FED rules, HS Varsity playoff game.

First half, so offenses are playing in front of the opponents' benches.

A1 subs out of the game, and walks to the end of the bench to get a drink. Team B has possession in its frontcourt. A1 is walking back to her seat on the bench. B1 throws an errant pass that is heading OOB. The ball hits A1 on the foot, which is inbounds, and bounces back toward the court.

A1 was inbounds b/c there is not much room on the sidelines. No player for Team B could've made a play on the ball to save it from going OOB.

Ruling?

OOB.
No room to roam allows us to adjust.
mick

Generally speaking, answers which are less than 1/20th the length of the original post are reserved for me.

:rolleyes: ps!

It this situation, there must be some common sense applied. It seems there was no intent of A1 (who technically would have now become A6 as bench personnel) to disrupt the contest and was simlpy returning directly to their seat. Was A1 entirely on the court or just one foot? If A1 was not completely on the floor it is an easy OOB, throw in by team A. If A1 was on the floor inadvertantly, if the judgement by the official was that the ball would have gone OOB if A1 was not there, again simple, OOB, thrown in by team A. If there was a reasonably good chance that B1 may have saved the ball from going OOB, then maybe the judgement of the offical would rule interference by A1 (inadvertant so no additional penalty), give B1 an OOB throw in with no reset to the shot clock. If A2 and B1 were both going for the ball and had a reasonable chance to save it and A1 interfered, maybe go with a "jump-ball" and award the throw in via the arrow. A1 (A6) would not be treated the same as an offical if the ball hit the official on or off the court (official being part of the floor).

According to Jurassic Referee in the 'Another first for me' post, he said, "Joe, the rules aren't flexible. There aren't two possibilities..."

If A6 were on the court wouldn't that be a T? :D

In this situation, since there was inadequate room for the player to return to their seat without stepping onto the floor, a "T" really is not justified. I agree, by rule, yes it could constitute a "T" but, we need to recognize situations such as this as being outside the rule. The book does not take into consideration the layout of the floor as it applies to this situation so it cannot address the violation in this sense. How many times does a player enter the floor before we waive them in, or a coach enter the floor before we waive them in in an injured player situation and we do not call the "T".

If there is less than three feet of clearance, then there should be a dotted, marked line on the court for inbounding. If there was in this instance, or if there should have been, and A1 was on the outside of this line, then you could make a case that he was really OOB at the time. However, if there was at least three feet of clearance, no slack, since you would rule there was sufficient space to run an inbound play. If there is , then there's more than enough room for A1 to walk truly OOB.

There - was that convoluted enough, or should I repost it in metric?

If the court doesn't meet the specs in NFHS rule 1-2-1(3 feet of unobstructed space outside boundaries), then use the concept outlined in R 1-2-2.

Ah, I see Mr. Padgett was posting whilst I was typing. :)

By virtue of 11-1, I'd rule this OOB and move on.

I'm going with the crowd. I've got an OOB. From what you've posted a T isn't warranted. There's no way to justify playing on. That leave you with an OOB. BTW, what was your call?

OOB, throw in to Team A. Coach B didn't like my explanation. :shrug:

Chuck,

What was his reasoning (if any) other than "you missed that one ref!"? I agree, OOB.

It was kind of funny. He correctly said (to me), "The ball never went OOB!" I said, "I know, Coach, but it was going to go." He dropped it.

Then my partner gets in front of him. He says to my partner, "A1 was still in the game".

Partner says, "No coach, she subbed out."
Coach: "But then she hadn't gotten off the floor yet." Partner: "Then why was the ball in play, Coach?"
Coach: "But my player had a chance to save it."
Partner: Smiling in disbelief.

I can't sleep tonight, maybe I could work up a four or five paragraph response to Chuck's play.

MTD, Sr.