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First of all, I agree with posters who say that this play was handled incorrectly by the refs. The coach should have been given his time out and the game should have moved on.
My point is that there are certain times that it is impossible for the refs to grant a timeout to a coach. In two person mechanics there are times when it should not happen. When the ball is opposite the coaches area, and in second half instances it would be in the coaches defensive half, the trail if the opponent has the ball or lead if the coaches team has the ball will have his back to the coach and in no way can grant the time out unless he thinks it is okay to turn completely away from the action which is not usually a good move. The lead will most likely have on ball responsibilties so he would need to take his eyes away from the ball. In other words there are situations in two person mechanics where it can be nearly impossible to grant the timeout to the coach. There needs to be a lull in the action where it is okay for one of the refs to visually see the coach request the time out. This is in the case where the noise allows the refs to hear the request.
I am in the camp who believes that players should be taught that they can also be an extension of the coach and relay his timeout request to the refs.
I just witnessed this scenario at GV high school game. The coach was requesting a time out and a player was doing this task of relaying and requesting the time out but by the time the player made the requested, the ref was focussed on the coach who was far away and not the player who was right next to the ref. It was kind of funny but it shows that the refs are also not used to taking timeouts from players but only from coaches.
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