[drothamel]

I agree with JRut on this one. Officials can't really prevent fouls, and they certainly can't prevent injuries. The best we can do is hope to deter these things from happening. The simple fact is that if there is a flagrant foul, and a kid gets injured, my seeing and calling that action flagrant does not stop the injury. Now, it is true that it may deter someone else from commiting a similar act and injuring another player, but it can't actually prevent another foul. It works kinda like the justice system, punishments aren't really preventative, they are designed to be deterrents.

In the end, it is up to the players to determine how rough a game is going to be. I just recently had a game with 1 foul in the first half. Both teams in zone defenses, and almost no contact the entire half. In the second half, we had one intentional foul, one techincal foul, and both teams in the bonus. When the kids got physical, we continued to call fouls, but they just wouldn't stop. The game never got out of control, but the players just continued to foul eachother. Even one of the coaches said to me, "I don't know what happened to them. Every kid I put in the game just kept fouling."