[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Having the R sounds his whistle is the stupidist and most idiotic thing I have ever heard of, not to mentioin it is not sanctioned in the NFHS Officials Manual. The players and coaches know that they are not to dunk a dead ball. If they are stupid enough to dunk a dead ball and be caught by the officials too bad. I don't plan on moving to Texas, but if I did, no partner of mine would be sounding his whistle as we entered the court. I would take his whistle from him and would not give it to him until just before the start of the game. This mechanic is just a lot of nonsense because some officials are afraid to do their job and more importantly, too many coaches will not do their job.

And no I don't look for players dunking the ball. I have called exactly three pre-game dunking technical fouls in 38 years of officiating high school basketball. The first two were during jr. varsity games when the officials had to be on the court thiry (30) minutes (that's right 30 min for you youngins out there) and a varsity game about ten (10) years ago. Each time the player was dunking the ball as we walked onto the court. The look on their faces was the look of a deer getting caught in the glare of a car's headlights. In the two JV games, the head coach of the offending team was standing under the basket while his team was doing its pre-game layups, and was watching his players dunking the ball. The varsity game was better, the assistant coaches were on the court watching the players warm up while the head coach was still in the locker room because he didn't like to come out onto the court until just before the starters were announced. All of his assistants were afraid to go tell him about his indirect technical foul and that he had lost the coaching box for the entire game before it had even started.

MTD, Sr.