2020-21 Basketball Rule Interpretations ...

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

SITUATION 1: Team A head coach has received a second direct technical foul. The coach is directed to leave the vicinity of the bench and go to the locker room. The team has no other adult personnel on the bench for this contest. RULING: Since there is no other adult school personnel available to supervise the team, the contest will be declared a forfeit. The score will stand if the opposing team is ahead. If the forfeiting team is ahead, the score will be recorded as a 2-0 forfeit. (5-4-1c)

As a result of some state-wide problems, our Connecticut high school sports governing body has some guidelines in place for such a situation. Once the coach, with no assistants, is ejected, the ejected coach has fifteen minutes to be replaced by a non-student over the age of eighteen. It is not the officials responsibility to check for proof of proper certification (usually all coaches in the state have to have a state issued coaching certificate), or age, or non-student status, we don't even ask. No replacement after fifteen minutes leads a forfeit by the team without a coach, even if they are leading in the game. Usually never comes up in high school varsity or junior varsity games, but does occasionally come up in high school freshman games (especially the visiting team), or middle school games.

Our state high school sports governing body probably figures that canceling a co-curricular school activity involving two teams of athletes (one team traveling by bus, that may have already left to return for a later pickup), cheerleaders, fans, officials, and parents, due to the behavior of one adult who lost his temper and said the wrong word to an official, possibly in the first minute of a game, may not be the best educational plan for all involved. Give the coach (as long as he's not being a dickhead) some time to get a teacher, administrator, parent, police officer in the corner, custodian, or even the other team's assistant coach, to coach, thus allowing the completion of this educationally valuable extracurricular school activity. That’s probably preferable to sending everybody home and turning off the lights in the gym when ten or fifteen minutes of time can possibly remedy a problem.