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Old Tue Jan 04, 2011, 08:54am
CMHCoachNRef CMHCoachNRef is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mbyron View Post
+1

What I'm about to say in support of JR is for general consumption and not directed to any poster in particular.

Officials are human and make mistakes. The rules specify a time frame for correcting mistakes in order to have a fair procedure for all and to keep the game moving. (Actually, several time frames: one for throw-ins, one for "correctable errors," etc.)

The time frame is brief, which is an argument for getting the call right in the first place. We just don't have much time to fix it when we screw it up. If despite our best efforts we screw up and a player fouls out, well, those are the breaks. The player won't remember it in 5 days, much less 5 years.

What's worse is arbitrarily setting aside the rules because an individual official's sense of "fairness" is violated. That's usually what's going on when 2-3 is invoked: "I don't like this outcome, so I'm going to set aside the rules that dictate this outcome and deliver an outcome that I like better." That says the official is bigger than the game. And that's a route to a career doing MS games.
mb,
Let's say in my hypothetical situation that this had been an OHSAA State Final Game --likely to be remembered for more than five days. By book rule, there appears to be little that can be done, here. It is NOT one of the five correctable scoring errors (nor is it a throw-in team "error").

This, in my opinion, comes down to how will the officials handle it. REGARDLESS what is done, the officials have screwed the pooch with the initial call. The question is, are you, as an official, going to attempt to get creative and right your wrong or do you follow the rules from here on out (since obviously you failed to follow them when you assessed the individual technical foul). It is a stretch to call this a "bookkeeping" mistake as it was actually an official's mistake.

Since there are no protests permitted in OHSAA tournament play, the official's error here could likely play a major role in determining the State Champion.

The question here, can the officials get the player rightfully back into the game and follow the rules -- at least not break any of them -- at the same time.
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