[Andy]

Retrozetti - reading between the lines of your posts, I believe that you may be taking the "determine if the player is unconscious or apparently unconscious" too literally. If I'm off the mark, I apologize.

Here is my take:

I am not a medical professional, I'm sure that some of my partners over the years have some medical training, but I would venture to say that a good portion of them do not.

My training has been to interpret that statement in the book ("The referee shall determine if a player is unconscious or apparently unconscious.") more as "in your judgement, can the player continue in the contest without a potential for futher damage to him/herself." Since the NFHS rules are written to emphasize safety, I have been told to err on the side of caution.

Example - I was officiating a girls basketball game several years ago. One player dived toward a loose ball that was near the sideline. Her dive and slide across the floor ended with a loud clunk as her head slammed into the bottom row of the bleachers. I immediately stopped the game and called the coach onto the court to tend to her, I went over as well. I noticed that she did not lose consciousness, as in out cold, but there was a glassy, glazed over look in her eyes. After the coach was done tending to her and helped her back to the bench, I informed him that I was declaring her ineligible for the remainder of the contest unless she was released by a doctor. I never had to touch her and I was able to make that determination in a very short amount of time.