You are back to your old, old habit of ad hominem attack
Gee whiz Tom, if you are going to dazzle us with those big words you ought to at least know how to use them. To suggest that I am trying to reject your argument based on some frivolous or irrelevant fact about you personally is just plain wrong. You made a statement that high school coaches control the NFHS rules code. I simply rebutted your assertion with factual statement about how the process works. In no way is that an ad hominem.
Fact is that you are more guilty, for your attack on me about my old, old habit is indeed an ad hominem. And, BTW, it is not true. I do not have a habit of using ad hominems; I am a debater and I love to use factual information and logical assumptions in my arguments rather than character assassination. (Though maybe you might consider the coattails remark a form of the latter.)
coaches in varsity sports get what they want-
be it umpires assigned to their home games Not around here. Umpire association assigns umpires to games. We provide the schedules to the ADs; they mail out the contracts and make out the checks. The only involvement of the coach is to carry the checks to the field and hand them to the umpires prior to the game.
umpires assigned to state tournaments
Not here. Quarter, Semi, and Finals officials are appointed by a State Association committee. District and Regional tournament managers get their officials from local officials associations.
or rule changes.
Either you are spouting off just to bash, or you have no clue. If a coach wants a rule change he has to sell his AD. The AD can call his contact at the State Association and sell him/her. The State has to contact the regional rep that sits on the NFHS rules committee. (For you, Tom, its that guy in Kansas). Of course, the coach could go through the coaches association to reach the Coachs Rep on the NFHS committee. Likewise, an official could reach the Officials Rep on the committee. But combined, those are only 2 of 13 voices on the Softball Rules committee. To suggest that coaches
control NFHS rules is simply ludicrous.
Not until NFHS-affiliated state associations
Your usage of the word affiliated suggests that the NFHS has a son or branch relationship with the State Associations. Actually, the opposite is true. Many State Associations have existed for a long time. (Your own MSHSL is almost 90 years old). The NFHS is a creation of the State Associations to provide uniformity amongst all the States (and Canadian Providences). We say NFHS, but it is really the National Federation
OF State High School Associations.
Likewise, your State Associations are nothing more than a voluntary association of your states high schools. The schools give up authority for participation rules (player eligibility, length of season, etc) to the Association and the Association in turn manages statewide tournaments for the schools. Thirty years ago Tom your state created two tournament classes based on school enrollment. Was that dictated by the NFHS? State Legislature? No your schools authorized the MSHSL to poll the member schools and the majority of the schools voted for it.
similar "gotcha" silly-a$$ rules.
Oooh, you, an umpire, bashing the legal authority for state tournaments for enforcing its rules. Regardless of how silly you think a rule is, do you not enforce it in a game. Are you not on record, here and on other boards for advising umpires to follow the rules and not put their own interpretations into their calls?
OK instead of bashing me, why dont you offer some rational counterpoints to my statements that ASA rules
tend to be much harsher in penalty applications than NFHS. I provided three that quickly came to mind; lets make it simple and just discuss one.
Under ASA, the failure of the team manager to inform the umpire of a substitution turns a legal substitute into an illegal one. When discovered, the player is DQed. In high school ball an unreported
legal substitute is considered in the game when play is started. Thus the child is not penalized for the adults mistake. But NFHS will not allow the coach to continue to make those mistakes, for after a warning to the coach any future unreported sub is restricted to the bench.
This brings up another issue. NFHS allows a player to be restricted to the bench for minor unsporting violations. There can be a significant difference between restriction and ejection (ASA disqualification). I suspect that most states are like Michigan if a high school athlete is ejected from a contest he/she is ineligible the rest of the day and the next day of competition. If you get kicked out in the first game of a Saturday tournament, you could lose 4 or 5 games that day and the DH scheduled next Tuesday. Ejection can be a hell of a penalty for a high school athlete. Restriction simply means the player is benched for the rest of the game. Then all is forgiven and they can play again the next game.
Now can you make an argument on the
above points that ASA rules are not more punitive , and/or are a better answer than NFHS for youth sports?
WMB