[Da Official]

Originally Posted by smginnis

6th Grade Girls Tournament Game, A1 shoots and "fades" into a still defender, misses her shot, and falls to the ground. B1 gets rebound, fast breaks toward her basket, and misses her layup. After the first miss layup, I notice that A1 is still crying on the floor in the back court near her basket. After an offensive rebound (or 2) and missed layups, team A gets possession and we blow the play dead to attend to A1 who still underneath the other basket.

In between the 10 seconds I noticed that the girl was on the floor (indicated by screaming parents) and we blew it dead, I was I was struggling with blowing the whistle right away just in case the girl was having a heart attack/stroke vs. dealing with a coach who would definitely get on me for stopping play at that point.

Of course, I took hell from the parents with such comments like "you're going to get players hurt on there by not blowing your whistle.."

I agree that safety comes first, but there are other things to consider before just stopping play.

Another tangible is that the "injured player" is a 6th grade girl who had been "injured" a couple times during this game already. I was confident that she didn't have a severe injury, but obviously can't prove that either way without stopping play.

Is there a hard line on when to stop play? How would it change in youth vs. High School?

You stopped play at the absolute CORRECT time. Also, at that level expect the parents to complain and expect to have the occasional coach run out on to the floor before beckoned. Welcome to the fun world of lower level rec ball!