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Originally Posted by ChuckElias
Fine. But 4-34-4 defines a team member as "a member of bench personnel who is in uniform and is eligible to become a player."
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My board interpreter (who probably was in on Chuck's conference call) issued this same ruling last year. I thought he was wrong then -- and I still do.
While 4-34-4 defines "team member," it also refers to "bench personnel," which are defined a few paragraphs earlyer in 4-34-2. This is what separates "team member" from "bench personnel." Bench personnel includes substitutes, coaches, statisticians, managers or precisely "all individuals who are part of or affiliated with a team." Team member merely distinguishes from that motley cast of characters by recognizing that some will (or could) get into a game and some could not (the coaches, managers and statisticians, I would suggest.)
When I show up at a gym for a high school game, or an AAU game or a youth travel league game, it is none of my business -- by rule -- who plays. I don't hold tryouts, I don't check transcripts, I don't see birth certificates. The schools and their associations (or the tournament sponsors) are responsible for that. My job is to make sure the contest on the court is played by the rules of basketball -- none of which cover things like age, district boundaries, or whether a kid played a half in the JV game and thus can play only one half of the varsity game. If one team cheats and puts "ineligible" players on the court, it is not my job to do anything about it.
A wise official once instructed me: "Why go looking for trouble?" That is all that you get if you accept this interpretation.