Fight

[crosscountry55]

Originally Posted by frezer11

On a separate note, has there ever been a discussion of a rules change that would not require bench personnel coming onto the court to be ejected automatically? I understand the intent is to not add more people to the fight, but for those that run onto the court, you're getting tossed anyways, why not take a swing at a kid, and get all you can out of that ejection? Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for this, but it seems a stiff penalty when non-fight participants are reacting on positive instincts to break up a fight, especially when the penalty for trying to help or being an instigator is identical.

No, there has not, and there never will be. NCAA enforces this the same way. You come off, you're done for the night. Period. Good coaches teach this discipline so that if a fight ever does happen, the players instinctively stay where they are. And this is also where good assistant coaches can be worth their weight in gold keeping players on the bench.

Originally Posted by Adam

I would add that for 17 year old kids, their first instinct is not to break up the fight. Not for the majority of them anyway. That's why the NFHS wants them to just stay on the bench.

You don't need me to tell you this, but NCAA does this the same way. With good reason. Limit the chaos via the threat of severe penalty.

I've had two legitimate fights and I find that the hardest thing to do is say with certainty who came off the bench. NCAA gets monitor review in some cases. NFHS and smaller college games have no such luxury. When a fight breaks out your attention is drawn to the fight, not the bench. It's really hard to get it right.