Ball Hits Fan's Shoe on Court

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally posted by SMEngmann
I was doing a middle school game in a small gym with the fans right along the sidelines. There was a loose ball along the sideline and the ball hit a fan's shoe, which was clearly in bounds when it hit. There was no crazy deflection and I kept the ball in play as if it had hit me. Did I get the call right, and where can I get a NFHS ruling on this?

If all the fan was doing was just sitting in the first row of a gym with little or no room on the sidelines and the fan made no effort to intentionally touch the ball with the foot, you do NOT have fan interference (do not go looking for weird things), you have an out-of-bounds play. The team that last touched the ball before the ball touched the fan caused the ball to go out-of-bounds. This is not a play on situation. A out-of-bounds violation has occured.