I'm not sure they made the effort in the spirit of the game, quite possible that both the head and assistant coaches wanted the starters in to start the fourth quarter and the opposing team to not know it untill it was to late.

Question to the folks that would let this go and "would have done the same for him/her" Would you allow the opposing coach to make the subs he/she wants to now that he knows what the other team is doing?

Personally, I'm brushing up on Rule three.

Thanks, Stan

Stan,

Also might be a good idea to review the Officials Manual.

In the Officials Manual, page 16, paragraph 105.c it states that one of the referee's pre-game duties is: "Authorize the scorer to note and prevent any attempted illegal substitution." The players who are substituting for the 5 that ended the 3rd quarter, are that--subtitutes.

"Preventative officiating" in this situation not only seems to be allowed, but encouraged. Our table personnel are "table officials".

If I'm telling the coach I would do them same for them, then, yes, I would probably allow their subs since he now knows who the other team's actual player are. I don't think the opposing coach will have much of an argument considering we have, technically, over-looked a potential violation.

That's my position now--barring convincing otherwise.

I've read this discusion before and understand the rule-but never see it enforced around here. I think we should but it is hard to when you are the U and the R has 2-10x more experience than you and isn't concerned with this rule. Can you explain how you deal with it? Forgot about the situation originally presented here where the coach notified the bench. How about these two situations:

1. Start of the second quarter subs come on to the floor and you know they didn't report in.

2. Just before the second quarter starts, and after the first horn, subs go and report to the bench and try and come on the floor.

In both situations keep in mind that the scorer is a student volunteering that doesn't know the rule-and I am lucky if they can just keep the AP arrow right and don't want to confuse them with this in a pre-game. FYI- in the few games I have been the R I pregamed it with the captains/coaches and it wasn't a problem.

Are you near Johnstown? My family reunion used to be there.

I remember going to the Hershey factory and of course, Amish country.

Great area. Had a blast... including an incident which disqualifies me for running for office. :)

I'm right in the middle of Amish Country, although it seems more like Alaska right now. I haven't seen my team since Friday. We are going to practice today, weather permitting, but we've had a practice cancelled and a game postponed twice so far this week.

I think that the most reasonsed solution is to allow the subs and allow the other team to match up with their own subs. It isn't certain that the head coach was pulling a fast one (although he may have been doing so). The fact that he discussed this with the scorer complicates things. This seems like the fairest way out for both sides.

I know the feeling Coach. I am in the northern VA area and my d/h Monday was cancelled and moved to Tuesday, cancelled again and moved to Wednesday, cancelled again and now scheduled for tonight. Have other makeup games on Saturday -- some games will be played at 9:00 am and run most of the day. My wife works at one of the high schools and she is going back today (2-hour delay) for the first time since last Friday.

It is -6 right now here with a wind chill of -21. I'd rather have the snow.