[BillyMac]

BktBallRef:

According to out interperter, Peter Palermino, the NFHS gave credit to our local Board for initiating two rule changes in 2003-04, the return of the captain's lineup, and the additional definition of basketball interference to include when a player pulls down a moveable ring that contacts the ball before the ring returns to its original position. The second change was brought to the attention of our interpreter by Art Williams after he had observed such action in one of his varsity games, and he questioned what the call should have been. Peter Palermino followed up and brought it to the attention of the NFHS.

In the case of the captain's lineup, I was simply the middle man. The original question came from Michael Garry, the assistant coach of the Southington (CT) High School boys varsity basketball team. When I couldn't find the citation for the rule, and couldn't remember the deletion of this rule as being a rule change, I brought it to the attention of our interpreter, Peter Palermino, who did all the hard work of following the chain of command to find out what happened to the rule and to get it reinstated by the NFHS.

I was hoping that my post would generate some professional discussion about the inner workings of the NFHS. I had hoped that at least one of our Forum members was familiar with the NFHS and could explain how rule changes, like the out of bounds coach or referee being touched by a player with the ball in bounds, could go unannounced, or how a long standing rule, like the captian's line up, could dissappear unannounced. The intent of my posting was not about who found these errors first.