel have come onto the court, the player must be replaced. There is no set amount of time as to what is "immediately," but it should not involve more that a few seconds and it must be without the coach, trainer or doctor being beckoned and/or entering the court. The coach may also call a time-out to keep the player in the game. (R1-S5-A2b)

The effect of the rule is not to prevent a coach from entering the court unless beckoned by an official, but if a coach enters the court whether beckoned by an official or not, the player must leave the game. In Julie's orginal post, her partner was incorrect when he interecepted the coach and told him he could not enter the court without being beckoned. I am going to speculate, and assume that Julie's partner was confusing the injury rule with the fighting rule and beckoning coaches onto the court to help stop a fight.

Charging a coach with a techncial foul for entering the court to attend to an injured player without beckoned by an official is definitely incorrect and cannot be defended by rule.

[Edited by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr. on Jan 28th, 2004 at 11:15 AM]