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Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee
If the player hadda become ill or injured instead of fouling out, would you still insist that they play with four then?
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In this case, I probably would. The case play that you cited is for changing a designated starter. It is assumed that there are other eligible team members who can replace him. So all you are doing is waving the penalty for changing a starter, you are not overriding some other restriction. Afterall, even without injury or illness a starter CAN be changed, there is just a technical foul as a result.
In this case there is a rule which says that player X cannot participate at this time. Even if they take a technical foul, he still can't come in. That is why it is pretty tough for me to set this aside. I certainly wouldn't want to be accused of using my own individual philosophy and not following the NFHS rules!
BTW in the injured starter scenario, what you do if there were no other team members on the roster? Say the team only has five and one of them breaks his ankle during warmups. Do you forfeit the game because a team MUST start the game with five players or do you call it extenuating circumstances and allow the contest to proceed with this team only fielding four players?