Two 6 player situation last weekend.

[SamIAm]

I had two situations that could have been "6 player technical". Two different games. The first one I whistled-up a T for, the second I did not. Both games are 10 and under leagues and both games are the first game of the season.

Sit. 1 - I am L opposite side, ball goes oob near mid court line in the front court next to blue bench. P6 for blue is standing next to coach. Throw-in next to coach. No substitution process took place. First year official signals direction, blue steps oob, hands ball to blue P5. Throw-in is completed. P6 is now in the game. After 5 seconds or so I notice that P6 is on the court and playing. I whistled-up the T. Told coach what had happened and talked briefly about bench decorum. Then shot two ....

I had noticed the player standing and intended to tell coach to have his players sit on the bench, but I was opposite side when the ball went oob. New Referee learned to count the players and the coach learned to keep a more organized bench. I could have stopped play and sent P6 back to the bench. I choose to enforce the penalty.


Sit. 2 - I am trail, opposite side. After having had a substituion issue and explaned the process to the coaches, a coach tells a player that he is to go sub-in and who to go sub-in for. The player jumps up and chases after the play. The coach, jumps up right after the player hollaring for him to wait, comeback here, ... . Coach catchs player and drags him back to the bench to explain how the substitution process works. Coach and P6 were not involved with the play. I choose to ignore the infraction. (I did not however, ignore the sight of the scenario. It was very amusing, and humors me just to think of it.)

I am justifying it after the fact, but, in this situation, the bench decorum was proper, P6 did not participate in the play, and the coach new what was happening immediately. I choose to not whistle-up a T.

[Robmoz]

Originally posted by SamIAm
I had two situations that could have been "6 player technical". Two different games. The first one I whistled-up a T for, the second I did not. Both games are 10 and under leagues and both games are the first game of the season.

God bless you for working with the little ones!

Usually at this level I try to focus on "teaching" as much as officiating during the game. Typically, any T's are reserved for jackass behavior by a coach or player and not so much for technical rules violations.

At this level, the penalty of a T for this violation has little impact to prevent further occurences. The kids simply do not know what they did to be wrong or they forget 5 minutes later. Keep trying to teach them and as they get older it will sink in, save your T.

[Adam]

Originally posted by Robmoz

God bless you for working with the little ones!

Usually at this level I try to focus on "teaching" as much as officiating during the game. Typically, any T's are reserved for jackass behavior by a coach or player and not so much for technical rules violations.

At this level, the penalty of a T for this violation has little impact to prevent further occurences. The kids simply do not know what they did to be wrong or they forget 5 minutes later. Keep trying to teach them and as they get older it will sink in, save your T.

I had to warn a girl last night for face guarding in a YMCA game. I stopped the game and gave a real brief rules clinic. Real brief. I've never actually seen it before, and girl was following her opponents face around with her hand. In a high school game, I'd have T'd it immediately.
I also issued a warning for crossing the OOB plane on a throw-in; even though the girl slapped the ball. I ruled that it was a warning. Team A's coach wasn't too happy, but I wasn't about to sit this girl down on this play when I could easily deal with it in an official manner (even though the poor mom at the score book had no idea what I was doing) without the T. I'd T'd this girl earlier in the game for arguing with me when I tried to get her to stop complaining about some contact I hadn't seen; and didn't have the heart to eject her on anything other than an unsportsmanlike T.
My decision, and she learned from it.