[mikesears]

We were riding home from a game last night (an awesome game and my first experience at Umpire in a varsity contest), and my crew got into a discussion of what we do if either team has only ten players on the field. It happened to the defense in our game. My linesman stated that he would tell the coach, "Hey Coach, you've only got ten out there". My umpire (who Refereed last night) strongly felt that doing this was coaching. He made the point (and I fully agree) that it could be an unfair advantage to the team being told they only have ten players if the other wing isn't doing it. Frankly, how to handle this hasn't been addressed in our pregame. I am going to add it for future games.

IF (and this is a big IF) I were to do this, I would suggest to the coach that he count his players on the field.

What are your feelings on giving a varsity coach a hint that he doesn't have enough players on the field?