Quote:
Originally posted by Nevadaref
The rest of your thinking in the paragraph that follows is exactly backwards though.
NFHS penalizes the actual wearing of identical numbers right when it is discovered, even if the team members never enter the game. (3.2.2B is in the 04-05 book too. Good work, Bob.)
If something is incorrect in the book, that is penalized when the book NEEDS to be changed. So you have some leeway here.
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.sdrawkcab m'I serugif tI
I guess where my confusion comes in is locally, we have several small schools with limited budgets. When these schools purchase new uniforms for the varsity squad, the JV and freshman players usually get the "hand-me-downs". There have been times where a player on the JV squad sits on the bench for the varsity game, and they have an identical uniform number to someone on the varsity team. The "accepted practice", or at least the way I had been taught, is to inform the other coach, (who never has a problem because they're from a small school as well), and make sure the table knows the difference between #23 the starter, and #23 with older uniform who won't get in until the game's outta control. With another coach that may not be as agreeable, we have said the "T" will only be assessed when the second player comes in. I've seen this more often on girls' teams, and I've never run across this specific problem with any larger school. Obviously that breeds bad habits, like thinking that duplicate numbers are ok, as long as they're not in the game together. That's where coming here helps to straighten me out and make me actually look at the rule, instead of just doing things as they've been done in the past.
Now, here's my question: let's say you move here and work with me on a game where this is an issue. Should we issue the "T" when we see the players warming up? There is no conference standard or rule in place, just "the way it's been done". Also, the individual schools hire the referees, not an assignor or conference supervisor, so there is no one person to go back to and inform that we should all penalize or not penalize accordingly. Should you and I start to enforce it tonight according to the rules, when we know the next game the standard goes back to the way it was? Should we penalize a team because the district doesn't have the funds to properly outfit all their teams?
Maybe there is no "right" answer, but I would be intersted in other opinions. But, at least I now know what the correct call is.