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[CYO Butch]

Originally posted by Hawks Coach
MTD
Please tell me you don't think this is how you want third grade girls or boys to learn to play basketball. Pull this crap in HS and people will draw fouls, and you will stop doing this. But there is no reason to put third graders in a position of being told to stand in front of a freight train and take a charge for the team. They are not sufficiently skilled or experienced to have to deal with this kind of strategy, nor should they be. This isn't basketball as played at any level of the game. This is pure BS.

You really amaze me sometimes. This is clearly outside the spirit of the rules, is unsporting, and an inappropriate way to teach basketball to youth players. If you can't recognize this, you should stick to HS and skip the youth games. (This last piece for those who think we are a bunch of softies)

Of course the Green Bay Sweep is legal, per se, but it sure scared the heck out of those little girls. Hawks Coach, you, like many who post here, understand there is a HUGE difference between what goes on on behalf of the little ones and high school players for whom the official rules are written. The league in question (Montgomery County, MD, Department of Recreation) has a set of very explict guidelines for coach and parental behavior, playing time, etc. Their 3rd graders are not allowed to play zones. Imagine a little kid out there trying to guard their "man" when she is run over. Most of them really were terrified. This happened six years ago, but for the girls I worked with that year, they still remember playing in that game, how "dirty" the other team was, and how freightend they were when they saw the two" monsters" coming at them.

And by the way, MTD, just because it isn't illegal in the NFHS rule book doesn't mean it can't be unsportsmanlike. Do you think Dennis Rodman's intimidating behavior (choose your thug) in the NBA would be allowed in HS? There are age and level appropriate lines that shouldn't have to be spelled out in the book. For a league to give written guidance to the officials in it should be welcomed by the officials and should never deserve a rebuke from them. It is pretty common practice for youth leagues in general, and rec leagues in particular, to spell out differences from the NFHS book. In this case, the officials were glad to get the explicit direction so that it could be applied consistently by all of them.