Quote:
Originally posted by Hawks Coach
First, I more agree with Rich that there should be no auto suspensions. Let the situation determine whether or not a person should be suspended. But, I am also a realist. And this would require a person or a committee to make a determination on every ejection, and an immediate report faxed after every ejection to support that decision. And the decision must be quick because the suspension might need to take effect the next night. So it is much easier from an adminstrative perspective (especially at the state level) to have it be automatic, even though it may lead to some inequities. Kind of like a red card in soccer - once it's out, you sit, regardless of whether or not your red card was not nearly as bad as somebody else's yellow card.
That said, I think there needs to be a clause in there that says greater or equal counts, or that it is served in the next game played at the same level without impact to other levels. The greater than or equal criteria can only be used if the player has played at a higher level during the current season. IOW, you can't dress a freshman for a varsity game for the first time all year and say it meets the criteria for serving the suspension. But if you have played in varsity games, you can sit out one varsity game to meet the requirement of the one game suspension for a feshman game. It seems to be fairer that way.
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I actually have the ejection stats for spring sports handy for my state. They include this in the packet at the state rules meeting.
Last season a TOTAL of 59 baseball player ejections happened statewide (47 in the spring season and 12 in the summer season). 17 ejections in girls soccer, 1 in softball, and 3 in boys track and field (there was 1 in tennis in 1999, which I'm still trying to figure out).
20 total coaches all last season -- 13 in baseball, 3 in softball, 3 in girls soccer, and 1 in track-and-field. At all levels.
79 ejections from March through June. I think each one could be looked at for a couple of minutes without rocking the boat too much. I also think that there would be more ejections if the auto-suspension was not there -- which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm willing to bet that many should have-been ejections didn't happen because officials didn't think the punishment fit the crime. Instead, the officials probably took grief that they shouldn't have to take.
It could be worse though -- in a state I used to live in, the penalty for head coach ejection used to include forfeit, I believe.
--Rich