Screaming "BALL BALL BALL" during girls games

[Nevadaref]

Originally posted by drinkeii

I've heard it off and on for the 6 years I've been reffing. This was the first time that someone told me that it could be considered unsportsmanlike. I made the comparison to soccer myself, because in soccer, there is a specifically enumerated penalty - "Deliberate Verbal Tactics". I don't consider this a weak comparison, even though the two are completely different sports. I would think that in most sports, except maybe football, getting in an opponent's face and screaming at them, regardless of what is said, would be a foul or violation of some sort. Passing it off as communication to teammates is, to me, a rather weak excuse, especially considering a coach above admitted that the purpose was to distract the ball handler and make them throw a bad pass, along with informing their teammates that they had picked up their dribble. It seems to fall under gamesmanship to me - practices in sports which are technically not illegal, but attempt to get around the rules in an unfair or unsportsmanlike manner.

But, as I said above, the rules don't seem to support my feeling that this isn't part of the game. Except in the most extreme cases, I doubt I'd even warn someone about this being a problem, since I don't feel I have the support of the rules or of the officiating community at large for a call such as a T for this.

Then again, when the rules required excessive swinging of the elbows without contact to be a T, refs in general refused to call it, and the rules changed back to making it a violation. (This was in the past 2-3 years of rules changes, I believe)

Again, thanks for the opinions.

While, this is the basketball forum and others have done a fine job of addressing your question from a basketball perspective, I believe that part of the problem here is that you are even misunderstanding what is unsporting in NFHS soccer. So, I'm going to say a few things from that angle.

You have compared the yelling of "ball, ball, ball..." to high school soccer's deliberate verbal tactics rule.

While it is true that 12-8-1f(4) in the 2004-05 NFHS soccer rules book says, "A player, coach or bench personnel shall be cautioned (yellow card) for unsporting conduct, including, but not limited to: ...
4. deliberate verbal tactics;"
you are not properly grasping the spirit and intent of what that rule covers.

The accompanying case play 12.8.1 Situation D gives a good example of what is meant by unsporting verbal tactics. It states:
"Player A is waiting to receive a ball in the air. Opponent B, who is behind A, shouts "I'll take it" in an obvious attempt to deceive A into thinking B is a teammate calling for the ball. RULING: Stop play, caution B for unsportsmanlike conduct and restart with an indirect free kick by Team A at the spot of the ball."
(Note: This coming year the restart will occur from the spot of the misconduct due to a rule change.)

Notice that it is the deceit that is being punished as unsporting, not what is being said. While some deception clearly is allowed during the course of the game, (faking a shot or receiving a pass aka "dummying") certain deceitful acts cross the line of fair play and are prohibited. Pretending to be a teammate of a player who is not in a position to see another person is clearly out the line. I have little doubt that the NFHS committee made this decision for safety reasons. They are consistent throughout all the sports which they govern in protecting players from things out of their visual field. (Take a look at blind screens in basketball.)

Another good example would be a player unfairly using the sporting practice of returning possession to a team who kicked the ball OOB to allow an injured player to receive treatment.

While a team is under no obligation to do this, if a player first TELLS the other team to back off because he is going to throw the ball to their keeper, but then tosses it to a teammate who is now in an open position for an easy goal, it seems clear that his actions would be unsporting under the deliberate verbal tactics rule.

In short those are the things that the rule you mention in NFHS soccer is meant to cover. (I'll even look for the comments that accompanied its inclusion in the book and post what I find for you.)

I think that it is highly doubtful that a player closely marking an opponent and yelling "ball, ball, ball..." or "dead, dead, dead..." during an NFHS soccer match could rightfully be considered as violating 12-8-1f(4). They simply are not doing anything deceitful or dangerous.

If you wish to discuss the soccer side of this further just post in the soccer forum here or at nfhs.org. It would be interesting to see what responses you get.