[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Sorry to burst some peoples' bubbles, but slapping five with the freethrow shooter is prohibited by the rules. I know that we all like to see good sportsmanship but the NFHS Rules Committe has said that this is a delay of game and requires an official warning. The best way to nip this in the bud is at the captains' meeting.

I have issued this warning, but not too many times. Probably not more than five times over the last five years.

The rule about delay of warning for making contact with the freethrow shooter brings to mind a funny situation that I had involving the rule.

In the summer of 1998, a good friend of mine (MAC evaluator of women's basketball officials) and I were officiating in the YBOA Girls' National. A team from Western Penn. kept wanting to slap five with the freethrow shooter. After the game we had a nice fifteen minute conversation with the coaches about the rule and they were quite satisfied with our explaination and thanked us. The next spring I was officiating the YBOA Ohio State Qualifier, and western Penn. teams play in this tournament, and guess what, I had a game involving the same team and coaches. The very first time their team shot freethrows the players slapped five with the freethrow shooter and I issued the delay of game warning. The coaches practically blew a gasket. When I reminded them of our conversation the previous summer in Florida they turned ten shades of red. We did not hear another word from them the rest of the game.